News

By Carole Murphy

Plano, Texas -- J.C. Penney issued a brief statement on Wednesday saying that it was "pleased” with its performance for the holiday selling period, and reaffirmed its fourth quarter fiscal 2013 guidance for increased same-store sales. But the retailer did not provide any specific sales data.

Pleasanton, Calif. -- Safeway and Giant Eagle are rolling out the inMarket Mobile to Mortar iBeacon location sensing platform at more than 150 grocery stores in Seattle, San Francisco, and Cleveland, with additional retailers and markets launching in the coming months. iBeacons are micro-location technology that use a low-energy Bluetooth signal to enable unique mobile app experiences based on the customer’s location in the store.

Coppell, Texas – The Container Store Group Inc. saw its net income drop about 2%, to $5.2 million from $5.3 million, during the third quarter of fiscal 2013. This occurred while net sales grew 7.3%, to $188.3 million from $175.4 million, and same-store sales increased 4.7%.

Atlanta – Havertys reported partial financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2013, with sales for the fourth quarter increasing 7.6% to $196.2 million, compared with $182.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2012. On a same-store basis, sales for the quarter increased 9.5%.

Sales for the 12 months of 2013 totaled $746.1 million, compared with $670.1 million in 2012, representing an increase of 11.3%. On a same-store basis, sales increased 11% for the 12 months.

Brentwood, Tenn. -- Tractor Supply Company is renewing its Revionics Price Optimization license for three years and expanding the partnership to include the use of Revionics Markdown Optimization. Tractor Supply has used Revionics Price Optimization for regular price management and optimization during the past three years to drive regionalized, shopper-centric everyday value pricing.

Stamford, Conn. -- Design Within Reach, Inc., a multi-channel retailer of modern furniture, selected NetSuite as its core business management platform to support the company's growth. Design Within Reach plans to begin by leveraging NetSuite to power its core financials/ERP, inventory management, point-of-sale and order management processes.

Palo Alto, Calif. – Symphony EYC is introducing Symphony EYC Insights 2 Execution, a new cloud-based category collaboration platform that enables retailers and CPG manufacturers to adopt best practices in category management. The platform’s initial release, iAssort, provides users with browser-based access to their information to build strategic localized assortments that are space-aware.

New York -- Hess Retail Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of global energy company Hess Corporation, has filed a Form 10 Registration Statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The form contains a preliminary information statement about the potential terms and conditions of a spin-off of Hess Retail Corporation to the stockholders of Hess Corporation.

Chicago -- Despite the shortened holiday season and extreme weather in many areas of the country in the weeks leading up to Christmas, retailers finished the 2013 holiday shopping season with increased sales. According to ShopperTrak, during the holiday shopping season of November and December 2013, national retail sales increased 2.7% and foot traffic decreased 14.6% when compared to the same two months of 2012.