NRF

New York City -- Microsoft Corp. announced that Bill Gonzalez, general manager of its worldwide distribution and services sector, has been elected to the associate member advisory council for the board of directors of the National Retail Federation. The announcement was made at the NRF Annual Convention & EXPO in New York.

Retailers at NRF’s convention this week got a citing of Bill Fields, a former Walmart executive who spent 25 years with the company serving in various roles from 1971 to 1996. Today Fields is chairman of a group called China Horizon, a joint venture with the Chinese postal service charged with helping to develop retail and consumption in rural China, and it was the topic of China that Fields addressed during the super session: “Making the retail business dynamic,” sponsored by Microsoft.

Plano, Texas -- J.C. Penney announced that, for the third consecutive year, it was ranked No. 1 among department store retailers in the Customers' Choice survey released by the NRF Foundation and American Express.

PLANO, Texas - JCPenney announced that, for the third consecutive year, it was ranked number one among department store retailers in the Customers' Choice survey released by the NRF Foundation and American Express.

More than one-third of the world’s 250 largest retailers suffered a decline in sales in fiscal 2009 (encompasses June 2009 through June 2010), according to the Global Powers of Retailing 2011 report, whose results were revealed at the National Retail Federation’s Annual Convention & Expo in New York City. The annual report, from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, identifies the largest 250 retailers around the world, provides an outlook for the global economy and an analysis of market capitalization in the retail industry.

Zappos.com took top honors in the sixth annual NRF Foundation/American Express Customers' Choice Survey, whose results were released at the National Retail Federation's Annual Convention and Expo in New York City. The survey, conducted by BIGresearch, is designed to gauge consumer attitudes toward retailers' customer service and provide a list of the retailer that offer the best customer service (as judged by consumers).

The Top 10 retailers in the ranking were:

New York City -- A retail industry expert presented research Monday at the National Retail Federation convention in New York City that showed shoppers will continue to spend more this year, spurred by a slowly improving job market and an uptick in income.

However, Ira Kalish, director of global economics for Deloitte, added that enough shoppers are still struggling with their finances that any increase will be modest.

The use of mobile phones in retail is increasing dramatically, according to a survey released at the National Retail Federation’s Annual Convention & Expo in New York City. The study, conducted by ForeSee Results and entitled “Explosion in Mobile Retail Provides Huge Opportunity for Retailers,” found that shoppers are using mobile phones to access websites and apps more than ever before.