NRF

Washington, D.C. -- Retail industry sales (which exclude automobiles, gas stations, and restaurants) will increase 3.4%, down slightly from 4.2% in 2012 and 5.8% in 2011, according to the National Retail Federation’s 2013 economic forecast.

The lukewarm forecast, released Monday, comes on the heels of a holiday season that went head-to-head with Washington’s political wrangling over fiscal concerns, shifting consumers’ spending plans downward. In the end, holiday sales in 2012 grew 3.0%.

New York -- From solutions having to do with enterprise business intelligence to mobility, there were a host of retail technology deployments announced at the National Retail Federation’s 102nd Annual Convention & Expo. Here is a quick recap of some key applications:

By Mike Troy

Mobile, social, solution, cloud, big data, SaaS, optimize and engage. It was impossible to have a conversation at the National Retail Federation convention in New York without hearing these words — a lot.

Walmart U.S. president and CEO Bill Simon isn’t running for elected office, but he sure sounded like a politician earlier this week as he laid out a three-tiered plan the retail industry can implement to restore U.S. economic growth.

The first indication that something big was brewing with Walmart on the domestic sourcing front came last week.

That’s when Walmart announced internally at that SVP of home, Michelle Gloeckler, would assume additional responsibilities for a new U.S. sourcing and manufacturing initiative. Reporting to Gloeckler is Greg Hall who was named vp of U.S. sourcing and manufacturing after previously serving as vp of marketing for Walmart.com.

New York -- Walmart plans to significantly boost its sourcing from domestic suppliers over the next decade. The plan was announced during an address by Bill Simon, Walmart U.S. president and CEO, at the National Retail Federation's annual convention in New York. Simon also announced the company is committed to helping part-time associates who want to be full time, make that transition.

DAYTON, Ohio — Stratacache, a leading provider of scalable, high-performance digital signs, content distribution and video acceleration technologies, has unveiled a Web caching solution at the National Retail Federation's Annual Convention and Expo.

Called Retail Cache, the solution enhances Web browsing, so customers can use in-store tablets to check out catalogs or order out-of-stock merchandise, without encountering slow, unreliable Internet connectivity.

New York -- Total holiday retail sales increased 3% to $579.8 billion, below the National Retail Federation s projected forecast of 4.1%. Non-store holiday sales grew 11%, below the 12% growth forecast by Shop.org. (The NRF sales figures exclude automobiles, gas stations and restaurants.)

“For over six months, we’ve been saying that the fiscal cliff and economic uncertainty could impact holiday sales. As the number shows, these issues had a visible impact on consumer spending this holiday season,” said Matthew Shay, CEO, NRF.