Management

After a turbulent start to 2014, the National Retail Federation announced today it expects sales in November and December (excluding autos, gas and restaurant sales) to increase a healthy 4.1 percent to $616.9 billion, higher than 2013's actual 3.1 percent increase during that same time frame. Holiday sales on average have grown 2.9 percent over the past

I'm at the Shop.org Annual Summit in Seattle and having a great time catching up with old friends and colleagues, meeting new contacts, and learning about new digital marketing strategies and technologies. Also, as usual, as I walk through the exhibit hall I'm being greeted by smiling vendors, eager to share with me information about their latest and greatest shiny new objects. For the most part, I actually enjoy talking with vendors and learning about their wares. But I have noticed many folks — retailers, probably — with their badges turned the other way or tucked into their jackets, and I know why: they don’t want to be singled out and aggressively sold to by vendors.

Sellers all over the internet were scrambling when payments went missing from their PayPal accounts for hours on Oct. 1. And it impacted not just sellers on eBay, but on Etsy, Bonanza and even people who transferred their money from one account to another. Sellers reported the issue on Wednesday morning on the Ecommerce EKG board beginning at about 12:30 a.m. EST: "Item shows paid in eBay but payment is not in PayPal." There was no sign of an acknowledgement on the PayPal blog, on the PayPal discussion threads or on the AskPayPal Twitter account.

Zappos founder and CEO Tony Hsieh has decided to step down from his other position as CEO of the Downtown Project, a utopian living experiment located in Las Vegas that has seen pushback from locals since its inception. The project will also be laying off 30 percent of its staff. According to sources cited by Re/code, the new businesses that were set up inside the the Downtown Project are "bleeding money."

American Apparel's board is increasingly open to letting its ousted founder, Dov Charney, stay at the company, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The U.S. retailer is also considering giving Charney a new role, Bloomberg reported. He currently serves as a consultant to the company. American Apparel said on Monday it hired Scott Brubaker, a managing director at turnaround firm Alvarez & Marsal, as interim chief executive, replacing John Luttrell, who had been serving as both interim CEO and CFO since Charney's exit.

In the near future, D-to-C selling will be an imperative for manufacturers hoping to compete and grow brand loyalty. Those not offering online shopping invite brand skepticism, if not scorn, among consumers who visit a site only to find that the shelves are bare. The cost is more than a one-time sale lost; it can mean brand degradation that inflicts long-term damage on a manufacturer's fortunes. With concessions to retail partners and the right technology, manufacturers will be well on their way to meeting the D-to-C mandate.

Imagine this scenario: You've thought of a way to reinvent in-home air conditioning. You go through the process of sketching the idea and sharing details of what's going to make your invention a revolution in the product category. However, you're overwhelmed by what the next step could be. Do you have a marketing strategy? How much does it cost to make your idea a reality? Who do you connect with to help put this product in consumers' homes?

American Apparel, the struggling clothing chain, named Scott Brubaker as its interim chief executive officer, replacing Chief Financial Officer John Luttrell, who had assumed the position temporarily after the ouster of company founder Dov Charney. Brubaker, 43, is a managing director at Alvarez & Marsal and has previously handled interim jobs for specialty retailers

It's hard enough to live with someone who shares your entrepreneurial drive. There's only so much oxygen in any given room, after all. How on earth do you also work in the same space as them? Watch as

Macy's plans to hire about 86,000 seasonal holiday workers nationwide to bolster its stores, call centers and distribution hubs. That number represents a 3.6 percent increase from a year ago. The department store chain, which also operates Bloomingdale's, said Monday that the