Former Sears CEO gives holiday predictions

December 3, 2013

Former Sears Canada chairman and CEO Mark Cohen, currently a professor at Columbia Business School, has released a set of predictions for the retail industry…

Is there a strategy for customer loyalty?

by Mike Wittenstein — Customer Experience and Service Designer, Storyminers

We often think of customer loyalty as something that the customer does or is responsible for to the business. But, real loyalty begins when the business is…

Cyber Monday online sales up 20.6 percent over 2012

December 3, 2013

U.S. shoppers made Cyber Monday the biggest online shopping day in history with a 20.6 percent increase in online sales, according to the latest cloud-based…

Survey says shoppers were disappointed with Black Friday this year

December 2, 2013

According to the Christmas & Holiday Shopping Forecast released today by America's Research Group and Inmar, of those who shopped Black Friday weekend…

Hispanics shop more online than average Web user, shop earlier in holiday season

December 2, 2013

Experian Marketing Services, a provider of integrated consumer insights, targeting and cross-channel marketing, has released a new Hispanic shopping analysis…

Shared interests: The rise of collaborative consumption

by Doug Stephens — President, Retail Prophet Consulting

Believe it or not, the average power drill is used for a total of 15 minutes over the course of its lifetime. And that’s not unusual. Our cars, many household…

ShopperTrak: Store traffic, sales up on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday

December 2, 2013

With the allure of deep discounts, "door-buster" promotions and extended store hours, shoppers visited more stores and spent more money across the days of…

NRF: Number of Thanksgiving shoppers rose by 2M

December 2, 2013

More than 141 million unique shoppers have already or will have shopped by the end of the big Thanksgiving weekend, up from 139 million over the same time…

The one word you need to know when it comes to holiday returns

by Micah Solomon — president, four aces inc

What’s the right way to handle holiday returns? Cheerfully.

Retail Roundtable: Amazon and USPS Sunday shipping

by James Bickers — Editor, Networld Alliance

Our experts weigh in on possible ramifications of this very big retail partnership.

Deloitte: Fewer consumers say they will shop on either Thanksgiving or Black Friday

November 27, 2013

According to a new Deloitte survey of consumers' Thanksgiving week shopping plans, 53 percent of consumers plan to head online or to the stores this…

For beloved brands like Ikea and Amazon, simplicity is in the details

by Bryan Pearson — President, LoyaltyOne

You might not think umlauts, Big Macs and best sellers have a lot in common, but when it comes to brand perception they do. The commonality is simplicity, and…

E-commerce holiday revenue up 18 percent over 2012

November 27, 2013

Custora, a provider of e-commerce marketing analytics software, has released its Custora E-Commerce Pulse, a real-time dashboard providing U.S. e-commerce key…

Retail digital ad spending to reach record levels in 2013

November 27, 2013

Bolstered by growing e-commerce sales and time spent across digital channels, the U.S. retail industry will grow its digital ad spending more rapidly this year…

A retailer's Thanksgiving prayer

by Dale Furtwengler — President, Furtwengler & Associates, P.C.

With Black Friday grabbing more headlines than the Thanksgiving holiday itself, I thought it would be worthwhile examining what a retailer's prayer would…

Two-thirds of holiday shoppers say rewards points will influence where they buy

November 26, 2013

One-third of holiday shoppers will be buying gifts for themselves this year, while spending the rest of the budget on friends and family. This is one of the…

Holiday creep: One-fourth of Black Friday shoppers plan to start on Thanksgiving evening

November 26, 2013

Online shopping site PriceGrabber has released results of its 2013 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Survey, revealing trends for one of the most competitive…

1 in 4 consumers will spend at least half of the workday shopping online on Cyber Monday

November 25, 2013

Are you planning to get some holiday shopping done at work on Cyber Monday? If so, you are not alone. According to recent surveys by digital coupon destination…

Seven of the top 10 activities customers perform on their cell phones are shopping-related

November 25, 2013

Shopping is one of the top uses of mobile technology, and seven of the top 10 activities customers perform on their cell phones are shopping related. At the…

Why customer loyalty isn't a 10-step process

Many have tried, but you can't develop a simple 10-step list for building loyalty.