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Wiki Wiki Summary
Fashion merchandising Fashion merchandising can be defined as the planning and promotion of sales by presenting a product to the right market at the proper time, by carrying out organized, skillful advertising, using attractive displays, etc. Merchandising, within fashion retail, refers specifically to the stock planning, management, and control process.
Return merchandise authorization A return merchandise authorization (RMA), return authorization (RA) or return goods authorization (RGA) is a part of the process of returning a product to receive a refund, replacement, or repair during the product's warranty period. Both parties can decide how to deal with it, which could be refund, replacement or repair.
Visual merchandising Visual Merchandising is the practice in the retail industry of optimizing the presentation of products and services to better highlight their features and benefits. The purpose of such visual merchandising is to attract, engage, and motivate the customer towards making a purchase.Visual merchandising traditionally occurs in brick and mortar stores using a blend of lighting, color combinations, and articles of decor to stimulate an observer and generate interest.
Merchandise Mart The Merchandise Mart (or the Merch Mart, or the Mart) is a commercial building located in downtown Chicago, Illinois. When it was opened in 1930, it was the largest building in the world, with 4 million square feet (372,000 m2) of floor space.
Profitability analysis In cost accounting, profitability analysis is an analysis of the profitability of an organisation's output. Output of an organisation can be grouped into products, customers, locations, channels and/or transactions.
Customer Profitability Analysis Customer Profitability Analysis (in short CPA) is a management accounting and a credit underwriting method, allowing businesses and lenders to determine the profitability of each customer or segments of customers, by attributing profits and costs to each customer separately. CPA can be applied at the individual customer level (more time consuming, but providing a better understanding of business situation) or at the level of customer aggregates / groups (e.g.
Marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emphasize in advertising; operation of advertising campaigns; attendance at trade shows and public events; design of products and packaging attractive to buyers; defining the terms of sale, such as price, discounts, warranty, and return policy; product placement in media or with people believed to influence the buying habits of others; agreements with retailers, wholesale distributors, or resellers; and attempts to create awareness of, loyalty to, and positive feelings about a brand. Marketing is typically done by the seller, typically a retailer or manufacturer.
Merchandising Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative way that entices customers to purchase more items or products.
Significant figures Significant figures (also known as the significant digits, precision or resolution) of a number in positional notation are digits in the number that are reliable and necessary to indicate the quantity of something.\nIf a number expressing the result of a measurement (e.g., length, pressure, volume, or mass) has more digits than the number of digits allowed by the measurement resolution, then only as many digits as allowed by the measurement resolution are reliable, and so only these can be significant figures.
Significant other The term significant other (SO) has different uses in psychology and in colloquial language. Colloquially "significant other" is used as a gender-neutral term for a person's partner in an intimate relationship without disclosing or presuming anything about marital status, relationship status, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
Bit numbering In computing, bit numbering is the convention used to identify the bit positions in a binary number.\n\n\n== Bit significance and indexing ==\n\nIn computing, the least significant bit (LSB) is the bit position in a binary integer representing the binary 1s place of the integer.
Significant form Significant form refers to an aesthetic theory developed by English art critic Clive Bell which specified a set of criteria for what qualified as a work of art.
Significant Others The term significant other (SO) has different uses in psychology and in colloquial language. Colloquially "significant other" is used as a gender-neutral term for a person's partner in an intimate relationship without disclosing or presuming anything about marital status, relationship status, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
Statistical significance In statistical hypothesis testing, a result has statistical significance when it is very unlikely to have occurred given the null hypothesis. More precisely, a study's defined significance level, denoted by \n \n \n \n α\n \n \n {\displaystyle \alpha }\n , is the probability of the study rejecting the null hypothesis, given that the null hypothesis is true; and the p-value of a result, \n \n \n \n p\n \n \n {\displaystyle p}\n , is the probability of obtaining a result at least as extreme, given that the null hypothesis is true.
The Simpsons The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie.
General store A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer or village shop) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general goods.
Arithmetic Arithmetic (from Ancient Greek ἀριθμός (arithmós) 'number', and τική [τέχνη] (tikḗ [tékhnē]) 'art, craft') is an elementary part of mathematics that consists of the study of the properties of the traditional operations on numbers—addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, and extraction of roots. In the 19th century, Italian mathematician Giuseppe Peano formalized arithmetic with his Peano axioms, which are highly important to the field of mathematical logic today.
Special Activities Center The Special Activities Center (SAC) is a division of the Central Intelligence Agency responsible for covert operations and paramilitary operations. The unit was named Special Activities Division (SAD) prior to 2015.
Operations management Operations management is an area of management concerned with designing and controlling the process of production and redesigning business operations in the production of goods or services. It involves the responsibility of ensuring that business operations are efficient in terms of using as few resources as needed and effective in meeting customer requirements.
Emergency operations center An emergency operations center (EOC) is a central command and control facility responsible for carrying out the principles of emergency preparedness and emergency management, or disaster management functions at a strategic level during an emergency, and ensuring the continuity of operation of a company, political subdivision or other organization.\nAn EOC is responsible for strategic direction and operational decisions and does not normally directly control field assets, instead leaving tactical decisions to lower commands.
Operation (mathematics) In mathematics, an operation is a function which takes zero or more input values (called operands) to a well-defined output value. The number of operands (also known as arguments) is the arity of the operation.
Financial ratio A financial ratio or accounting ratio is a relative magnitude of two selected numerical values taken from an enterprise's financial statements. Often used in accounting, there are many standard ratios used to try to evaluate the overall financial condition of a corporation or other organization.
Customer relationship management Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process in which a business or other organization administers its interactions with customers, typically using data analysis to study large amounts of information.CRM systems compile data from a range of different communication channels, including a company's website, telephone, email, live chat, marketing materials and more recently, social media. They allow businesses to learn more about their target audiences and how to best cater for their needs, thus retaining customers and driving sales growth.
Management Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a non-profit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Volatility (finance) In finance, volatility (usually denoted by σ) is the degree of variation of a trading price series over time, usually measured by the standard deviation of logarithmic returns.\nHistoric volatility measures a time series of past market prices.
Common stock Common stock is a form of corporate equity ownership, a type of security. The terms voting share and ordinary share are also used frequently outside of the United States.
Preferred stock Preferred stock (also called preferred shares, preference shares, or simply preferreds) is a component of share capital that may have any combination of features not possessed by common stock, including properties of both an equity and a debt instrument, and is generally considered a hybrid instrument. Preferred stocks are senior (i.e., higher ranking) to common stock but subordinate to bonds in terms of claim (or rights to their share of the assets of the company, given that such assets are payable to the returnee stock bond) and may have priority over common stock (ordinary shares) in the payment of dividends and upon liquidation.
Convertible bond In finance, a convertible bond or convertible note or convertible debt (or a convertible debenture if it has a maturity of greater than 10 years) is a type of bond that the holder can convert into a specified number of shares of common stock in the issuing company or cash of equal value. It is a hybrid security with debt- and equity-like features.
Sport management Sport management is the field of business dealing with sports and recreation. Sports management involves any combination of skills that correspond with planning, organizing, directing, controlling, budgeting, leading, or evaluating of any organization or business within the sports field.
Women Management Women Management is a modeling agency based in New York. Founded by Paul Rowland in 1988, Women also has two sister agencies, Supreme Management and Women 360 Management, which is also part of the Women International Agency Chain.
Emergency management Emergency management, also called emergency response or disaster management, is the organization and management of the resources and responsibilities for dealing with all humanitarian aspects of emergencies (prevention, preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery). The aim is to prevent and reduce the harmful effects of all hazards, including disasters.
Normal distribution In statistics, a normal distribution (also known as Gaussian, Gauss, or Laplace–Gauss distribution) is a type of continuous probability distribution for a real-valued random variable. The general form of its probability density function is\n\n \n \n \n f\n (\n x\n )\n =\n \n \n 1\n \n σ\n \n \n 2\n π\n \n \n \n \n \n \n e\n \n −\n \n \n 1\n 2\n \n \n \n \n (\n \n \n \n x\n −\n μ\n \n σ\n \n \n )\n \n \n 2\n \n \n \n \n \n \n {\displaystyle f(x)={\frac {1}{\sigma {\sqrt {2\pi }}}}e^{-{\frac {1}{2}}\left({\frac {x-\mu }{\sigma }}\right)^{2}}}\n The parameter \n \n \n \n μ\n \n \n {\displaystyle \mu }\n is the mean or expectation of the distribution (and also its median and mode), while the parameter \n \n \n \n σ\n \n \n {\displaystyle \sigma }\n is its standard deviation.
Beta distribution In probability theory and statistics, the beta distribution is a family of continuous probability distributions defined on the interval [0, 1] parameterized by two positive shape parameters, denoted by alpha (α) and beta (β), that appear as exponents of the random variable and control the shape of the distribution. The generalization to multiple variables is called a Dirichlet distribution.
Exponential distribution In probability theory and statistics, the exponential distribution is the probability distribution of the time between events in a Poisson point process, i.e., a process in which events occur continuously and independently at a constant average rate. It is a particular case of the gamma distribution.
Gamma distribution In probability theory and statistics, the gamma distribution is a two-parameter family of continuous probability distributions. The exponential distribution, Erlang distribution, and chi-square distribution are special cases of the gamma distribution.
Film distribution Film distribution is the process of making a movie available for viewing by an audience. This is normally the task of a professional film distributor, who would determine the marketing strategy for the film, the media by which a film is to be exhibited or made available for viewing, and who may set the release date and other matters.
Risk Factors
DEB SHOPS INC Item 1A Risk Factors The following risk factors should be read carefully in connection with evaluating our business and the forward-looking information contained or incorporated by reference in this report
See “Forward-Looking Statements” set forth above
We may not be able to anticipate or react to changes in merchandise trends and consumer demands and our failure to do so may lead to loss of sales and reduced profitability
Our success depends, in large part, on our ability to anticipate and react to changes in merchandise trends in a timely manner
Any delay or failure by us in identifying and accurately responding to changing merchandise trends and consumer demands could adversely affect consumer acceptance of our product offerings, which could lead to significant markdowns and reduced sales and profitability
In addition, we make decisions for a portion of our merchandise well in advance of each of the seasons in which such merchandise will be sold
Significant deviations from projected demand for merchandise could have an adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition, either from lost sales due to insufficient inventory or lower margins due to the need to mark down excess inventory
We may not be able to attract or retain a sufficient number of customers in an extremely competitive retail business market, which would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations
The female teen specialty apparel business is highly competitive
We compete against a large number of multi-store specialty apparel companies as well as department store and mass merchant operators, many of whom are larger and have more substantial financial and operational resources
All of our existing locations face competition from one or more of our competitors
This competitive marketplace may adversely affect our future performance and we cannot be certain that we will be able to compete effectively in the future
If we are unable to implement our growth strategy, our ability to increase our sales, profitability and cash flow could be significantly impaired
An increase in our sales, profitability and cash flow will depend on our ability to execute the following components of our growth strategy: • Increase the number of stores we operate; • Increase the productivity and profitability of our existing stores; • Increase the number of plus-sized departments in existing stores; • Continue our program of selectively remodeling existing stores; and • Continue to selectively close those locations that we believe cannot become profitable or maintain profitability
Accomplishing our store expansion goals will depend upon a number of factors, including locating suitable sites, negotiating favorable lease terms and hiring and training qualified personnel, particularly at the store management level
If we are unable to effectively implement our growth strategy, our ability to increase our sales, profitability and cash flow could be significantly impaired by, among other things: • The costs of opening and operating new stores may offset the increased sales generated by the additional stores; • The opening of additional stores in an existing market could reduce net sales from existing stores in that market; • The opening of stores in new geographic markets may present competitive challenges that are different than those we face in our existing geographic markets; and • The costs associated with increasing the number of plus-sized departments in existing stores may not be recouped by increases in sales volumes in those locations
5 ______________________________________________________________________ [6]Back to Contents Our levels of sales and earnings growth have fluctuated, and any decline in our future growth or performance could have a material adverse effect on the market price of our common stock
A variety of factors have historically affected, and will continue to affect, our rate of growth and performance
These factors include, among other things, customer trends and preferences, competition, economic conditions, managing inventory effectively and new store openings
There can be no assurance that we will achieve positive levels of sales and earnings growth and any decline in our future growth or performance could have a material adverse effect on the market price of our common stock
Our business could be significantly disrupted if we cannot retain or replace members of our management team
Our success depends to a significant extent both upon the continued services of our current executive and senior management team, as well as our ability to attract and retain additional qualified management personnel in the future
Our operations could be adversely affected if, for any reason, one or more key executive officers ceased to be active in our management
We rely on foreign sources of production
We purchase a significant portion of our apparel directly in foreign markets and indirectly through domestic vendors with foreign sources
We face a variety of risks generally associated with doing business in foreign markets and importing merchandise from abroad, including: • Political instability; • Increased security requirements applicable to imported goods; • Imposition or increases of duties, taxes and other charges on imports; • Imposition of quotas on imported merchandise; • Currency and exchange risks; • Delays in shipping; and • Increased costs of transportation
New initiatives may be proposed that may have an impact on the trading status of certain countries and may include retaliatory duties or other trade sanctions that, if enacted, could increase the cost of products purchased from suppliers in such countries or restrict the importation of products from such countries
The future performance of our business will depend on foreign suppliers and may be adversely affected by the factors listed above, all of which are beyond our control
This may result in our inability to obtain sufficient quantities of merchandise or increase our cost, thereby negatively impacting sales, gross profit and net earnings
We depend on mall and strip shopping center customer traffic
Our sales are dependent in part on a high volume of mall and strip shopping center customer traffic
Mall and strip shopping center customer traffic may be adversely affected by, among other things, economic downturns, gasoline prices, the closing of anchor stores or changes in customer shopping preferences
A decline in the popularity of mall and strip shopping centers among our target customers could have a material adverse effect on customer traffic and reduce our sales and net earnings
A weak fourth quarter would have a material adverse effect on our operating results for the year
Our business is affected by the seasonality pattern that is common to most retailers
Due to the importance of our peak selling season, which includes the Christmas holiday, the fourth quarter has historically contributed, and is expected to continue to contribute, a significant portion of our net income for the entire year
In anticipation of increased sales activity during the fourth quarter, we incur significant additional costs both prior to and during the fourth quarter
Those costs include, among other things, the acquisition of inventory and the hiring of seasonal employees
Any factors negatively affecting our sales during this period of the year, including adverse weather or unfavorable economic conditions, could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations for the entire year
6 ______________________________________________________________________ [7]Back to Contents We depend on a single distribution center, a disruption in the operation of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations
We process 100prca of the merchandise sold in our stores through our automated distribution center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Our distribution operations are vulnerable to damage or interruption from events such as fire, flood, power interruption, technological difficulties and similar events
An extended disruption in our ability to process merchandise through our distribution center could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations
Our management information systems may prove inadequate
We depend heavily on our management information systems for many aspects of our business
A significant portion of our key software applications have been developed internally
Additionally, we operate our management information systems with an informal business continuity plan
Our business could be materially adversely affected if our management information systems are disrupted for an extended period of time
Fluctuations in the cost of fuel oil could impact our earnings and margins
Prices for oil have fluctuated dramatically in the past and have risen substantially in fiscal 2006
These fluctuations impact our distribution costs, transportation costs for our field management and utility costs for our stores, corporate office and distribution center
Continuing fluctuation of the cost of fuel oil could impact our earnings and margins
Weather conditions could adversely affect our results of operations
Because a significant portion of our business is apparel and subject to weather conditions in our markets, our operating results may be unexpectedly and adversely affected by inclement weather
Extended periods of unseasonable temperatures in our markets, potentially during our peak seasons, could render a portion of our inventory incompatible with those unseasonable conditions
Reduced sales from extreme or prolonged unseasonable weather conditions could adversely affect our business
Additionally, frequent or unusually heavy snow, ice or rain storms might make it difficult for our customers to travel to our stores and thereby reduce our sales and profitability
Labor conditions could adversely affect our results of operations
Our performance is dependent on attracting and retaining a large and growing number of quality sales associates
Many of those sales associates are in entry level or part time positions with historically high rates of turnover
Our ability to meet our labor needs while controlling costs is subject to external factors such as unemployment levels, prevailing wage rates, minimum wage legislation and changing demographics
Changes that adversely impact our ability to attract and retain quality sales associates could adversely affect our performance
Our principal shareholders may effectively exercise control over matters requiring shareholder approval
Marvin Rounick and Warren Weiner, together with their affiliates, own, directly or indirectly, a substantial amount of our common stock
To the extent they and their affiliates vote their shares in the same manner, their combined stock ownership may effectively give them power to elect all of the directors and control the management, operations and affairs of Deb Shops, Inc
Their ownership may discourage someone from making a significant equity investment in Deb Shops, Inc
even if we needed the investment to operate our business
The size of their combined stock holdings could be a significant factor in delaying or preventing a change of control transaction that other shareholders may deem to be in their best interests, such as a transaction in which the other shareholders would receive a premium for their shares over their current trading prices
7 ______________________________________________________________________ [8]Back to Contents Terrorist attacks and threats or actual war may impact all aspects of our operations, revenues, costs and stock price in unpredictable ways
Terrorist attacks in the United States, as well as future events occurring in response or in connection with them, may impact our operations, including among other things, causing delays or losses in the delivery of merchandise to us and decreased sales
More generally, any of these events could cause consumer confidence and spending to decrease or result in increased volatility in the United States and worldwide financial markets and economy
This also could result in a deepening of any economic recession in the United States or abroad
Any of these occurrences could have a significant impact on our operating results, revenues and costs and may result in the volatility of the market price for our common stock and on the future price of our common stock