News

By Gary Ambrosino, president, TimeTrade

The November Consumer Confidence Index made headlines as the numbers slumped to the lowest point within the last six months. On the surface, this could cause concern for retailers this holiday season. However, when you’re in a store, how often do you actually think about an economic indicator when you’re deciding how much to spend?

The retail industry will lose an estimated $8.76 billion to return fraud this year, and $3.39 billion during the holiday season alone, according to the National Retail Federation’s 2013 Return Fraud Survey. Overall, 5.8% of holiday returns are fraudulent, up slightly from 4.6% last year.

New York -- J. Crew Group Inc.'s third-quarter earnings rose 6.8% on improved sales.

For the period ended Nov. 2, J. Crew reported a profit of $35.4 million, up from $33.2 million, a year earlier.

Revenue increased 11% to $618.8 million. Same-store sales role 5%.

Retail store sales grew 7.3% to $420.2 million, while direct sales climbed 21% to $189.8 million.

Lux Beauty Boutique is rolling out in-store mobile app SelfPay, which lets shoppers handle payment and look up product information on their own devices, enabling shopper-controlled in-store checkout from anywhere within a brick-and-mortar store. Lux Beauty Boutique will host a SelfPay launch party at its store on Dec. 6.  

New York -- Sales at U.S. chain stores were up 2.1% in November, or 3% without the effects of gasoline sales, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. The group had predicted an increase of 3.5% to 4.5%.

“Sales were constrained by weak apparel sales this month,” said Michael P. Niemira, chief economist, ICSC. “November was a very competitive environment for retailers, and the softness in the November tally suggests some cautiousness by consumers.”

Ottawa, Ontario -- Black Friday deep discounts could be a myth, with only a few retailers dropping prices on only a few categories. Some key findings from pricing intelligence technology provider 360pi based on Amazon's own assortment in eight categories, including TVs, video games, tablets and digital cameras, show that:

Walmart chief marketing and merchandising officer Duncan Mac Naughton told investors during an October meeting that the retailer would have the largest share of voice during the holiday season and that was certainly evident during November, according to data released this week from Kantar Media Ad Intelligence and Placed.

Coral Gables, Fla. -- The likelihood that shoppers will make a purchase online is directly related to the number of product options that are displayed and to how the product information is displayed, either visually or with text. Research from the University of Miami School of Business Administration found when larger assortments of products (i.e. many options) are displayed with images rather than text, shoppers are less likely to purchase a product.