Retail & Wholesale

The growth in TJX Companies’ same-store sales slowed down in fiscal 2015, growing by 2.0% compared to 3.0% in fiscal 2014.

As of 2014, there were about 2,500 Baskin-Robbins locations in the United States and about 5,000 locations in the international market.

Walgreens Boots Alliance is a firm created by the merger of Walgreens and Alliance Boots in December 2014.

Home Depot’s (HD) supply chain is getting more productive, resulting in better gross margins. Each store stocks about 30,000 to 40,000 different products.

Marketing initiatives at Home Depot include Pro Xtra. This program exclusively targets professional customers.

The home improvement industry is highly concentrated, particularly in the consumer market. The degree of concentration is growing.

Fiscal 2015 was a record year for Home Depot. The stock has returned over 47% over the past year and over 10% year-to-date.

For the quarter ending in December 2014, Alibaba achieved 265 million monthly active users on its mobile commerce apps. This is a sequential growth of 22%.

Part of the reason for Alibaba’s GMV growth was the growth in its active user base. The growth was driven by an increase in active buyers throughout China.

During the fourth quarter of 2014, Eminence Capital lowered its stake in eBay (EBAY). The company accounted for 2.55% of the fund’s 4Q14 portfolio.

Department stores like Macy’s (M) are focusing on improving their inventory management so as to maintain the optimal level of inventory, bring down costs, and avoid stock-outs.

Despite its sales growth, the gross profit rate declined for Walmart’s US operations, consisting of the Walmart US and Sam’s Club segments.

Viking Global Investors is an US-based hedge fund. The total value of Viking Global’s US long portfolio decreased to $21.78 billion in 4Q14.

eBay’s take rate fell from 3.79% in 2Q13 to 3.53% in 2Q14. However, the company isn’t worried about it since take rate is offset by healthy revenue growth.

Walmart (WMT) has a mix of debt and equity in its capital structure. The retailer’s (XRT) total debt, both short and long-term, is ~$56.6 billion.

The main reason for Amazon’s gross margin increase was the increasing proportion of third-party sellers who sell their products on Amazon.

Walmart (WMT) is the world’s largest retailer. The company reported 6,189 stores in its International segment—compared to 4,987 in the US in 3Q15.

This article discusses Nordstrom’s inventory management in comparison to that of its industry peers.

Walmart’s largest merchandising category is groceries. According to the USDA, Walmart was the largest seller of grocery items in the US in 2013.

Cross-docking is an inventory management system. Walmart made it popular. Cross-docking can lower the time required to transport merchandise.

Walmart (WMT) has been concentrating on expanding the store count of its larger supercenter format. A supercenter averages ~179,000 square feet in size.

Walmart’s Sam’s Club segment consists of membership-only club warehouse retail operations. Members include both business owners and individual consumers.

Nordstrom is an upscale department store that competes with other high-end stores. However, not all of Nordstrom’s target customers are high-end shoppers.

Walmart is among a select group of global retailers (XRT) (RTH) competing in a variety of store formats. However, Walmart dwarfs all of the other companies.

Nordstrom’s multichannel strategy and best-in-class customer service have made the company famous.

This article provides a brief overview of Nordstrom’s growth story.

Staples expects to spend $1 billion up front in order to achieve $1 billion in annual synergies—usually meaning reducing workforce—beginning in year three.

Macy’s is taking measures to improve inventory management, including its My Macy’s program that customizes merchandise according to local preferences.

Macy’s target consumers include Millennials. The company launched collections aimed at Millennials, including QMack, Maison Jules, and Bar III Carnaby.

Gauging a company’s debt levels is crucial to understanding its financial health. Maintaining high debt levels in uncertain times can be damaging.

To address inventory issues associated with online sales at its distribution centers, Best Buy rolled out a ship-from-store strategy.

Best Buy is building strong relationships with key suppliers to mitigate the impact of heightened competition from suppliers’ retail stores.

At Best Buy, returns, replacements, and damages account for nearly 10% of revenues and have cost the company over $400 million in losses each year.

Best Buy’s growth rate in same-store sales had been negative since fiscal 2011. Efforts to optimize the shopping experience have changed that.

The computing and mobile phone category is the largest of Best Buy’s revenue mix, accounting for 48% of the Domestic segment’s fiscal 2014 revenues.

As part of its turnaround strategy, Best Buy is also revamping its stores and trying to encourage more robust store traffic.

Before being appointed Best Buy CEO, Hubert Joly was credited with turning around two other companies. Best Buy’s stock has appreciated by 111% since.

SBUX recognizes its limitation in attracting customers. As a result, SBUX is exploring other growth strategies. It’s looking at other beverage businesses.

Lululemon Athletica announced an increase of 10.4% in its revenues to $419.4 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2015 compared to $379.9 million in 3Q14.

These changes should lower future inventory levels and probably result in higher inventory turnover and lower inventory-to-cash days.