Target

Target will donate $5 million to local schools nationwide as part of the company's commitment to give $1 billion for education by the end of 2015. Target has teamed up with "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and its viewers to select 50 schools in need to receive a $100,000 grant.

New York City -- E-commerce spending jumped 26% on Black Friday, according to comscore. Black Friday web sales totaled $816 million, up from $648 million last year, comScore reported. “With brick-and-mortar retail also reporting strong gains on Black Friday, it's clear that the heavy promotional activity had a positive impact on both channels," said Gian Fulgoni, chairman, comScore. Fifty million Americans visited online retail sites on Black Friday, up 35% over last year, comScore said. Each of the top five retail sites reported double-digit gains in visitors, in percentage terms, led by top retail site Amazon. Walmart ranked second,

Most retailers are feeling quite merry after the start of the holiday shopping season drew a record number of visitors to their websites and stores. Shares of most major retailers soared in Monday trading, amid a broad market rally. The National Retail Federation estimates a record 226 million shoppers went to stores and websites during the four-day holiday weekend that started on Thanksgiving Day, up from 212 million last year. Each of them spent more this year too, shelling out $398.62 over the weekend, on average, compared with $365.34 a year ago. "Black Friday did not disappoint," Wedbush analyst

Target has promoted Casey Carl to president of multichannel and senior vice president of merchandising, a move that will now have him oversee the recently relaunched Target.com. The discount store chain said that Carl, who most recently served as senior vice president of hardlines and as a co-lead on Target's multichannel steering committee, takes over the posts effective immediately.

Black Friday is an unforgiving affair. Retailers duke it out, using middle-of-the-night openings, limited-time promotions and mega sales as their weapons in the battle to grab as much share of consumers' holiday shopping budgets as possible.

MINNEAPOLIS — Target merchandising executive Casey Carl was given added responsibilities for the retailer’s online businesses, following a series of snafus related to an August relaunch that resulted in the departure of former online president Steve Eastman. Carl will serve as president of multichannel with responsibility for Target’s digital platforms including mobile, social and Target.com, while retaining his prior responsibilities as SVP merchandising for entertainment, toys, sporting goods and electronics. “We are firmly committed to implementing a multichannel strategy that enables our guests to engage with Target anywhere, anytime,” Target EVP merchandising Kathee Tesija said. “Under Casey’s leadership and

New York City -- Target Corp. will sell off Zellers’ prescription customer files to other companies and start its own business from scratch once it launches Target in Canada, according to reports in The Globe and Mail. While Zellers pharmacies are money-makers, keeping them open while Target closes the stores for remodeling would be costly and complicated, according to the report. The potential suitors for the files are likely to include Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. and Katz Group Canada Ltd., the report said.

Target received six red and white Target bags full of petitions yesterday signed by 190,000 people to protest stores opening for Black Friday sales at midnight the morning after Thanksgiving.

Egg shortages were reported at some Target stores after the retailer ended its relationship with a producer accused of animal cruelty. The company scrambled yesterday to line up new suppliers before Thanksgiving.

San Francisco -- Walmart has the most engaged users across its social media platforms as the days count down to the holiday shopping season, according to a study by the social media and digital analytics company Socialbakers. Walmart has the most number of fans topping the list at over 10 million fans, with over 7,500 fan posts last month, Socialbakers said. The engagement rate represents fan interactions and although Target ties with an average monthly engagement rate, Walmart has nearly double the number of fans who are actively posting. The study finds that retailers with the most Facebook fans