Happy Veterans Day!

 

“Target joins the Black Friday early birds” by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. “Black Friday shoppers, set your watches — err, smartphones — for 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving night. That time is shaping up to be the main event for the big shopping frenzy this year. On Monday, Minneapolis-based Target said it would open then, too, two hours earlier than last year.” Read more

 

“AmEx Costco Card Seen as Crown Jewel Worth 15 Cents EPS” by Elizabeth Dexheimer at Bloomberg. “The lender’s exclusive role as the credit-card provider for Costco’s U.S. stores may generate 20 cents to 30 cents of earnings per share next year, according to William Ryan at Portales Partners LLC.” Read more

 

“Shipping wars: Retailers to push order deadlines later” by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. “According to a new study by Kurt Salmon, which surveyed more than 100 retailers with revenue greater than $750 million, 26 percent will guarantee Christmas delivery for orders placed one to three days ahead of time. That’s up from 17 percent in 2013. What’s more, nearly 50 percent will guarantee on-time delivery for Christmas orders placed by Dec. 20. That’s also up, from 37 percent last year.” Read more

 

“Alibaba smashes Singles’ Day sales record” by Leslie Shaffer at CNBC. “Alibaba’s sales for Singles’ Day, China’s equivalent of Cyber Monday — surged past last year’s record of around $5.9 billion after just 13 hours of the 24-hour shopping promotion.” Read more

 

“Why China’s Singles Day Won’t Become a American Shopping Holiday” by Akane Atani at Businessweek. “Sorry, U.S. retailers: Inciting further consumer spending among America’s singles is going to take more than embracing a modern Chinese custom. Celebrating singledom is fine, but Rogers has a suggestion for a retail holiday that could really warm a millennial’s heart: “Just Got Your First Job Day.” Read more

 

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“Target’s starting to get its mojo back: Pro” by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. “Stifel Nicolaus analyst David Schick on Monday upgraded his rating on the company to “buy” from “hold,” saying it appears Target is playing more “on offense” lately.” Read more

 

Video: Whole Foods NYC Rooftop Garden Featured by Anthony Ha in TechCrunch. “For our latest episode of Built in Brooklyn, we went to the new Whole Foods in Gowanus — which might seem a little strange, but that’s where you’ll find urban agriculture startup Gotham Greens.” See the video / Read more

 

“U.K.: Tesco loses top spot in entertainment sales to Amazon” by Ben Marlow at Telegraph. “Tesco surrendered the number one spot to US retail juggernaut Amazon, which saw its share leap from 17.6pc to 22.5pc year-on-year.” Read more

 

“Wayfair Revenue Up 47% in Q3” “The number of active customers in our Direct Retail business reached 2.9 million as of September 30, 2014, up 61.0% year over year.” Read the release

 

“Deloitte: Holiday Shopping Study” “Respondents with annual incomes of less than $100,000 expect to spend 54 percent of their total holiday budgets in-store, versus 46 percent for those with incomes over $100,000.” Read the release

 

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Eye-on-Retail is a daily tipsheet read by thousands of Retail Merchants & Executives every weekday morning. Eye-on-Retail is unique because it’s timely, smart and fun. It’s created early AM every weekday and delivered between 7-8 am CST. We love data, earnings reports, executive presentations and stories off the beaten path that get at what’s happening in the world of retail. Contact us @ info@shiftmarketinggroup.net.