News

Discount online shopping retailer Overstock.com has added prescription brand-name glasses and sunglasses to its website.

"Adding prescription eyewear to the Overstock website, with great names at great prices, seemed a natural fit," states Overstock.com chairman and CEO Patrick M. Byrne. "Unbeatable prices, fashionable styles, ease of ordering, stellar customer service, made the whole concept work for us and for our customers."

Austin, Texas – Nine-in-10 (87%) holiday shoppers surveyed still have presents to buy. Recent surveys by RetailMeNot and The Omnibus Company found that nearly 200 million Americans have not completed their holiday shopping.

Nearly nine-in-10 (88%) winter holiday shoppers surveyed said they have had to buy gifts in the 11th hour. Parents seem to be the biggest procrastinators, as nearly all (95%) parents surveyed admitted to waiting until the last minute to buy holiday gifts.

Safeway has named Brian Baer as president of the company's Eastern Division.

"Brian's proven management skills and experience will serve our customer base well in the Eastern Division," stated Kelly Griffith, Safeway EVP retail operations.

Baer joined Safeway in 2001 as VP Finance for the company's Phoenix division. In 2004, he became group VP of finance planning and analysis at the Safeway's corporate headquarters. He joined the Dominick's division as CFO in 2008, and was promoted to president of that division in 2011.

As expected, shopper activity increased this November as holiday shopping began in earnest. Total retail store shopper traffic increased 19.9% compared to October 2013. Shopper traffic for November 2013, however, decreased by 10.2% compared to the same month last year.

Boston -- Target was the most-browsed mobile app/site in 2013, and Apple’s mobile app/site is where consumers purchase the most, according to a new study from Mobiquity.

Reston, Va. -- For the holiday season-to-date, $31.5 billion has been spent online, marking a 9% increase versus the corresponding days last year, according to comScore. However, as noted in previous releases, Thanksgiving Day was six days later this year than last and causes more heavy spending days to fall in the year ago period, thereby diluting growth rates at this point.

Green Monday (Dec. 9) saw $1.4 billion in desktop online spending, up 10% versus year ago, representing the third heaviest online spending day of the holiday season-to-date.

Ulta Beauty posted strong double-digit gains during its third quarter thanks in part to strength in sales of prestige cosmetics and skin care and strong online sales.

Sales for the quarter ended Oct. 27 rose 22.4% to $618.8 million. Same-store sales rose 6.8%, including the impact of e-commerce sales.

Net income increased 19.1% to $45.4 million compared with $38.2 million. Income per diluted share rose 18.6% to 70 cents per share, including 2 cents per diluted share related to a severance charge.

By Brett Conradt, [email protected]