Retail Roundup: Holiday Retail Results, Kira Plastinina Files for Bankruptcy, More

63 percent of retailers see holiday sales increase -- Although the holiday season was widely predicted to be among the worst on record, many retailers actually reported a year-over-year rise in sales from Nov. 1 through Dec. 21. About 63 percent of retailers saw holiday sales climb, with mid-sized and multi-channel retailers boasting the best performances, according to a Forrester Research Inc. study. Still, other studies have amassed darker results: Thomson Reuters compiled analysts' estimates for 35 chains, forecasting an average decline of 1.1 percent in December sales. [Source: internetretailer and WSJ]

Kira Plastinina files for bankruptcy, owes $54 million -- KP Fashion Co., the company that handles the U.S. business of Russian teenage "fashion designer" Kira Plastinina, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, citing more than $54 million in debts owed to more than 100 creditors, including AT&T and the Santa Monica Police Department. The label's garments are designed by 16-year-old Plastinina, who brought her style to the States when she opened a dozen ill-fated U.S. stores -- most of which are scheduled to close. The company listed $9.7 million in assets in the Dec. 31 filing. Click here for BNET's first reports of KP's financial woes. [Source: Heard on the Runway]

Hundreds of UK retailers to collapse in coming months -- Retail insolvencies are expected to boom in the UK over the next several months as store owners fail to gather their footing after a rocky holiday season. Data specialist Experian predicts that 440 British retailers will collapse before the end of April, a drastic increase from the 367 stores that fell during the same time period in 2008. "The boost in numbers was driven by massive unprecedented discounting all at the expense of retailer margins," said Jonathan de Mello, director of retail consultancy at Experian. [Source: The Independent]

Consumers rush to return goods, gifts as holiday season ends -- Shoppers are expected to return an unprecedented number of gifts and purchases this year as the holiday magic wears off and consumers stare into a future of mounting expenses. Shoppers tempted by deep discounts to buy things for themselves or others are concluding that they weren't really in love with the purchase and exchanging it for cash, says Richard Jaffe, a retail analyst at Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Some stores are even watching more cash come out of their register than go into it. "We'll have $5,000 in sales and $7,000 in returns [in a day]," said a manager at a Bebe clothing store in San Francisco. [Source: WSJ]