Retail Briefs

Southern regional department store chain Belk has named Kathy Bufano president of merchandising and marketing, effective Jan. 17. She will report to H.W. McKay Belk, president and chief merchandising officer of 303-store Belk. Most recently ceo of apparel specialty chain Vanity Shops (Fargo, N.D.), Bufano has also worked in leading merchandising posts at Sears, Dress Barn, Macy's East and Lord & Taylor.

Overstock.com co-founder Jason Lindsey resigned as director, president and coo effective Dec. 31, 2007, but will maintain a part-time role working on special projects.

Lindsey actually retired from the company once before, but returned during a troubled time "and has played a decisive role getting it back on track," said chairman and ceo Patrick Byrne. "Now that it is back in a solid trailing-12-month, cash-flow-positive position, he wishes to return to our previous arrangement."

Online holiday spending jumped 21% between Thanksgiving and Christmas, said tracker comScore inc. For the period extended through Dec. 27 to encompass the post-holiday spend, year-over-year sales jumped 19% to $28 billion, the service reported.

"Even as the holiday shopping season winds down after Christmas, we continue to see some relatively strong online spending days," said chairman Gian Fulgoni. "For example, the day after Christmas saw online sales of $545 million, more than double the sales on the same day last year."