Archive for month: November, 2015

 

More Americans Shopped Online than at Stores over Black Friday Weekend by Phil Wahba at Fortune. “Talk about a seminal moment in American culture. Some 103 million Americans shopped online over the Thanksgiving-Black Friday weekend, slightly more than the 102 million who went out to stores.” Read more

 

NRF: U.S. holiday sales on track amid online boost by Nathan Layne at Reuters. “U.S. holiday shopping is on track for a modest 3.7 percent rise this year after strong turnout during the Thanksgiving and Black Friday weekend and thanks to strong online sales, the National Retail Federation said on Sunday after releasing an annual consumer poll.” Read more

 

Holiday sales ‘perfectly average’ so far: Analyst by Tom DiChristopher at CNBC. “…nothing suggests estimates for total 2015 holiday sales growth have changed at the close of the big four-day kickoff period.” Read more

 

4.4% fewer expected to shop online on Cyber Monday by Matt Linder at Internet Retailer. “That 121.3 million number represents 49.5% of all consumers, the first time less than half of all shoppers surveyed said they planned to shop on Cyber Monday since 2010.” Read more

 

Spending in stores fell 10 percent from last year on both Thanksgiving and Black Friday, according to retailing research firm ShopperTrak via Maria Halkias at The Dallas Morning News. “Thanksgiving weekend is now “more like the second quarter, going into halftime” of a football game because retailers are offering special prices several weeks earlier, said Matthew Shay, CEO of the National Retail Federation.” Read more

 

Retailers are losing $1.75 trillion over this by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. “…out-of-stocks” accounted for $634.1 billion in lost retail sales for the year ended in the spring — 39 percent higher than in 2012. Likewise, overstocks contributed $471.9 billion in lost revenues.” Read more

 

NY Times: Kohl’s Invests in Beatles Tune for Holiday Campaign by Martha C. White. “The Beatles and their representatives retain control of how their music is used. Even after Kohl’s paid to use the song, the company’s creative team and partners had to work with Sony to secure approval for the final advertisements, a process that took roughly five months.” Read more

 

The surprisingly popular Black Friday hit: Target’s teddy bear by Kavita Kumar at Star Tribune. “At the Target store in Minnetonka, I saw a mad dash for the bears, piled in a box toward the back of the store. About 15 minutes or so after the store opened, this was the only one left and it was quickly snatched up after I took this picture.” Read more

 

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Amazon reveals new delivery drone design with range of 15 miles by Taylor Soper at GeekWire. “This new video featuring Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson…to create a new car show, shows how the drone scans a landing area at a customer’s home and is able to spot what looks like an Amazon logo where the package is dropped.” Read more / See the video

 

Neiman Marcus Extends Black Friday Online Sale Following All-Day Outage by Jason Del Rey at Recode. “Neimanmarcus.com was down intermittently Friday, November 28th for approximately 12 hours,” the statement read. “The exact cause of the outage has yet to be determined. Our Black Friday online promotions have been extended until 6 pm CT Saturday.” Read more

 

Conversion: Just two out of 100 visitors to a mobile shopping site or app by Jason Del Rey at Recode. “Five out of 100 visitors to an online store made a purchase on Thanksgiving…“[A]s an industry we need to solve this mobile problem as it’s clearly not getting better even though retailers have invested substantially in this area over the last year,” Scot Wingo, ChannelAdvisor’s executive chairman, said.” Read more

 

How an army of Amazon reps handle customer confusion, rage by Jay Greene at Seattle Times. “The metric it uses is “negative response rate” or NRR. At the end of each call, reps ask if they’ve resolved the problem…“You’ll never see anything about average handle time,” Scharffenorth said. “It may take 20 minutes. We’ve had calls that take an hour.” Read more

 

Kohl’s to ‘relaunch’ Sonoma brand in new women’s clothing sales push by Rick Romell at Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via Star Tribune. “Kohl’s wins if women’s wins,” said Michelle Gass, chief merchandising and customer officer. “If women’s doesn’t perform, we have a major issue.” There are issues. “You can look at our [women’s] performance over the last five years, and it’s been choppy,” Gass said.” Read more

 

Brooks Brothers’ glitch overcharges shoppers by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. “The wait time on Brooks Brothers’ customer service line was more than 10 minutes Friday afternoon.” Read more

 

Macy’s CEO: Despite Web, death of store experience ‘greatly exaggerated’ by Trent Gillies at CNBC. “If you saw the traffic when we opened the doors at 6 pm, flowing into stores like Macy’s Herald Square, you’d say people definitely want to shop on that night and in a store like Macy’s,” he said.” Read more

 

Half a million British families at risk as hackers target toy firm website by Nick Craven at Daily Mail. “Toy giant Vtech admitted that a database of names and addresses holding up to five million accounts worldwide had been breached.” Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra Stories

Toys ‘R’ Us CEO Says Early Signs Point to Slower Growth for Toys

1,000 Christmas trees stolen from South Florida Costco

Pop-up Goodwill (“GW”) shop uptown to offer tacky Christmas sweaters, designer apparel

Bogus bomb threats target Wal-Marts across Maine, other states

In One Brutal Chart, the Federal Reserve Shows What Has Happened to U.S. Department Stores Since 2001

Canadian miner who found second biggest diamond holding out for ‘north of $60 million’

Retailers boost offerings as Nordstrom joins crowded Canadian beauty sector

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U.S. retailers hunt for attacks after being warned of stealthy malware by Jim Finkle at Reuters via Globe & Mail. “This is by far the most sophisticated point-of-sale malware seen to date,” said Maria Noboa, lead technical analyst for privately held iSight Partners, which uncovered the malware and was due to release a technical report about it on Tuesday.” Read more

 

The 20 Best Workplaces in Retail by Jonathan Chew at Fortune. “Here’s Fortune’s second annual list of the best workplaces in the retail industry…” See the top 20 list

 

Report: Clues point to secret Amazon.com air cargo operation at former DHL facility in Ohio by Taylor Soper at GeekWire. “Is Amazon.com running its own air cargo operation? Vice’s Motherboard published a report Monday evening describing an “air freight transportation operation” flying four flights per day out of Ohio’s Wilmington Air Park, which previously served as a facility for DHL until 2008.” Read more

 

Dollar Tree Q3 Comp Sales +2.1% “The Company estimates consolidated net sales for the fourth quarter of 2015 to range from $5.32 billion to $5.42 billion, based on a low single-digit increase in same-store sales.” Read the release

 

New York Mall Caves in to Boycott Threats After Canceling Santa Parade by Phil Wahba at Fortune. “Many customers, already angry with the shopping center’s decision to move Santa and his train to another part of the mall for picture-taking with kids, took to Facebook to create a “Boycott Staten Island Mall” page. It already had 15,000 followers by Monday afternoon, many seeing in the incident as the latest manifestation of a perceived “War Against Christmas.” Read more

 

How Nordstrom and Sephora Are Nailing Social Media Going Into Black Friday by Christopher Heine at Ad Week. “To measure which retailers have the best momentum on social media going into the holidays, Shareablee studied 109 big-box and department store brands across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram between Nov. 1 and Nov. 18…” See the top 10 list

 

Fred’s Q3 Comp Sales +2.7% Read the release

 

Lowe’s Promotes Marci Grebstein to CMO “Grebstein most recently served as vice president of advertising, leading the U.S. advertising strategy and marketing operations to build loyalty for the brand. She will report to Michael A. Jones, chief customer officer, and succeeds Thomas J. Lamb who has left the company.” Read the release

 

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Cabela’s Investors Say They’d Want $60 a Share or More in Buyout by Matthew Townsend at Bloomberg. “Mark Mulholland, who runs the Matthew 25 Fund, said he would refuse anything below $72 a share if there’s a takeover attempt for Cabela’s.” Read more

 

Ex-Walmart Exec Leslie Dach Talks About the Future of Obamacare at WSJ. Read more (Subscription)

 

Small-format Target set to anchor Main Street Cupertino by Nathan Donato-Weinstein at Silicon Valley Business Journal. “The retailer completed a lease last week for a 21,000-square-foot store at Main Street Cupertino, anchoring the retail portion of a mixed-use project that will include apartments, a hotel, shops and new offices for Apple.” Read more / See the artist’s sketch

 

New Saks chief seeks new luster for flagship store by Hiroko Tabuchi at NY Times via Seattle Times.”You spend your whole life saying, ‘If I was in charge, I would. If I was in charge, I would,’ ” (Marc) Metrick said. “You have all these ideas. Then all of a sudden, I can.” Read more

 

Target’s Big Digital Holiday Campaign Combines Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram by Lauren Johnson at Ad Week. “Social makes up 12 percent of its paid media spend, a 30 percent increase over last year…(Target) is also using Facebook’s Canvas e-commerce ads to push sales of a new product called Wonderpacks, craft-activity packs that help families make things like ugly sweaters and mistletoe.” Read more

 

Vanity Fair: Amazon Has Plastered New York Subway Cars with Nazi Imagery by Richard Lawson. “I chose to sit on the Nazi insignia because I really didn’t want to stare at it.” That’s a strange decision to have to make while heading to work on a Monday morning.” Read more

 

RioCan, Target reach $132-million settlement over Canadian leases via Globe & Mail. “The real estate trust says Target has paid $132-million, including $92-million which belongs to RioCan, under the agreement. In return, RioCan and its partners have released Target from its obligations.” Read more

 

Florida’s Orange Industry Is in Its Worst Slump in 100 Years by Marvin Perez at Bloomberg. “Florida oranges are threatened with destruction if scientists and the government can’t find a way to stop an Asian bug from spreading a tree-killing disease…The disease is spread by the Asian citrus psyllid, a tiny winged insect, and there’s currently no known cure.” Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra Stories

Tech’s Newest Billionaire Is Making A Bet On The Internet Of Things

Nine Apparel Startups to Solve the Real Style Problems of 2016

Ex-Walmart Exec Joins Liquidity Services Board of Directors

Target.com will be 15% off sitewide on Cyber Monday

Gwyneth Paltrow launches lux holiday pop-up shop

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Chicago Tribune: Target’s Brian Cornell Talks Strategy in Q&A by Gregory Karp. “Q: Experimenting with the new flexible-format store in Chicago seems to have an element of innovation and risk-taking. Does it? A: It’s taking the right, measured risk. We like what we see with flexible formats, and this one is off to a very good start. But we’re not rolling out 100.” Read the full interview

 

Star Wars Movie Already has $50 Million in the Bank by Molly Brown at GeekWire. “Most movies would be lucky to open to $50 million. Four weeks before its debut, Star Wars: The Force Awakens has more than that in the bank,” WSJ reports today.” Read more  Wall Street Journal article (subscription)

 

Best Buy Expresses Caution for the Holiday Shopping Season by Kavita Kumar at Star Tribune. “Who cares what the industry is going to do?” Hubert Joly…said in an interview. “We’re going to take advantage of every customer opportunity and win and gain marketshare … This is the mind-set of a winning team — as opposed to being ‘Oh my god, the industry is down.’ Who cares? We can win and that’s what we’re doing.” Read more

 

JCPenney CEO Humbled in Return to Childhood Store by David Thomas as the Jackson Son. “The moment was called a little surreal, but for Marvin Ellison, the chief executive officer of JCPenney, it was more, when the national retailer held its grand re-opening in the Old Hickory Mall on Thursday. “Humbling,” Ellison said…“We did not come here a lot, because we did not have a lot of money,” said Ellison, who now calls Dallas home. “We didn’t shop at JCPenney very often.” Read more

 

51% of online shoppers expected to turn to Amazon for holiday buying by James Risley at GeekWire. “51 percent of respondents said they plan to use Amazon for “most of their online shopping” during the holidays. Walmart came in second place, but only 16 percent will use it for most of their online buying, with Target and Macy’s serving as the main online shopping destination for just 3 and 2 percent, respectively.” Read more

 

NY Times: Adele Is Said to Reject Streaming for ‘25’ by Ben Sisario. “This is a minor issue for Adele, but a major issue for the streaming services,” said Mark Mulligan, a digital media analyst with Midia Research. “For two years running they’ve not had the biggest album of the year.” Read more

 

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Target Releases Seven Exclusive Adele Videos from New Album See them here

 

Dick’s Sporting Goods $200,000 donation will keep girls hockey alive in Anchorage high schools by Beth Bragg at Alaska Dispatch News. “Dick’s Sporting Goods doesn’t have any stores in Alaska, nor does it have a connection to Anchorage’s Scott Gomez, a two-time Stanley Cup winner. But it has an interest in ensuring that budget cuts don’t rob kids of athletic opportunities, Reale said.” See the players react / Read more

 

U.S. online sales increase 15% in Q3 by Tracy Maple at Internet Retail “E-commerce accounted for 7.4% of total retail sales, excluding foodservice.” Read more

 

Long live Black Friday! NRF expects bigger crowds by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. “According to NRF, 22.3 percent of respondents plan to shop on Thanksgiving Day, compared to 18.3 percent last year.” Read more

 

Sales abound at retailers overloaded with merchandise by Gail MarksJarvis at Chicago Tribune. Read more

 

Bruce Dayton given simple, respectful farewell by Natalie Daher at Star Tribune. “Pressing his fingers to his palm four times, Mark (Dayton) said, “We /love /you /too,” in the same manner his father had always squeezed his children’s hands three times to say: “I /love /you.” Read more

 

P&G won’t rule out company breakup by Alexander Coolidge at Cincinnati Enquirer. Read more

 

Hasbro CEO: The Force Is Strong With Our Star Wars Holiday Inventory by David Z Morris at Fortune. “Over the past few weeks, we had seen some shortage of products that were selling exceedingly well,” he said in an interview with Fortune yesterday. But the company picked up the slack, and empty store shelves should soon be filled.” Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra Stories

Transcript: Brian Cornell Speaks with CNBC’s Courtney Reagan on 11/18

Pepsi’s phone revealed: Budget $78 5.5-inch P1 Android handset has 13MP camera and fingerprint sensor

Bob Mariano’s payout after Kroger takeover? Up to $8 million

Wal-Mart greeter hangs up his rock ‘n’ roll shoes

Darth Vader Leads Google Ranking Of Most Searched Star Wars Characters

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Contact: Jason Long, jlong@eyeonretail.net

 

Today: Target CEO Brian Cornell to Speak with CNBC’s Courtney Reagan Today at 12:15pm ET  Read the release

 

Lowe’s Q3 Comp Sales +4.6%, US Comp +5.0% “Sales for the third quarter increased 5.0 percent to $14.4 billion from $13.7 billion in the third quarter of 2014.” Read the release

 

Fortune 2016 Predictions: Hudson’s Bay Will Buy Macy’s  See all of the predictions

 

Home Depot’s Carol Tome to Fix Interline’s Reporting by Maxwell Murphy at WSJ. “Home Depot closed the deal in late August, but could only include one month of Interline’s results in its earnings for the fiscal third quarter ended Nov. 1…“It takes [Interline] three weeks to close the books,” Ms. Tomé told CFO Journal. “I’m going to fix that.” It takes Home Depot significantly less time to close its books.” Read more (Subscription)

 

Amazon to roll out deals every five minutes by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. “That compares to last season, when it launched a new promotion every 10 minutes.” Read more

 

The Big Cloud Hanging Over Walmart’s Improving Sales? Soft E-commerce Growth by Phil Wahba at Fortune. “Global e-commerce, the bulk of which is in the U.S., grew by only 10%, a much smaller rate than in any preceding quarter this fiscal year. And, perhaps of greatest concern, that clip is well below Amazon.com’s 23% growth last quarter.” Read more

 

Saks president betting on brand resonance for Canadian launch by Marina Strauss at Globe & Mail. “The downtown Toronto store, Saks’s first in Canada, will launch in February – followed a week later with another one in the city’s west end…“We believe Canada is ready for Saks,” president Marc Metrick, 42, a seasoned U.S. retail executive, said during a visit Tuesday to Toronto from his usual office in New York. “I think this consumer is ready.” Read more

 

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Apple Readies Long-Rumored Store on Chicago River by Blair Kamin & Robert Channick at Chicago Tribune. “It will be more like a high-tech version of Frank Lloyd Wright’s quintessentially Midwestern Prairie Style homes…Soon-to-be-unveiled plans for the store call for a glass-sheathed temple of computing near the historic Michigan Avenue bridge…These details are outlined in a report from the city’s Department of Planning and Development, a draft copy of which was obtained by the Tribune.” Read more

 

Walmart’s EVP US Food Speaks at Northwest Arkansas Event at The City Wire. “Redfield told the audience of more than 700 at the eighth annual breakfast, that CASA is an organization that gives children a voice in the court system by providing quality volunteer representation (advocates) for abused and neglected children in the court system.” Read more

 

Target’s $10M Deal Over Data Breach Gets Final Approval by Y.Peter Kang at Law 360. “A Minnesota federal judge on Tuesday signed off on a $10 million settlement to resolve multidistrict litigation over Target’s notorious 2013 data breach that compromised up to 110 million consumers’ personal information, saying the early settlement of the suit is a big win for class members.” Read more (Subscription)

 

True Value Retail Store Comp Sales +3.4% Read the release

 

Converse Claims Win Against Wal-Mart Over Chuck Taylors by Bill Donahue at Law 360. “A U.S. International Trade Commission judge has sided with Converse in a case claiming Wal-Mart, Skechers and others violated its trademark rights by selling knockoff versions of the Chuck Taylor sneaker, the shoe company announced late Tuesday.” Read more (Subscription)

 

Kohl’s Nabs Ex-Walgreens Exec for Ecom Role by Phil Wahba at Fortune. “(Sona) Chawla will oversee the integration of Kohls’ stores and digital business, an appointment that instantly makes her one of two leading candidates to be the retailer’s next chief executive officer.” Read more

 

Toy Industry Unveils Finalists for 2016 Toy of the Year (TOTY) Awards Read the release

 

Facebook plans epic rooftop park, with walking trails and giant fire pit, at new Seattle office by Jacob Demmitt at GeekWire. “Facebook confirmed the plans, but declined to share photos or renderings of the outdoor spaces. A Facebook spokesman did confirm the amenities and said there will be a total of three rooftop areas full of local trees and plants.” See the blueprints / Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra Stories

Activists petition Walmart to stop selling livestock truck toy

Forbes: Why Warren Buffett Wants Children To Be Entrepreneurs (Interview)

Inside Tesla’s $5 Billion Gigafactory

NY Times: How Amazon’s Long Game Yielded a Retail Juggernaut

Campbell’s Is Doing Something Pretty Amazing With Leftover Peaches

Read Tipsheet Extra Stories

 

Walmart Q3 Earnings Call Highlights

Doug McMillon, President & CEO

On a constant currency basis, our total revenue would have been $122.4 billion. That’s growth of $3.4 billion or 2.8%.

• I call this out because I don’t want the currency impacts to obscure the strength of our business. We are a growth company and we’re growing.

We’ve seen that customers who start using online grocery spent nearly 50% more than similar customers who shop only in stores.

• This is the customer we’re going after. The shopper in our sweet spot who accesses Wal-Mart in multiple ways.

We expect more than 210 million visits to our app in November and December up from 18 million in 2012.

I was pleased that SamsClub.com continued to deliver strong growth.

Sam’s Club: We were pleased with the growth of membership income but we can do better with our overall results.

 

Greg Foran, President & CEO US

All formats in our portfolio had positive comps this quarter.

Supercenters: continued traffic growth and positive comps across all areas except entertainment.

We accelerated our online grocery pickup offering to 85 additional locations. We now have almost 140 locations across 25 markets.

E-commerce sales and traffic were softer than we would like.

E-commerce sales contributed approximately 15 basis points to our comp.

We saw growth across most of the store, particularly in our apparel, hardlines, home and seasonal businesses.

Mid-single-digit comps in Health and Wellness.

In Food, we saw our best top line results of the year despite minimal inflation.

While warmer weather somewhat slowed performance in October, solid back to school and Halloween seasons, along with new launchers such as Pioneer Woman and STAR WARS drove mid-single-digit comps across each of these departments.

Entertainment: it will take time to get this department where it needs to be.

For the 13-week period ending January 29, 2016, we expect the comp sales increase of around 1%.

 

Rosalind Brewer, President & CEO Sam’s Club

Unless otherwise noted, today’s financial discussion will exclude fuel for purposes of comparability…

Health and Wellness and Consumables: comp sales increased 0.4%.

We were pleased with the growth in membership income during the quarter, which increased 5.4%.

Our Fresh, Freezer, Cooler business faced significant headwinds as deflation in key areas, including fresh meat and dairy weighed on our comps.

We were pleased with our performance in produce.

We believe comp sales without fuel for the 13 week period ending January 29, 2016, will be flat to up 1%.

Read the full transcript via Seeking Alpha

 

Home Depot Q3 Earnings Call Highlights

Craig Menear, President & CEO

Every region posted positive comps in the quarter as did all of our top 40 markets.

Canada: 16 consecutive quarters of positive comps.

Mexico: 48 quarters in a row or 12 years of positive comp growth for our Mexican business.

All of our merchandising departments posted positive comps.

Online sales grew approximately 25% in the third quarter and represent approximately 5.1% of overall sales.

About 42% of all online orders are picked up in our conveniently located stores.

We now have the capability to reach 90% of US customers in two business days or less with parcel shipping.

 

Ted Decker, EVP Merchandising

Comps:

• double-digit: power tools, commercial lighting, HVAC, fencing, power tool accessories, watering, water heaters, ceiling fans, air circulation, hand tools and generators
• above company average: appliances, tools, plumbing, decor, lighting, hardware, building materials, indoor garden, flooring tools and materials, siding, concrete, fasteners, roofing, builders hardware, compressors, wet drive VACs, wiring devices, pipe and fittings, ladders, special order window coverings, vanities, in-stock kitchens, fixtures, grills, soils and mulches, pressure washers and cleaning
• positive but below company average: outdoor garden, kitchen and bath, electrical, millwork, flooring, lumber and paint

Transactions for tickets under $50 representing approximately 20% of our US sales were up 3.6%.

Transactions for tickets over $900 also representing approximately 20% of our US sales were up 7.8%.

Market share: on a rolling 12 through September was 56 basis points up.

 

Carol Tome, CFO

comps: 2.6% in August, 7.6% in September and 5.2% in October.

US comp: 4.6% in August, 10.1% in September and 7.1% in October.

In the US if you assume Labor Day fell in the same fiscal month as last year our comps were 6.9% in August, 7.8% in September and 7.1% in October.

During the third quarter we opened three new stores in Mexico for an ending store count of 2,273.

Read the full transcript via The Street

 

Dick’s Sporting Goods Q3 Earnings Call Highlights

Edward Stack, CEO

Same store sales increased 0.4%, below our guidance range largely due to performance in a couple of key categories.

At the conclusion of back-to-school, our comps were running at the higher end of our guidance; however, as the quarter progressed, record warm weather across the majority of our markets negatively impacted sales and traffic.

The outdoor category comped relatively flat in the quarter.

We saw strength in lifestyle camping, paddle sports, and sport games offset by a decline in hunting.

With Nike, we opened up six Brand Jordan shops during the third quarter and have opened an additional four this quarter.

Under Armour, we’re working to create a next-generation shop concept that we plan to roll out next year.

Opening 75 Polo shops this year.

Calia remains well positioned to become our number three women’s athletic apparel brand by the end of 2016.

Ecommerce penetration grew to 8% of net sales in the third quarter compared to 7.3% in the third quarter of 2014.

Turning to the fourth quarter, we’re off to a slow start.

To address this situation, we are working with key vendors to return slow-moving product as well as cancelling some orders.

A new store that we opened in Las Vegas and another one that we opened in an L.A. suburb, we built a footwear deck in conjunction with Nike …it does for the footwear business what the Pinnacle shops did for the apparel business. It’s only been open for a few weeks.

Footwear business was good and it comped positively in the quarter.

We’re cautiously optimistic about the golf business but it’s still not going to be a big growth area for us, Robbie. It’s just we think we’ve stopped the bleeding, so to speak.

 

Teri List-Stoll, CFO

Q4: We expect same store sales to be in the range of negative 2% to positive 1%.

Read the full transcript via Seeking Alpha

 

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Contact: Jason Long, jlong@eyeonretail.net