Earnshaw's

Universal Partnerships & Licensing and Illumination Entertainment have formed a partnership with Thinkway Toys to create globally distributed toys based on the animated children's movie Despicable Me 2, which hits theaters this July 2013.

Thinkway will develop a variety of toys featuring the "Minions" and other key characters, including interactive toys, figures, plush, dolls, playsets, vehicles and role-play and novelty items. Products will hit shelves next summer.

Global brand management and brand licensing firm Joester Loria landed a deal with Eric Carle to represent The World of Eric Carle licensing program.

  With plans to expand the program-which includes Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar-in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Europe and Japan, Joester Loria will focus on key merchandising categories such as infant and toddler toys, apparel, and teacher's materials and supplies. 

For the 2012 back-to-school shopping season, Kohls and Vera Wang Group will launch Princess Vera Wang, a juniors contemporary lifestyle collection.

  The first collection, set to hit stores in August, will include apparel and jewelry. Plans to grow the juniors line into other categories are in the works. 

A recent report from Panjiva, a company that collects date on global trade, names Barbie as the top holiday import to the United States for a second year in a row.

From August to September, the months when a majority of holiday imports are received, the U.S. accepted a total of 2,598 shipments of Barbie products, a 13 percent increase from 2010. Most of the Barbie products were imported from Hong Kong and Indonesia. Barbie sales are increasing. Worldwide, gross sales were up 17 percent in the third quarter.

Claires Stores announced Friday that the companys CEO Eugene S. Kahn resigned.

Kahn had served as CEO since the chain went private in 2007 in a $3.1 billion takeover by private-equity firm Apollo Management LP. Claires Stores President James G. Conroy and Jay Friedman, president of Claire's North American Division, will immediately form an interim office of the CEO. 

Childrens Place Retail Stores Inc. lowered its fourth-quarter earning guidance citing aggressive markdowns and higher apparel costs, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Unseasonably warm weather forced the childrens specialty retailer to mark down winter clothing to clear out the inventory, said the companys chief executive Jane Elfers. She added that in 2012 the company will focus on e-commerce growth, better fashion, improved merchandise assortment in Canada and inventory management to drive sales and margin growth. 

Robar, Inc., a twenty-year veteran of the childrens clothing industry, has been merged into childrens fashion house Cutie Pie Baby.

Retail e-commerce spending for the first 42 days of the 2011 holiday season is up 15 percent year-over-year, for a total of $26.8 billion spent online, according to data released Wednesday by comScore. The most recent week of data (ending Dec. 11) reached a record $6.1 billion in online spending. The fastest growing online retail category was Digital Content & Subscriptions, followed by Jewelry & Watches, Consumer Electronics and Video Games and Computer Software. 

Toys"R"Us announced Thursday that its stores nationwide will remain open for 112 uninterrupted hours beginning at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 20 and continuing through 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve. The retail giant will also hold a two-day sale from Tuesday, Dec. 20 to Wednesday, Dec. 21.

A recent report from Panjiva, a company that collects date on global trade, names Barbie as the top holiday import to the United States for a second year in a row. From August to September, the months when a majority of holiday imports are received, the U.S. accepted a total of 2,598 shipments of Barbie products, a 13 percent increase from 2010. Most of the Barbie products were imported from Hong Kong and Indonesia. Barbie sales are increasing. Worldwide, gross sales were up 17 percent in the third quarter.