It may be a new year, but we’re still catching up on what happened during the last week of 2025. Here’s everything you may have missed.

2018 was a banner year for US holiday retail sales across both brick-and-mortar and ecommerce. But with more economic uncertainty ahead, the 2019 holiday season is not shaping up to be quite as strong.

With store closures and bankruptcies—Toys 'R' Us, Sears and Brookstone, to name a few—showing no signs of letting up, it raises the question of what sets a successful retailer apart from the rest.

The consumer retail economy, buttressed by low unemployment and rising wages, is experiencing its best growth since 2011. And despite the 2018 demise of old-retail stalwarts like Sears and Toys "R" Us, recent gains at retail aren’t only flowing in the direction of digital – although they do increasingly bear hallmarks of its influence.

Store closures are the hallmark of the so-called retail apocalypse, but the demise of brick-and-mortar locations might be more apparent to industry watchers. The average consumer doesn't always pay attention—unless a particular store meant something to them.

In the latest episode of eMarketer's "Behind the Numbers" podcast, analyst Andrew Lipsman discusses the failure of Sears, and what its long decline says about the retail sector as a whole.

News this week of Sears filing for bankruptcy protection wasn't exactly a shock to anyone. According to a new Adthena study that looked into how digital commerce competition affected Sears, the retailer fared poorly compared with its counterparts.

Doom and gloom often surrounds discussion of brick-and-mortar retail. It's hard not to see the demise of traditional stores like Sears and Toys 'R' Us as bellwethers for the industry. Many stores are closing locations but is it as dire as it seems on the surface?

Both companies announced shrinking brand portfolios this week, but the factors that necessitated these closures weren't exactly the same. Sears Holdings has been struggling for some time, while Lowe's continues to lag behind The Home Depot.