Digital Marketing

The beginning of summer didn't give a boost to consumer spending as retail sales fell for the second straight month.   Retail sales unexpectedly slipped 0.1% in June after being unchanged in May. Sales were up 3.2% unadjusted from June 2016, according to the National Retail Federation, and 3.9% on a three-month moving average year-over-year. (The numbers exclude automobiles, gasoline stations and restaurants.)   

Walmart’s technology incubator — called Store No. 8 — is on the hunt for cutting edge virtual reality (VR) solutions.   

Amazon's third annual shopping event was a success in the eyes of consumers this year, according to InfoScout and Market Track’s survey of shoppers on Prime Day.   

Retailers who wait until late summer this year to launch back-to-school deals are only hurting themselves, because early shoppers will spend more than late starters.    That's according to Deloitte's "2017 Back-to-School Survey," which also detected a big shift in where back-to-school will be shopping this year. One thing that hasn't changed: In-store still prevails.   

Amazon’s third annual Prime Day was its biggest shopping event yet — and the biggest day in its history for signing up new Prime members.  

Early indications are that competitors didn't give Amazon much competition price wise Prime Day.   The third annual shopping extravaganza, which kicked off on July 10 at 6 pm PST and was scheduled to run until the wee hours of the morning of July 12, was originally introduced as a way to reward existing Prime shoppers and attract new ones. With promises of new deals every five minutes, the company reported on Tuesday that customers worldwide are shopping at “record levels,” according to CNBC.  

Amazon hasn't make it to the head of the class for this year's back-to-school shopping season.   Among young U.S. shoppers (ages 18-24), 64% said they will buy back-to-school items from Target and Walmart, respectively, edging out Amazon (50%). This is according to a new consumer survey from the retail app platform, Branding Brand.  

Even back-to-school shopping is not what it once was.    U.S. students may still go back to school around the same general time each year, but the timing of BTS shopping has changed in recent years, becoming less consistent and less predictable. That's according to the Back-to-School report from The NPD Group, which finds that BTS shopping is starting earlier and lasting longer.