News

NEW YORK - A seminar on collaborative merchandising initiatives at the upcoming National Retail Federation convention should draw considerable interest due to the involvement of Target and ConAgra Foods. The seminar is sponsored by DemandTec, a company whose suite of merchandising solutions have been used by both companies since 2007. The session will be facilitated by DemandTec’s SVP consumer products Rob Culin.

Atlanta - First Data Corp.’s SpendTrend report, which tracks same-store consumer spending via credit, signature debit, PIN debit and EBT cards, found that in early December, year-over-year dollar volume growth was 6.6%, a decrease from November’s strong growth of 8.1%.

NEW YORK - OgilvyAction, the activation arm of Ogilvy & Mather, and Malone Advertising, the retail marketing unit of JWT, both part of WPP Group,have announced a joint venture in North America to form the first fully integrated, end-to-end shopper marketing and experiential marketing agency.

Competition in the toy category is intense every holiday season, but it seems to have been ratcheted up a few notches this year, and Target was one of the companies doing the ratcheting. The company’s aggressive pricing moves put it in close proximity to Walmart early in the season and more recently Target’s toys were less expensive than Walmart’s, according to a pricing survey conducted by Citigroup retail analyst Deb Weinswig.

Purchase, N.Y. - A report released Monday by MasterCard Advisors said that retail sales through the second week of December generally continued November’s momentum, with several sectors recording moderate to strong gains.

MasterCard SpendingPulse reports on national retail and services sales and is based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments network, coupled with survey-based estimates for all other payment forms, including cash and check.

Fortune has released its list of the top 10 Fortune 500 stock performers for 2010, and Dillard's is the lone retailer on the list.

Ranked at number 10, Dillard's, which is ranked at 348 on the Fortune 500, posted a year-to-date stock performance improvement of 97% and a market cap of $2.1 billion.

According to the report, Dillard's sold more merchandise this November than last year, with sales totaling almost $470 million for the month. That marked a 7% increase over last year.

Atlanta - U.S. regulators have sued a former sales executive at Carter’s Inc., claiming that he caused the company to misstate earnings by hiding the cost of discounts given to a retailer. 

According to a Monday report by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Joseph Elles induced Kohl’s Corp. to boost purchases from Carter’s from 2004 to March 2009 by granting unauthorized discounts that he didn’t disclose.

The small ad was a little lost on the bottom of page 36 of Target’s 40-page holiday circular this week, but there among an offering of floor care products was a reminder of a Facebook initiative that could be worth as much as $50,000 to the Kids In Need Foundation. The ad encouraged readers to visit Facebook.com/TargetGiveJoy to create a wish list of up to five items for a chance to win a gift card equal in value to those items with Kids In Need receiving a $5 donation for each wish list submitted up to a total of $50,000. The program ends at midnight on Christmas.