• Nike's CEO Elliott Hill said that there are three things he wants to fix at Nike.
• One mistake was being "too promotional" and offering too many discounts.
• The company will also focus on five areas: running, basketball, training, football, and sportswear.

Nike's new CEO said that two months into the job, he's working hard to fix three key mistakes that the sneaker maker has made in recent years.

Hill rejoined the company in October as chief executive after retiring from his post as president of marketplace and consumer in 2020. He's a true insider, having worked his way up from an apparel sales representative intern in 1988.

His post came at a crucial time for Nike, which has been struggling with lackluster sales and dealing with the backlash of trying to sell directly to consumers instead of through marketplace retailers. The company's stock is down more than 36% in the last year.

On Thursday, the company reported revenue of $12.4 billion, down 8% from the year before, for the three months ending November 30.

On Thursday's earnings call — Hill's first in the new job — he highlighted three mistakes he's trying to amend:

1. Becoming "far too promotional"

Hill said that the retailer has been offering too many discounts and becoming "far too promotional."

"Entering the year, our digital platforms were delivering roughly a 50/50 split of full price to promotional sales," he said. "The level of markdowns not only impacts our brand but it also disrupts the overall marketplace and the profitability of our partners."

To counter this, Hill said that Nike would rein in the number of sales.

"Being premium also means full price," he said. "We'll focus promotions during traditional retail moments, not at the consistent levels we are today, and we will leverage NIKE Value Stores to profitably move through any excess inventory."

2. Losing its "obsession with sport"

Hill also highlighted a big-picture reorientation.

"We lost our obsession with sport," Hill said on the call.

"Moving forward, we will lead with sport and put the athlete at the center of every decision," he said, adding, "We will get back to leveraging deep athlete insights to accelerate innovation, design, product creation, and storytelling."

Hill said Nike is focusing on five categories: running, basketball, training, football, and sportswear. Training refers to performance wear for sports training-related activities, while sportswear refers to more casual athleisure apparel.

Analysts have previously slammed Nike's innovation stagnation.

Jim Duffy, a Nike analyst for Stifel Institutional, told BI's Lloyd Lee in September that the company had fallen behind, relying too much on its retro line.

"From a product standpoint, there's been kind of an air pocket of innovation," Duffy said. "The brand, the revenue base, and the profit pool became overly dependent on a short list of retro styles. As they will do, consumer preferences have changed."

3. Souring relationships with marketplace retailers

The third mistake that Nike has made, Hill said, was to sour its relationships with marketplace retailers.

Pre-pandemic, the company started pushing direct-to-consumer sales and cut ties with small sporting goods stores and sneaker boutiques. And it reduced product allocations for sneaker giants like Foot Locker and Dick's Sporting Goods.

"The final action we prioritize is building back and earning the trust of our key wholesale partners. Some partners and channels feel we've turned our back on them and we stopped engaging consistently," Hill said.

He added that he personally connected with the top executives of retailers like Dick's Sporting Goods, Foot Locker, and JD Sports, and named them on the call.

Duffy, the Nike analyst, previously told BI that Nike had "de-emphasized some of the wholesale distribution," which had "created oxygen for some competitors to gain shelf space and recognition."

Wholesale revenue was down 3% in the last quarter, to $6.9 billion, from a year ago. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Poonam Goyal wrote that out of the last quarter's results, "better-than-expected wholesale and apparel revenue were the standouts, with each besting consensus by a wide margin."

Hill's comments come shortly after Nike and Foot Locker announced that they would deepen their partnership by expanding Foot Locker's interactive Home Court basketball section.

• Costco said it's seeing a boost in meat and produce sales.
• Costco's finance chief said in the Q1 2025 earnings call that there was a shift toward "food at home."
• The retailer posted strong growth this quarter, with sales increasing 7.5% from the year before.

Americans are swapping dinners out for nights in, Costco said in its 2025 first-quarter results.

"I would say that we are seeing what we think is a little bit of a shift from food away from home to food at home," Costco's finance chief, Gary Millerchip, said in the company's Q1 2025 earnings call on Thursday.

He said the trend was "certainly reflected in strong meat and produce sales."

Customers showed a "gravitation towards those lower price per pound items across categories like poultry cuts of beef and pork as well," he said.

He added that international food items, such as "Synear pork soup dumplings, Sona Masoori Rice, and Hot Pot Beef Sliced Rolls," were also seeing "strong momentum."

The wholesale chain, which operates on a membership model, reported a strong quarter. It reported $60.99 billion in sales, an increase of 7.5% from the previous year.

Membership numbers increased by 7.2% compared to last year, with Costco ending the quarter with almost 139 million membership cardholders.

The company's stock is up nearly 50% since the start of the year.

Costco's comments on Americans' dining habits echo those made by other fast food chains and grocery retailers this year. They come as inflation and high food prices leave Americans looking for ways to save on costs.

"Consumers are choosing to stay at home or look for cheaper alternatives than more expensive sit-down restaurants," Jefferies analysts wrote in a July note.

The CFO of McDonald's told analysts at the UBS Global Consumer and Retail Conference in March that lower-income consumers "are just choosing to eat at home more often."

In June, the fast food chain launched a $5 value meal to try to win back some customers. Its rivals, Taco Bell and Burger King, quickly followed suit.

And the country's largest grocer, Walmart, told CNBC in May that the rising price of eating out has pushed more people into its stores to buy groceries.

"It's roughly 4.3 times more expensive to eat out than it is to eat at home," Walmart's finance chief, John David Rainey, told CNBC. "And that's benefiting our business."

Costco didn't respond to a request for comment.

• Costco beat expectations for its fiscal first-quarter earnings, with net sales growth of 7.5%.
• Comparable sales growth was largely driven by increased traffic.
• The company ended the quarter with nearly 139 million membership cardholders, up 7.2% over last year.

People just can't get enough of Costco — even as membership fees went up.

The wholesale club beat Wall Street's expectations Thursday, posting fiscal first-quarter net sales of $60.99 billion, up 7.5% from the same period last year.

Comparable sales growth of 5.2% was largely driven by increased traffic, as gas price deflation made for nearly flat receipt growth. The company also noted price reductions in some categories, like facial tissue and chicken stock.

"We're pleased with the momentum that we're seeing there, and I think it reflects the fact that our members are willing to spend as inflation comes down," CFO Gary Millerchip told investors on the earnings call.

Traffic growth was also aided by the addition of nearly 10 million new member cardholders since last year, bringing the count to 138.8 million at the end of the period.

Millerchip said revenue from the recent membership fee increase — the first price hike in 7 years — "doesn't have much impact yet" and that US and Canadian members are renewing at a rate of 92.8%.

With respect to potential tariffs, Millerchip said that "tariffs raise costs — that's not something that we see as a positive in general."

Still, he quoted his predecessor Richard Galanti in saying, "When it rains, it rains on everybody."

Millerchip said imported products represent a small percentage of what Costco sells. The company has several options to mitigate the impact of new import fees, he said, including pulling shipments earlier, negotiating with suppliers, or simply reconsidering whether an item is worth including in its assortment.

Shares of Costco were trading roughly flat in after-hours trading following the results.

If you are a Costco worker who wants to share your perspective, please contact Dominick via email or text/call/Signal at 646.768.4750. Responses will be kept confidential, and Business Insider strongly recommends using a personal email and a non-work device when reaching out

• Brittany Broski focuses on community over follower count for lasting influence.
• Broski rose to fame in 2019 with a viral kombucha video and now has millions of followers.
• What she thinks will last in a crowded influencer market is authenticity and reliability.

Social media star Brittany Broski says she has always leaned into building her community over worrying about her follower count.

"What do numbers really determine when you can buy followers, when you can buy a check mark now?" Broski told Business Insider.

"I think the real power comes from community, the people that you can bring together."

Broski, whose real name is Brittany Tomlinson, rose to fame in 2019 following a mega-viral moment in which she tasted kombucha for the first time.

She now has 7.5 million TikTok followers and over 2 million subscribers on YouTube.

Broski, 27, now also has two podcasts: Royal Court, where she interviews celebrities in a free-flowing format, and The Broski Report, where she muses on whatever she is thinking about that week.

She thinks that influencers who are authentic and build loyal communities online will have more staying power, even if that means those communities are niche.

The influencer gap

There's some debate over whether brands still prefer to work with micro-influencers after engagement became the pinnacle in the past few years.

Some surveys and experts think things are going backward, and superstars are being favored once more, leading smaller creators to feel pushed out.

Others, however, see creators with small but mighty audiences thriving again in the near future.

Ultimately, algorithms change, and what is popular today may not be tomorrow.

Broski's advice for creators is to lean into what makes them different.

Broski felt she had been "pigeonholed as a meme" at the start of her internet career as the "kombucha girl," and she wanted to distance herself from this as soon as possible.

Instead, she strived to "build out an identifiable brand."

Community and connection

Community, both on and offline, has always been important to Broski. She told BI that's one reason she partnered with White Claw this holiday season in a campaign that focuses on making quality time with friends and family.

On Broski's shows, she also strives to "share a human moment with people" rather than repeat the same questions celebs receive at press junkets.

"More than anything, people just want to be heard and seen and felt like they're known," she said.

In Royal Court, Broski often asks her guests, including Saoirse Ronan and Daisy Edgar-Jones, to "prove their worth to earn a spot on Lady Broski's coveted small council" and has them dress up in medieval costumes.

"I really like leaning into this sort of silly nature of, I'm going to make you wear a cape and a hat, and you're going to like it," she said. "You get to see that person's personality more than just, let's talk about your work."

Broski thinks what is going to last is "authenticity and reliability."

"Those two words are so overused and so bastardized, but it doesn't take away from the core meaning," she said.

Her advice to creators is that people want to watch someone they relate to, Broski said — someone who makes them think, "She's just like me."

"That's all people want," she said. "So don't overthink it."

The audience also just wants the people they watch to be themselves.

"That seems so cliché, but what else can you do?" Broski said. "If you try to be anyone else, you're doomed to fail."

• A bright spot on Lululemon's horizon was its robust growth in international markets.
• Its international sales increased 33% in Q3 of 2024, compared to 2% in the Americas.
• China, in particular, was a strong market for the brand this quarter.

Lululemon's robust growth in its international markets — particularly China — made up for its lackluster performance in the Americas.

The Vancouver-based activewear brand, known for selling $100 yoga pants, reported strong third-quarter sales in its stores abroad, with its international sales increasing 33% from a year ago.

CEO Calvin McDonald said on the Thursday earnings call that internationally, "momentum remains strong in all of our markets as we continue to see great acceptance of the Lululemon brand across the globe."

In mainland China, the company's net revenue increased 39% year-over-year, and comparable sales increased by 27%. China's net revenue was $318.3 million, compared to $228.6 million a year ago.

In its international markets outside China, Lululemon's net revenue increased 27% to $307.9 million, with comparable sales increasing 23% compared to the year before.

Lululemon now has 749 company-operated stores globally, compared to 686 the year before. This quarter, it opened six new stores in mainland China.

International growth has been a boon for Lululemon this year.

In August, the company reported second-quarter China net revenue of $314.2 million — up 34% from Q2 in 2023.

In this latest quarter, Lululemon said that its brand aligned with "Healthy China 2030," the Chinese government's plan for health and development.

Closer to home, its sales in the Americas fell flat, continuing last quarter's little annual growth. Its Americas net revenue increased by 2% to $1.8 billion. Comparable sales decreased by 2%.

The company expects to open 40 new stores in 2024, some of which will be in mainland China.

"And then, on the success of some of the markets with our franchise model, we'll be opening Denmark, Belgium, Turkey, and Czech Republic through our franchise model and partnerships," McDonald said on Thursday.

Representatives of Lululemon did not respond to BI's query, sent outside regular business hours, asking how many new outlets will be opened in China in 2024.

Martin Roll, a global business strategist and senior advisor at consulting giant McKinsey, told BI earlier this week that Lululemon's success in China could be attributed to the trend of consumers focusing on health and wellness in tough economic times.

"China is kind of waking up in terms of health," Roll said to BI, adding that consumers are catching up with health habits like yoga, gym, and physical welfare that North American consumers have followed for the last two decades.

Lululemon's stock price rose 9% in after-hours trading after it released its Q3 earnings. The company is down more than 30% this year.

• Dell reported $24.4 billion in revenue for its third quarter — a 10% year-on-year increase.
• Revenues jumped 34% in Dell's ISG division, which includes the company's AI operations.
• But a lower-than-expected fourth quarter outlook drove Dell's shares down 12% in premarket trading.

Dell reported third-quarter earnings on Tuesday that showed promising growth for its AI business, but forecast lower overall revenues than expected for the end of the year.

The company's third-quarter revenue rose 10% year over year to $24.4 billion but came in slightly under the $24.67 billion expected by analysts.

Earnings per share were up from $2.06 to $2.15.

The biggest success story came from Dell's Infrastructure Solutions Group, which includes sales of AI servers, storage, and other network capabilities.

ISG revenues reached a record-high $11.4 billion during the quarter, marking a 34% year-on-year increase. Within the division, server and networking revenue jumped 58% year over year to reach $7.4 billion.

"AI is a robust opportunity for us with no signs of slowing down," said Jeff Clarke, Dell's vice chairman and chief operating officer, in a press release.

"Interest in our portfolio is at an all-time high, driving record AI server orders demand of $3.6 billion in Q3 and a pipeline that grew more than 50%, with growth across all customer types."

Despite Dell's strong positioning in AI-related technologies, the company's shares were down as much as 12% in premarket trading after its final quarter revenue outlook fell below Wall Street expectations.

Analysts had forecast an outlook of $25.5 billion, but Dell put its fourth-quarter revenue expectations between $24 billion and $25 billion.

Results from Dell's client solutions group division also dampened the tech company's results.

CSG revenue, which includes computer and PC sales to consumers and enterprises, declined by 1% year over year, bringing in $12.1 billion in revenue. Commercial client revenue grew by 3%, but the consumer side of CSG fell 18% year over year in the third quarter.

Dell shares have risen 86% in 2024 as the Texas-based computer maker positions itself as a leading provider of the tools and servers used by AI developers.

The company has put AI at the forefront of its growth strategy and has partnered with Nvidia to build an AI factory for Elon Musk's xAI.

Dell shipped $2.9 billion in AI servers during the quarter, and the company said that customers had booked $3.6 billion of future AI server orders.

• Kohl's said comparable sales plummeted 9.3% in the third quarter.
• Apparel and footwear sales struggled despite strong performances for Sephora and other categories.
• Growth in revenue from beauty sales at Sephora was one of the few rays of hope.

Kohl's continues to fight an uphill battle after sales tumbled following missed opportunities, a decline in footfall, and an overreliance on its partnership with Sephora.

Comparable sales at the department store chain fell 9.3% in the three months to November 2, which CEO Tom Kingsbury called "frankly disappointing" despite attempts to improve its products, strategy, and in-store experiences.

Sales remained soft in apparel and footwear despite strong performances for the Sephora, home decor, gifting, and impulse categories.

"We are not satisfied with our performance and are taking aggressive action to reverse the sales declines," he said.

Net income fell to $22 million for the third quarter, down from $59 million for the same period last year.

Kohl's now expects full-year comparable sales to be 6% to 7% lower compared with 2023.

Shares closed down 17% on Tuesday, bringing the decline this year to 45% and valuing the company at less than $1.6 billion.

Earlier this week Kohl's said Kingsbury would step down on January 15 after two years in the role. He will be replaced by retail veteran Ashley Buchanan.

Investing in key growth categories had a ricochet effect, leading to a 20% drop in inventory for private brands, Kingsbury said. "Not having the appropriate level of private brands hurt our ability to serve our customers."

The decision to pull back on fine jewelry to focus on Sephora, which now has about 1,050 concessions in Kohl's locations under a partnership that began in 2021, has also had an impact.

"As we introduced Sephora Shops into our stores, the fine jewelry business was largely displaced which resulted in a persistent headwind to our sales performance for many periods," Kinsbury said.

While the partnership is one of the few bright spots in the quarter, with total beauty sales up 15% in the quarter, it could mean Kohl's missed opportunities to capitalize on a hot category.

Claudia D'Arpizio, senior partner and global head of fashion and luxury at the consultancy Bain, told Business Insider that jewelry has been the "most resilient category" for the luxury goods industry over the past year.

Jewelry, along with beauty and fragrance, are affordable luxury categories particularly in demand with younger customers who have been underserved by luxury players in recent years, D'Arpizio said.

With launch of its Mate 70 and foldable Mate X6 smartphones, Huawei unveiled its latest mobile OS that it says no longer uses any Android open-source code, Bloomberg reported. HarmonyOS Next was supposedly built entirely in-house as part of Huawei's plans to do build a platform entirely free of major US tech sources, both for hardware and software. 

The Mate 70 series arrives in China on December 4 as follow up to the Mate 60. The latter model was also significant as it was the first Huawei smartphone to use a processor that was fully made in China, showing the company could get around US trade restrictions. However, Huawei will be limited to 7-nanometer tech for the next couple of years, while rival Apple is getting ready to move to 2-nanometer chips. 

Having in-house chips and software has long been Huawei's aim. The company first announced its own operating system way back in 2012, anticipating that partners like Google "won't let us use their system[s] one day." Seven years later the company confirmed that it did have a homemade operating system later revealed as HarmonyOS. That still used a lot of open-source Android code, but Huawei says the latest version is fully Android-free. 

Despite the company's claims of in-house chip manufacturing, it was discovered recently that TSMC chips were possibly shipped illegally to Huawei via a third-party company. The US imposed trade restrictions on Huawei in the first place after it tried to steal trade secrets from T-Mobile and bypass Iran sanctions. 

Huawei said that the new OS still needs several months of refinement to improve the user experience, but the aim is to install it on all future smartphones. The Mate 70 models will start at $760 for the 6.7-inch edition and go up for the pro models, with Huawei promising a 40 percent performance bump, partially due to the new OS.

• Nvidia beat forecasts again in its third-quarter results on Wednesday.
• CEO Jensen Huang said more Blackwell chips will be delivered this quarter than previously estimated.
• One analyst says some investors are concerned about a possible slowdown in future growth.

Nvidia delivered another strong set of quarterly results after the bell on Wednesday, beating estimates. Here's what analysts are saying about the world's most valuable company.

Wedbush analysts, including Dan Ives, issued another typically bullish note on Thursday:

"In another earnings performance for the ages Nvidia delivered a $2 billion top-line beat with $35 billion of sales showing a $5 billion sequential increase driven by flagship data center sales. We would characterize results as another earnings press release from Nvidia that should be framed and hung in the Louvre given these eye popping results and unprecedented growth from the Godfather of AI Jensen and Nvidia.

"The LeBron of chip releases, next generation Blackwell appears to ramping even faster than expected with NO overheating issues and appears to be on a massive demand trajectory ahead of the Street that our Wedbush Global Tech Team is tracking very closely throughout the Asia supply chain."

Konstantin Oldenburger at CMC Markets said Nvidia had exceeded forecasts again, but some question marks remained.

"What stuck in people's minds was the possibility of a slowdown in future growth. The gross margin, which previously only knew one direction — up — to a whopping 75% of revenue, is expected to fall to 'only' 73% in the current quarter.

"Even if the competition can only dream of such figures, investors, who have been accustomed to success, now fear an end to Nvidia's growth story. Whether the fear is justified will become clear when the new chip generation Blackwell is delivered in the coming months," he wrote.

Deutsche Bank analysts said the results drew a "tepid reaction" because its guidance "failed to match some of the loftiest expectations."

They wrote in a note that third-quarter sales came in at $35.1 billion, above the $33.2 billion estimate. However, the fourth-quarter sales guidance was $37.5 billion "was 'only' a touch above the average analyst estimate of $37.1 billion."

"Overall it was deemed to be a slightly underwhelming outcome," they added.

Dan Coatsworth at AJ Bell said Nvidia had again posted blockbuster growth. "What's troubled investors this time was a quarter-on-quarter decline in gross margins, with guidance for them to fall further in the coming quarter, and weaker than expected forward guidance for revenue.

"Investors have enjoyed stellar share price gains from Nvidia over the past two years and that's made them think it is invincible. In reality, a small decline in margins is not a reason to panic, particularly when they are still over 70% which many companies could only dream of. Nvidia is confident margins will rebound as production volumes ramp up for its Blackwell chips."

HSBC analysts wrote in a note that they expect "significant" earnings upside for the 2026 financial year despite gross margin pressure.

Stephen Yiu, who manages the $1.4 billion London-based Blue Whale growth fund, invested 10% of the fund — the limit for any one stock. He told Bloomberg TV he wished he could have bought more Nvidia stock because he's so bullish on AI infrastructure.

"We need to believe in how AI is going to change the world in terms of our day-to-day," he said. "Nvidia remains the center of that AI transformation."

Cloud giant Snowflake has agreed to acquire Datavolo, a data pipeline management company, for an undisclosed sum. Snowflake unveiled the deal at the close of the market bell on Wednesday, when it also announced its Q3 2025 earnings. The purchase hasn’t yet closed, and it’s subject to customary closing conditions, Snowflake noted in a release. […]

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• Target shares dropped sharply after its third-quarter earnings missed Wall Street estimates.
• The retailer cut its full-year financial guidance and reported sales growth of just 0.3%.
• CEO Brian Cornell said the retailer faces "unique challenges and cost pressures."

Target shares plunged as much as 22% Wednesday after the retailer posted disappointing third-quarter earnings and lowered its financial guidance for the year.

The Minneapolis-based retailer reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.85, down just under 12% year-over-year. Analysts had expected earnings per share of around $2.30.

"When we assess the consumer and macro environment, we're seeing many of the same themes that have defined the environment for some time," CEO Brian Cornell told investors on the earnings call. "Consumers tell us their budgets remain stretched, and they're shopping carefully."

Target has struggled to boost discretionary sales as consumers across the country are spending less money on non-essential items.

Revenue was lower than expected at $25.7 billion, compared to Wall Street forecasts of $25.9 billion, up 1.1% compared to the same period in 2023. Store comparable sales declined 1.9%, offset by growth online.

"Consumers are still spending, but they're focused more on essentials and have become far pickier about discretionary products and have cut back on the number of impulse purchases," GlobalData retail analyst Neil Saunders said in a note. "All these things undermine the Target model which partly relies on a robust consumer who is comfortable loading their cart with things that they want, but do not absolutely need."

In the release, Target also cut its full-year financial guidance, saying it expects earnings per share of between $8.30 and $8.90. At its second-quarter earnings in August, the retailer said it expected full-year EPS of between $9 and $9.70.

Cornell also noted "unique challenges and cost pressures" that weighed on the quarter's profitability, including the East and Gulf Coast port strikes, two hurricanes, and unseasonably warm weather.

Alongside lower-than-expected EPS, Target's profit fell 12.1%, down to $854 million compared to $971 million in the third quarter of 2023.

One bright spot for the company was a 10.8% boost in digital transactions, which helped to deliver the slow rise in overall sales, partially driven by the company's Circle 360 loyalty program.

The company said it added 3 million new members in the quarter, and saw an additional 10 million digital transactions during the period.

As of Wednesday morning, Target's share price was down around 15% in 2024 so far, lagging far behind retailers like Walmart and Costco, which have risen 62% and 42% this year, respectively.