News

Philadelphia –- Urban Outfitters missed Wall Street expectations for the third quarter of fiscal 2015 with a larger-than-predicted 33% decline in net income to $47.14 million from $70.26 million in the same period a year earlier. In addition, same-store sales fell 1% compared to expectations of flat results.  

Richmond, Canada –- Canadian casual dining chain Boston Pizza has selected the Paytronix Rewards platform as the foundation for its new Boston Pizza MyBP Program. Boston Pizza selected Paytronix because of its expertise in casual dining and integration with both the POSitouch point of sale system and the ONOSYS online ordering system.   

A Toys“R”Us executive will take over the top post at Brookstone, the product development company and specialty retailer that emerged from bankruptcy this year after being bought by a group of Chinese investors.

“We were impressed by Tom's success at rejuvenating businesses and by his broad and deep achievements as a senior executive in the retail industry,” Piau Phang Foo, chairman of the board of directors, said. “He has demonstrated success at driving innovation and growth globally."

New York -- More shoppers will be leveraging their mobile phones for holiday purchasing than ever before. Burst Media and Rhythm NewMedia’s 10th annual holiday survey found that 39.5% of respondents who use a smartphone and/or tablet to shop will use their mobile devices more this holiday season versus last.  

Perhaps the most aggressive traffic and sales generating promotional effort this Black Friday comes courtesy of Old Navy.

The Old Navy division of Gap, Inc., plans to open its more than 800 stores at 4 p.m. on Thanksgiving day and will price all merchandise at half off for 31 hours until stores close at 11 p.m. on Black Friday. And, if the 50% markdown isn’t sufficient to motivate shoppers, the retailer plans generate store traffic by giving away $1 million to one lucky customer and 1,000 $200 gift certificates.

Commerce, Calif. -- Smart & Final Stores, Inc. reported that profit for the third quarter edged up 1.9% to $10.2 million. Sales surged 10.8% to $1.13 billion, and same-store sales leapt 6.6%.   “We continue to grow sales in both of our store banners--Smart & Final and Cash & Carry--and this has translated into strong financial results.," said Dave Hirz, president and CEO.  

The online grocery channel, while a minor part of FMCG/CPG sales in the U.S. currently, is widely anticipated to be a primary driver of growth for the category in the coming years. And the emergence of this channel can’t happen too soon - total dollar sales for FMCG/CPG products increased just 1.5% last year according to IRI. But change is coming.

Redwood City, Calif. – About seven in 10 (68%) of consumers plan on doing most or all of their holiday shopping online. According to a new survey of nearly 1,000 consumers from from digital video advertising provider YuMe Inc., 77% are likely to buy some type of wearable technology.   Other key findings include: