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5 Things To Know About Small Business This Week: May 17

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:04:12 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) - Mobile cash registers, a sobering view of small business, Kabbage financing and more fun website from GoDaddy lead our list of small business happenings this week.

1. Is it the death of the cash register? PayPal announces "Cash for Registers." Starting next month, eBay's PayPal will start a new program called "Cash for Registers."

The program will offer free credit, debit card, check and PayPal processing for the remainder of the year to "qualifying" U.S small businesses that essentially "turn in their cash registers" in favor of mobile solutions like PayPal Here, which includes an Apple iPad, card reader, iPad stand, cash drawer, and printer. ...

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Investors Shun J.C. Penney Shares

Fri, 17 May 2013 11:12:49 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Investors shunned J.C. Penney's stock Friday following dismal earnings results and concerns over whether the company can regain the traction it lost even with the return of its former CEO.

Shares were dropping 3.2% to $18.19 at last check on Friday.

The stocks of Wal-Mart Stores and Kohl's , were also slipping a day after both retailers reported first-quarter earnings that fell 0.9% and 0.3%, respectively. Shares of Sears and Target were each in the green on Friday. ...

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5 Worst Home Renovation Projects

Fri, 17 May 2013 08:00:00 EDT

BOSTON (TheStreet) -- A new bathroom or roof can make your home a lot more pleasant, but don't expect to recover its cost when you sell.

That's because a recent analysis by Remodeling magazine and the National Association of Realtors found that none of 35 upgrades studied will boost your home's value enough to cover the job's nationwide average price.

"You can easily put something in that a buyer is just going to want to rip out," says Judy Moore, a suburban Boston real estate agent and National Association of Realtors board member. ...

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JCPenney Reports Loss, Tumbles After-Market

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:51:22 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) - JC Penney was falling in after-hours trading Thursday after reporting a first-quarter loss of $348 million, or $1.58 per share.

Net loss for the quarter totaled $289 million, or $1.31 a share when adjusted for charges related to the retailer's restructuring and management transition. Plano, Texas-based JC Penney said restructuring charges were $72 million.

The stock was tumbling 2.9% in after-hours trading after closing at $18.79. ...

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Walmart Misses, Kohl's Beats, Stocks React

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:52:41 EDT

New information has been added to this story.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) - The stocks of two big department stores, Wal-Mart Stores and Kohl's performed vastly different on Thursday, despite both retailers reporting earnings results that missed revenue expectations.

Shares of Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, stumbled after it reported that sales in its U.S. stores fell, even with a more positive outlook for the second quarter. The stock was trading down 2.1% to $78.20 in trading Thursday. ...

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The Digital Skeptic: If You Want to Be Safe Online, Have Less Stuff

Thu, 16 May 2013 08:00:00 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) --Chris Doggett has this to say to Jay-Z, Beyonce, Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Mel Gibson, Ashton Kutcher, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, The Associated Press -- and all the other supposedly above-the-street celebs, politicos and media companies who just can't seem to keep their online selves from getting stolen.

"You want the Internet to be as safe as possible?" Doggett told me on the phone about a month ago. "You want to be touching as little of it as possible." Also see: The Digital Skeptic: The Newspaper Gets Its Revenge

Doggett is not guessing about what it takes to stay secure in today's digital slum. He's head of North American corporate sales for Kaspersky Lab, the Woburn, Mass., security firm. And to this geek's credit, he's become a brother in skeptical arms about the reality of not being the next AP Twitter hack victim here in the Internet hood. ...

Abercrombie's CEO Provokes Even as Investors Cheer

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:11:55 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) - Teen retailer Abercrombie & Fitch delights in provocative advertising which might explain CEO Mike Jeffries' comments about the company's unwillingness to carry larger sizes.

Jeffries has pointedly said that Abercrombie targets "the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and has a lot of friends. A lot of people don't belong in our clothes and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely."

While Jeffries' comments aren't new, social media has been abuzz this week commenting on a blog post by marketing executive Amy Taylor entitled An Open Letter From a "Fat Chick" to Mike Jeffries, CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch. ...

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Macy's Shares Surge on Earnings Beat

Wed, 15 May 2013 11:06:14 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Macy's shares were rising Wednesday on strong volume after the department store kicked off first-quarter earnings reports with better-than-expected earnings and announced a dividend increase.

The Cincinnati-based company said net income was $217 million for the 13-week quarter, or 55 cents per diluted share versus $181 million, or 43 cents in the same period last year. Analysts on average expected Macy's to post quarterly earnings of 53 cents a share.

First-quarter sales for the period totaled $6.39 billion, up 4% from the same period last year. Comparable stores sales, which includes stores open at least one year as well as e-commerce sales form Macys.com and Bloomingdales.com, rose by 3.8% from the first quarter last year, Macy's said. ...

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Kabbage Expands Small-Business Financing

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:22:02 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Small-business financing outfit Kabbage, which made its mark by focusing exclusively on funding small e-commerce merchants that sell through Amazon , eBay , Yahoo! and Etsy, among others, is expanding its reach to fund both online and offline small businesses.

The company announced a partnership with Intuit to use QuickBooks data to instantly approve and extend funding, it said Tuesday.

It is a significant expansion for the two-year-old Atlanta startup, which has offered approximately $85 million in short-term financing through more than 70,000 advances to e-commerce businesses since its launch in August 2011. In 2013, it plans to make over 100,000 advances. ...

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The Digital Skeptic: Why Global Roaming As You Know It is Dead

Tue, 14 May 2013 08:00:00 EDT

CAMPO DEI FRARI, Italy (TheStreet) -- Here in a cozy Venetian square, on a crystal clear Sunday morning, I'm doing as I always do, creating stories using the state-of-the-art mobile Web.

But today I'm doing something unique. I am accessing that Web using a new generation of blissfully low-cost world roaming data and phone options.

"It's not complex to offer steep discounts on global phone services once you take advantage of the efficiencies of modern world cell networks," Pascal de Hesselle, vice president for marketing at Truphone Americas, explained to me on the phone a week or so back. Also see: The Great Gatsby's 5 Top Money Lessons ...

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Analyst Says Buy Urban Outfitters

Mon, 13 May 2013 16:01:31 EDT

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Retail Stocks Mixed Despite Better-than-Expected April Sales (Update 1)

Mon, 13 May 2013 12:28:52 EDT

New information has been added to the story.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) - Retail stocks were mixed on Monday, despite a positive report from the government on April retail sales.

U.S. food and retail sales rose 0.1% in April compared to March, to $419 billion, according to the latest Commerce Department figures released on Monday. Economists were expecting sales for the retail sector to fall 0.3% for the month of March, according to Thomson Reuters. ...

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Retailers to Post Sluggish Earnings After Long Winter

Mon, 13 May 2013 07:00:00 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) - Retailers are blaming extended cold weather this past winter for a decline in first-quarter sales, which will be reflected in companies' quarterly earnings, the bulk of which will be announced in the following two weeks.

Large department stores and discount retailers including Macy's , Wal-Mart Stores , JC Penney , Kohl's and Nordstrom report later this the week. Best Buy , Target , Sears reporting next week.

According to the Thomson Reuters Quarterly Same Store Sales Index of 78 retailers, same-store sales are expected to show a paltry 0.8% growth for the first quarter compared with 3.4% growth in the same period a year ago. Excluding Walmart, growth is expected to be 1% compared to 3.7% for the first quarter of 2012. ...

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5 Things to Know About Small Business This Week: May 10

Fri, 10 May 2013 11:02:35 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- What happened in small business this week?

1. Senate passes Internet sales tax legislation; could get held up in the House. Sales tax collected by online merchants just got one step closer to becoming a reality this week after the Senate passed legislation that is supposed to "level the playing field" between bricks-and-mortar and e-commerce retailers. The Marketplace Fairness Act still needs to pass the House, which observers say could be a challenge as some Republicans view the measure as a tax increase, according to Marketwatch.

While bricks-and-mortar retailers, yes, even small businesses, can be pleased with the bill's traction, opponents say that the tax requirements will be burdensome on growing online small merchants, according to CNBC . ...

5 Mother's Day Gift Ideas for Moms of All Ages

Fri, 10 May 2013 09:56:06 EDT

This story has been updated with additional information.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) - Can't figure out what to get Mom for Mother's Day? We've come up with five gift ideas sure to make Mom feel special.

Consumers are expected to spend more than $20 billion on gifts this year to pamper Mom. Traditional items like flowers, clothing and gift cards are always popular, but this year, consumers will be stretching their budget just a little bit further to splurge on things like tablets, smartphones and jewelry for the moms, grandmas, daughters and sisters in their lives. ...

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