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Dallas -- Zale Corp reported a narrower third-quarter loss on Wednesday. Zale’s net loss narrowed by about a half to $4.5 million in the third quarter ended April 30, from $9 million a year ago. Revenues for the quarter ended April 30, 2012 rose 8.1% to $445 million, compared with $412 million in the same period last year. Same-store sales increased 8%. “The six consecutive quarters of positive comps, coupled with continued momentum through the Mother’s Day selling period, demonstrates that the strategic initiatives we’ve undertaken are resonating with our guests,” said Theo Killion, CEO. “In addition, the improvement

Online retailing has existed for nearly 20 years, and product recommendations have been around for almost as long due to the pioneering work of Amazon.com, which applied for a patent on its collaborative filtering technology in 1998. Since then, a majority of retailers have adopted online product recommendations. Yet many of these implementations are still fairly primitive because they fail to understand an online shopper’s real-time product needs.

A group of nine business leaders, including representatives from Amazon.com and Nordstrom, are backing California hedge fund manager Chris Hansen’s plan to bring a new sports arena to Seattle’s Sodo district. They announced Tuesday the formation of the Seattle/King County Arena Business Advisory Committee, established to demonstrate support for the arena and to try and draw more support for the proposal from the Seattle business community. 

Austin, Texas posted the highest percentage of retail rental growth in the country during the first quarter of 2012 with an increase of 3.4 percent, according to Cassidy Turley, a national real estate services provider. Charlotte, N.C. came in second with 2.9 percent growth and Oakland-East Bay, Calif. came in third with 2.7 percent growth. Nationally, Cassidy Turley reports the first quarter of this year saw the first decline in retail vacancies since the recession.

Online spending may be increasing, but the venerable catalog is doing anything but fading away. In fact, it's still an important part of business for retailers. “It’s basically a marketing tool,” said retail analyst Eric Beder, a managing director at Brean Murray, Carret & Co. “The beauty of a catalog is that you don’t have to go online to see it, so you can use it anywhere.” More than 12.5 billion catalogs were mailed out to homes in the U.S. last year, according to the Direct Marketing Association, the largest global association for the marketing community.

U.S. lawmakers are frustrated by the lack of cooperation they've received from Wal-Mart in the investigation of the retailer for alleged bribery in Mexico, a committee staffer familiar with the investigation said. Attorneys for Wal-Mart briefed the committee earlier on Monday about the company's anti-corruption compliance program, the person said. But Wal-Mart hasn't committed to briefing the panel on the substantive allegations raised by a New York Times report, a key request of the committee, said the staffer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. A Wal-Mart spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. 

American Eagle’s latest campaign for its aerie label is a great example of using mobile to drive traffic to the brand’s social presence. To celebrate reaching 1 million “Likes” on Facebook, aerie sent a text message with a free shipping offer to encourage even more consumers to become fans of the brand on Facebook.

Ikea's new kiosk-based loyalty program IKEA FAMILY has already attracted more than 1.6 million members since its launch a few months ago. IKEA FAMILY offers special offers and benefits to customers, as well as program-branded merchandise and promotional events, Diane Zoll, manager of IKEA FAMILY US, said in a company press release. "Not only are there now millions of members, but members are highly engaged and spend more when they visit Ikea," Zoll said. The membership journey begins in-store at the FAMILY Shop, which features unique FAMILY-branded merchandise that members can use every day, from backpacks to bathrobes, with members-only prices.