. .


Subscribe to Retailer Daily

Email:




Target

Q4 and Holiday Online Retail Sales Decline

Published on January 02, 2009 at 09:13:51 EST

Online retail spending reached $25.5 billion during the holiday season’s e-commerce period—Nov. 1 to Dec. 23 (the last day to purchase online with the possibility of delivery by Christmas Eve)—or a decrease of 3% versus the corresponding shopping days in 2007, according to comScore.

comScore had expected year-over-year sales to be flat, said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.

“This marks the...
Continue Reading »


Post-Christmas Sales Proliferate

Published on December 26, 2008 at 11:01:45 EST

Major retailers are offering post-Christmas, yearend, and clearance sales to lure shoppers back into stores during what has so far been a dismal retail season that has left retailers with bulging inventories they need to clear to make room for spring inventory, writes US News & World Report.

This year’s shorter holiday-shopping season—27 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, compared with 32...
Continue Reading »


Retailers’ Balance Sheets Tell All

Published on December 23, 2008 at 16:15:49 EST

As holiday season sales results come rolling in, analysts stipulate that the downturn in sales may push even more retailers into bankruptcy court. But sales trends are not the only measure of a retailer’s health, Barron’s writes.

To distinguish the companies with promise from those that are truly in danger of going under, it examined other factors on the corporate balance sheet, like ratios of...
Continue Reading »


Wal-Mart Only Retail Winner in Bleak Christmas Shopping Season

Published on December 23, 2008 at 15:36:41 EST

Wal-Mart is the only real retail winner during the 2008 holiday shopping season, which is presaging more retail bankruptcies in the year ahead, according to C. Britt Beemer, CEO of America’s Research Group (ARG), who issued his 2008 “Winners and Losers” list of retailers.

The “Winners and Losers” (complete list below) are determined by how well they did in retaining Christmas customers from...
Continue Reading »


Target Challenging Wal-Mart with Low-Price Message

Published on December 22, 2008 at 14:04:05 EST

Target Inc. seems poised to ratchet up its pricing message to counter consumer perception that rival Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is the place to shop for low prices, writes Dow Jones, citing industry analysts.

A frustrated Target, which has been eclipsed for 12 consecutive weeks by Wal-Mart in same-store sales, has already made changes in its messaging.

Its In-store signs, circulars, and TV campaign...
Continue Reading »


Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy Have ‘Best’ Holiday Ads; Emotional Ads Resonate

Published on December 17, 2008 at 15:26:16 EST

Asked which retailer has the best holiday TV commercial, consumers ranked Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Macy’s, and Kohl’s as favorites, according to a survey conducted for the NRF’s Retail Advertising and Marketing Association by BIGresearch.

Other retailers on the top 10 list include Sears, Kmart, JCPenney, Old Navy, and Toys “R” Us.

Well-known celebrities, “True Story” campaigns, children’s...
Continue Reading »


Advertisement

Target, Best Buy, Get in on the Mobile App Craze

Published on December 12, 2008 at 12:38:04 EST

Since the introduction of Apple’s App Store this summer, mobile apps have become a hot item—and some retailers are capitalizing on their popularity to drive sales and increase customer satisfaction.

Target, for example, launched the Target Gift Globe—built by AKQA—to help iPhone-toting shoppers pick gifts for friends and family, writes Internet Retailer.

After opening the app, they select age,...
Continue Reading »


KB Toys Files Chapter 11 (Again), This Time Liquidates All Stores

Published on December 11, 2008 at 13:26:37 EST

Citing a “sudden drop” in sales, KB Toys filed for bankruptcy and will shut all its 277 stores, liquidating its entire inventory, reports Bloomberg.

Sales changed little from February to October, but the rate then dropped almost 20%, affected by the near-halt in consumer spending.

Three years ago, the 86-year-old toy retailer had a close brush with Chapter 11 but avoided it by closing nearly...
Continue Reading »


Consumers Spend Less for Xmas, Shop at Fewer Retailers; Wal-Mart an Exception

Published on December 11, 2008 at 13:04:25 EST

The number of consumers saying they will spend less for Christmas gifts is at an all time high this year, at 40.1%, nearly double last year’s (23.0%)—and approaching triple the proportion of those saying so in the previous three years, according to the America’s Research Group/UBS Christmas 2008 Survey.

Of those spending less, job fears motivate 63.6% this year, vs. 0% last year. The big...
Continue Reading »


State of U.S. Same Store Sales - November 2008 Data Update

Published on December 09, 2008 at 16:26:04 EST

RetailerDaily has compiled comparable store sale data from the SEC filings of ten major U.S. retailers spanning 2007 and 2008 up to the most recently released November numbers. The data excludes fuel sales (which would have distorted numbers because of high gas inflation in 2008) and is available in Excel format from the link below:

Among the highlights this year, Wal-Mart shows more...
Continue Reading »