News

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — HSN is bringing Quick Response (QR) codes to a new shopping frontier by becoming the first retailer to use them on television.

Through Oct. 10 as part of the company's Innovation Weekend event, HSN will debut QR codes on its HD channel, which currently reaches approximately 43 million households. Customers will be able to scan the QR code of hundreds of products, the company said, giving them access the product information page on their mobile device, learn more about the product and purchase with ease.

Chesapeake, Va. -- Dollar Tree said that its board has approved a $1.5 billion share repurchase program. The company said it has invested more than $1.9 billion for share repurchase since 2003, including $414.7 million in 2010 and $345.9 million in 2011, to date.

ATLANTA — The Home Depot Thursday announced it has named Teresa Wynn Roseborough EVP, general counsel and corporate secretary. She will join the company's senior leadership team and report to Frank Blake, chairman and CEO.

Roseborough will be responsible for leading The Home Depot's legal department, as well as its government relations and corporate security services functions. She will assume her new role on Nov. 7.

Roseville, Calif. -- Retail life cycle price optimization solution-provider Revionics said Wednesday that Gander Mountain Co. has selected the Revionics Price Optimization solution, which provides both base price management and price optimization.

The companies have entered into a two-year agreement. Revionics will help deploy these solutions throughout Gander Mountain's retail stores ensuring optimal monitoring, management and results.

MINNEAPOLIS — Target is the latest in a line of retailers to put out a list of what it thinks will be the top toys of the holiday season. Many of Target's hottest toys, including FIJIT friends and the LeapFrog branded LeapPad, are also on toy lists for Toys"R"Us, Kmart and Walmart. 

MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. PLANO, Texas and CINCINNATI – While Kohl’s and Macy’s posted September sales growth, JCPenney had to scale its outlook back after a weaker than expected month.

Kohl’s reported that sales for September increased 5.8% and comparable-store sales increased 4.1% over the same period last year. 

New York City -- Despite ongoing concerns about the economy, retailers fared surprisingly well in September, helped by the tail end of back-to-school shopping and cooler temperatures.

MINNEAPOLIS — Target report a moderately better than expected 5.3% same-store sales increase for September that was driven by broad-based gains in all categories and geographic regions, the company reported Thursday. The increase was almost entirely due to larger average transaction sizes and came on top of a prior year increase of 1.3%. The company also noted that customer traffic as measured by comparable-store transaction increase a little more than 1%.