Charming Shoppes Inc. said recently that it will discontinue the Lane Bryant Woman catalog by the end of the first quarter of fiscal year 2010 so that it can focus on its core retail brands: Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug and Catherines. In addition, the company will close as many as 100 stores, in addition to the 150 store closings announced earlier this year.

As part of an ongoing to strategy to test different platforms and reach targeted audiences, Consumers Reports put together a retail program that launched last week in 16 malls in the Boston area. Three of the malls featured Holiday Smart Labs kiosks housing six computer terminals that offered free access to Con­sumerReports.org.

Amazon.com said it will use customer-generated reviews to market popular items during the holiday season.

More than half of Americans — 56.7% — say they will be spending less this holiday due to the economy, but one in five — 22.8% — still plan to be out in the shopping fray on Black Friday, according to the latest American Pulse survey by BigResearch.

Overstock.com this week announced a marketing ploy inspired by news headlines: The online retailer said it would pay off $50,000 of the debt of the winner of its "Overstock.com Family Bailout" plan.

As part of an ongoing to strategy to test different platforms and reach targeted audiences, Consumers Reports has put together a retail program that launched this week in 16 malls in the Boston area.

There's been a dramatic rise in the use of payment meth­ods other than credit cards over the past few months. Online home electronics retailer Etronics reports transaction vol­ume through eBillme during the past two months has grown 35% on the site, according to Mark Zayats, marketing direc­tor at Etronics.

As part of its strategy to step up its mar­keting efforts targeting Hispanic consum­ers, The Home Depot has launched an improved Spanish-language Web site, that is e-commerce enabled for the first time.

JCPenney's new campaign positions its products as "great style with an affordable price," targeting consumers shopping with an eye toward the economy.

Retailers will have to work even harder for a budget-conscious consumer dollar this holiday season, according to Accenture's 2008 holiday shopping survey.