News

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.

Increased traffic at Costco helped fueled sales in the first quarter of 2014.

Framingham, Mass. -- Expect renewed investment in the transformative capabilities of PLM and sourcing, marketing and advertising, and big data and analytics according to IDC Retail Insights, which on Tuesday released its Top 10 Predictions for 2014.

Here are the IT consulting company’s top 10 predictions for 2014:

1. In 2014, fast-followers will chase the 50 global retailers already transforming store, mobile, and e-commerce channels, supply chains, merchandising, and marketing for the omni-channel customer experience

Woonsocket, R.I. -- CVS Caremark and Cardinal Health have entered into an agreement to form the largest generic sourcing entity in the United States.

Both companies are contributing their sourcing and supply chain expertise to this 50/50 joint venture and are committing to source generic drugs through it. The companies separately announced a three-year extension through June 2019 of Cardinal Health's existing pharmaceutical distribution agreements with CVS Caremark.

Foothill Ranch, Calif. -- The Wet Seal announced a partnership with AwesomenessTV on reality series, "The Intern." AwesomenessTV, one of the most subscribed to video destinations for teens on YouTube, debuted the series on Nov. 25 and will air four weekly installments throughout the month of December.

San Francisco -- Shopper traffic and window conversion improved significantly as heavy promotions brought shoppers back out to the mall. According to analysis of nearly 25 million domestic shopping sessions during November 2013 by in-store analytics provider Euclid, average visit durations were shorter than a year ago for the fourth month in a row as the increasingly omni-channel marketplace continued to drive more focused shopping trips.

Charleston, S.C. -- After a successful extended Black Friday and another week in the stores, a healthy proportion of holiday shoppers are well on their way to being finished with their gift buying, according to the America’s Research Group and Inmar Holiday Shopping Survey.

We are all susceptible to media hype, and to established narratives, so it’s easy to miss important details in the growing chaos and chatter that surrounds Black Friday each year. We see big crowds and big bargains and a holiday shopping event that used to be a day now morphing into a brick-and-mortar and online extravaganza that lasts more than a week. That said, we should be asking what is really going on behind the scenes — and behind the numbers — and what does that mean for retailers for the rest of the holiday shopping season?

Irving, Texas – Michael’s Stores reported an impressive 66% jump in net income during the third quarter of fiscal 2013, rising to $58 million from $35 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Net sales grew about 10%, to $1.1 billion from $1.01 billion.

Akron, Ohio – Jared, The Galleria Of Jewelry is launching its "12 Days of Giveaways" sweepstakes for Facebook fans and Twitter followers now through Dec. 13. The campaign, introduced last year, gives customers the chance to enter to win daily prizes featuring brands available at Jared.