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Northbrook, Ill.-based Crate & Barrel has joined mobile app shopkick, as the latest strategic partner to deliver location-based shopping rewards simply for visiting stores.

The shipping deadline for guaranteed Christmas delivery is fast approaching for most retailers. But what’s a retailer to do after the deadline passes?

In this Brand Innovator Spotlight, Robert Genovese, vice president of marketing and media at Kenneth Cole, suggests what marketers can do in the days before Christmas.

Zale Corp. is exploring the sale of its Piercing Pagoda kiosk business to focus on its fine jewelry operations, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to be up 9 percent in December over the same month last year, and 2010 should end with a 17 percent increase over last year, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

One of the biggest hits on TV is Bravo’s “Real Housewives” reality series. It’s been the franchise that features season after season of wealthy housewives across America showering themselves with spa treatments, luxurious clothes, jewelry and lots of drama.

While most retailers are on a slow road to recovery, sales of sporting and outdoor goods have remained surprisingly robust, illustrating that soccer shorts for the kids and a fishing lure for dad remain essential purchases for many Americans

Monday, Dec. 13, known as “Green Monday” (the second Monday in December when online spending has historically tended to peak), reached $954 million in spending, representing a 12 percent increase versus last year, according to comScore.

Best Buy Co. reported surprisingly soft sales for its quarter ending in November, sending its stock tumbling as the retailer acknowledged it's losing market share to rivals who sell electronics such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.