Nordstrom

Seattle -- Nordstrom Inc. reported Thursday that profit for the quarter ended Oct. 29 rose 6.7% to $127 million, compared with $119 million in the year-ago period. Net sales rose 14.2% to $2.4 billion, surpassing Wall Street’s expected $2.35 billion and up from $2.1 billion a year earlier. Same-store sales climbed 7.9%. The company opened two full-line department stores – in Nashville and St. Louis -- and nine Nordstrom Rack stores during the quarter.

Google Catalogs has doubled its collection of catalogs to include more than 100 brands and 300 individual catalogs from brands such as Williams-Sonoma, Sephora and Nordstrom.

Kohl's is the nation's favorite fashion retail chain, according to an annual consumer survey conducted by Market Force Information, a provider of customer intelligence solutions. This is the third year in a row that Kohl's has earned the top spot.

To get consumers more comfortable with last-minute online gift shopping, large retailers have embraced the concept of Free Shipping Day. Now small marketplace sellers can also use FreeShippingDay.com to promote their eBay and Etsy stores.

Christmas '11: The Retail Forecast, a half-day conference presented by the Retail Marketing Society on Nov. 1 in New York City, showcased Morgan Stanley analysts naming eight cross-channel retailers they're betting on for success this holiday season. In part one of this article in yesterday's ROI Report, I highlighted Macy's, Nordstrom, ANN INC. and Coach. Today I report on what the analysts expect for Limited Brands, Amazon and eBay this holiday season.

Christmas '11: The Retail Forecast, a half-day conference presented by the Retail Marketing Society on Nov. 1 in New York City, showcased Morgan Stanley analysts naming eight cross-channel retailers they're betting on for success this holiday season.

Despite the fact that technology has been zooming along, retailers have been slower to adopt than most other industries. Smartphones have become the norm, and a new value-conscious and customer service-driven consumer has emerged from the recession.

The e-tailing group's inaugural luxury market mystery shopping study titled Champagne Tastes and Caviar Dreams: A Global Look at Luxury, provides an overview of how the luxury market is using the internet and mobile devices for branding and selling with guidelines to help merchants deliver a sophisticated digital experience that drives engagement.

Microsoft search engine Bing announced that it’s dipping its toe into the daily-deals space as well — as an aggregator. Appealing to savvy shoppers who may have overstuffed their inboxes with too many deals, the search engine is taking a “decision engine” approach to the coupon world. Bing Deals pulls together coupons from Groupon and LivingSocial, as well as retailers including Nordstrom and Target.

Apple, Nordstrom and other retailers are beginning to use paperless receipts not only to achieve quicker checkout lines and create less waste but also to gain additional customer email addresses, according to Pam Danziger of Unity Marketing, a market research firm.