Four ways retailers can reach out for last-minute holiday sales

by James Bickers — Editor, Networld Alliance

Location-based marketing, personal touch among the ways stores can squeeze every sale out of the season.

Most standard shipping deadlines for Christmas delivery expiring this week

December 12, 2010

Santa may only need one night to do his job, but online retailers need a little more time to get theirs done. According to Shop.org's eHoliday Survey…

Customers Only Care About Price

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

 Conventional wisdom or...

NRF: Six out of 10 holiday shoppers giving gift receipts with presents

December 8, 2010

Gift receipts are quickly becoming a standard for holiday shoppers, which is great news for retailers who typically see long lines of people waiting to return…

Survey: Holiday shoppers divided over bargains

December 8, 2010

The third wave of StrategyOne's Annual Holiday Shopping Index — examining the "Bricks vs. Clicks" divide — finds that 74 percent of Americans feel that the…

Survey: Smart phones are changing behavior for bargain-hunters

Couponing could become a more important part of the retail experience as smart phones proliferate.

Online shoppers more satisfied with price this holiday season

December 6, 2010

ForeSee Results' weekly benchmark of shopper satisfaction with online retailers during the holidays suggests that holiday shoppers are more satisfied with…

Study: 60 percent of consumers follow a brand via social media, mostly for coupons or promotions

December 6, 2010

Empathica Inc., a provider of customer experience management (CEM) solutions, has announced the results of its latest Empathica Consumer Insights research.

How To Politely Say, "You Suck" to a Retailer

by Bob Phibbs — CEO, The Retail Doctor

When you don't get a word from an employee at a store, call them on it with this simple tool to improve their customer service. 

The Best Price

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

Do you have the best price?Are you sure?I recently saw an ad that said "We offer the best...at the best price." What does that mean?  What is the best price?

A View into Your Holiday Morning

by Lisa Biank Fasig — Director, JZMcBride and Associates

Regardless of the Black Friday hype, the holiday shopping season still has a long way to go. After all, the Saturday before Christmas is often the busiest…

IDC report lays out the importance of the multichannel experience

November 30, 2010

Hybris, a multichannel commerce software vendor, has announced the findings of research it has commissioned from IDC looking at how retailers can improve their…

Deploying social media to cultivate customer loyalty

Average spending on social media to achieve loyalty increased by 193 percent over the past year.

Holiday Shopping Dilemma

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

 ...when to buy.

Holiday Shopping Index: Most consumers don't know what they're buying this year

November 28, 2010

With the traditional holiday shopping season just beginning, retail stores and online merchants are angling to capture their share of consumer spending.

Black Friday weekend sees bigger crowds, $45 billion in spending

With one of the biggest shopping days of the year under their belts, retailers have reason to smile.

More than 106 million Americans to shop on Cyber Monday

November 27, 2010

Looking to get the biggest bang for their buck this holiday season, a record number of Americas will hit retailers’ websites this Cyber Monday to take…

Nine in ten retailers planning Cyber Monday promotions

November 21, 2010

Five years after the phrase "Cyber Monday" was coined, retailers have even bigger plans for the Monday after Thanksgiving. According to Shop.org’s eHoliday…

Survey: Shoppers do not want to hear Christmas music before December

November 18, 2010

The vast majority of shoppers (73 percent) do not want to hear festive songs in stores before December, according to a study released by in-store media…

Research shows U.K. shoppers lack brand loyalty to retailers

November 18, 2010

Fifty-nine percent of U.K. shoppers have not decided on the brand they will purchase before researching or buying a product online. Consumers are also…