Budgets/Spending/Market Size

Shoppers in the United States plan on spending an average of $646 on gifts this holiday season, representing an 11% increase over the $582 they planned to spend, on average, in 2012, according to Accenture’s annual holiday shopping survey. The forecast uptick is more optimistic than other holiday surveys released to date.

Goodlettsville, Tenn. -- Dollar General Corp. has opened its 11,000 store, marking itself as the retailer with the most stores in the United States.

The st0re is located in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Dollar General said it anticipates opening 650 new stores in 2013. The company plans to create 6,000 new jobs in 2013.

Fort Worth, Texas – RadioShack Corporation is reportedly planning to raise funds before the end of this year to gain the confidence of suppliers in its turnaround effort. According to Bloomberg, RadioShack currently has enough liquidity to operate through 2014 but intends to raise additional cash through financing.

San Francisco – Twitter has officially filed for an IPO with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The social network reported a net loss of $79.4 million, down 38% from the previous year, on revenue of $316.9 million in 2012, a 198% increase from 2011.

In addition, Twitter said in the filing it has 215 million members who send 500 million tweets per day.

Borrowers have more flexiblity, but also face more complex marketplace

For mid-size retail companies — those with anywhere from $10 million to $1 billion in revenue — the combination of today’s steady growth and affordable capital is rare indeed. There is also ample liquidity as traditional middle-market lenders are being joined by institutional investors with deep pockets and a strong desire to participate in these loans. What’s more, new products are available that give borrowers more flexibility. In short, it’s a near ideal environment for midsize company borrowers.

Hudson’s Bay measures incremental ROI of printed offers

Despite the digitization of most customer-facing communication, printed flyers are still an important promotional vehicle for many retailers. By analyzing terabytes of offer-, store- and item-level sales data for products promoted in its weekly flyers, Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) is determining the true incremental return on printed promotions and optimizing the efficiency and effectiveness of its flyer-based marketing efforts for its Hudson’s Bay stores.

Washington, D.C. – The National Retail Federation’s Shop.org expects holiday sales to grow between 13%-15% from last holiday season to as much as $82 billion.

“Online and mobile continue to be a leading area of growth for retailers. In this economy savvy, cost-conscious consumers go to the web to do their research and get the best bang for their buck,” said NRF president and CEO Matthew Shay.

The National Retail Federation showed its Christmas spirit on Thursday by releasing a holiday forecast that calls for sales to increase 3.9% to $602 billion and assumes the President and Congress will be able to resolve their differences.

NRF’s forecasted growth rate of 3.9% is a solid figure and well above the 3.3% average growth rate of the past 10 years and ahead of last year’s 3.5% gain. In addition, the trade group’s Shop.org digital division forecast that online sales would grow between 13% and 15% to roughly $82 billion.