News

Survey – Cross-border shoppers double spend of domestic shoppers
San Jose, Calif. - Cross-border shoppers (those for whom more than 10% of their online spend is cross-border), spend approximately twice as much as consumers who only shop domestically. New research from PayPal and Ipsos, which investigated the online and cross-border shopping habits of more than 17,500 consumers in 22 countries, shows 30% of U.S. online consumers shop across borders.
Life after the Rainbow Loom at Michaels
As the popularity of the Rainbow Loom waned this year so did sales at Michaels where third quarter comps declined 0.8% compared to the prior year.

Children’s Place names Reliance Industries vet CFO: Q3 net income drops

Secaucus, N.J. – The Children’s Place Inc. has named Anurup Pruthi as senior VP and CFO, effective Dec. 1, 2014. He will report to Michael Scarpa, COO.
Amazon starts Black Friday deals Nov. 21

Seattle – Amazon.com will start offering Black Friday deals on Friday, Nov. 21, and adding new deals as often as every 10 minutes for eight straight days. Amazon will introduce three Deals of the Day starting on Thanksgiving at midnight, as well as three more on Black Friday, in addition to thousands of limited-time Lightning Deals.
Dollar Tree Q3 sales lift holiday outlook

As Dollar Tree moves forward with its acquisition of Family Dollar, the company reported an increase in same-store sales and expressed a favorable holiday outlook.

Dollar Tree's earnings per share increased 19% to $0.69 and its revenue increased 11.2% to $2.1 billion compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2013; these results were driven by comparable-store sales increasing 5.9% during the quarter compared to an increase of 3.1% in the prior-year period.
Study: Mass retailers more popular than e-tailers for holiday

Denver – An estimated 28% of consumers plan to do most of their holiday shopping at mass retailers, compared to 26% who will frequent online retailers. According to an ongoing shopper behavior study conducted by The Integer Group and M/A/R/C Research, free shipping continues to be the most popular offer for holiday shoppers, with 58% of shoppers reporting they expect to take advantage of it this holiday season.
Lids teams up with NBA on customization

As the NBA season gets fully under way, specialty retailer Lids is looking to capitalize on fan excitement by offering customizable and personalized NBA apparel and headwear for the first time ever.

Shoppers will be able to customize the new Adidas NBA Swingman jersey with the name and number of any NBA player, or personalize the jersey with their own name and number in more than 70 Lids stores nationwide. Player-customization or personalization of NBA team logo Adidas and Mitchell & Ness headwear will also be an option in more than 800 U.S. Lids stores.
CIT: Middle-market retail execs cautiously optimistic about holidays

NEW YORK - Senior middle-market retail executives are cautiously optimistic about the upcoming holiday season. Fifty-five percent of executives anticipate their total holiday sales will increase by 6% or more in 2014, as compared to only a third last year, according to an annual study conducted by CIT Group.
Kirkland’s Q3 results surpass expectations

Nashville - Kirkland’s Inc. reported net income of $1.3 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2014, a 30% increase from $1 million the same quarter in the previous fiscal year. Higher gross profit helped boost net income. The retailer beat Wall Street expectations with net income as well as with net sales of $117.2 million, up 10% from $106.1 million.
New presidents named at Gap and Banana Republic

Incoming Gap Inc. CEO Art Peck announced key members of his global team in conjunction with the release of mixed third quarter results.

Peck is scheduled to replace Gap Inc. CEO Glenn Murphy in February and late Thursday he named new global brand presidents for Gap and Banana Republic.