Consumer Attitudes & Behavior

Retailers already knew they had work to do to better meet online shoppers’ expectations, just maybe not as much as revealed by new research from IBM.

Washington, D.C. -- Total holiday sales, which include November and December sales, increased 4% to $616.1 billion, the highest since 2011, according to the National Retail Federation. The total was in line with NRF’s projected forecast of 4.1%. In addition, non-store holiday sales grew 6.8% to $101.9 billion.

Grapevine, Texas - GameStop Corp. reported declining total and same-store sales for the nine-week holiday 2014 period, despite solid growth in new software sales. Total global sales for the holiday period were $2.94 billion, a 6.7% decline compared to the 2013 holiday sales period.

Shoppers are ready to spend this spring thanks to a precipitous decline in gas prices and an expectation that prices will stay low.

A new study suggests that most Americans are optimistic about the economy, thanks to the continuing slide in gas prices. A survey of gas consumers found that 57% of Americans are optimistic, including nearly two-thirds (65%) of those ages 18-34.

Confident consumers stocked up on gifts and other merchandise over the 2014 holiday season, helping boost overall holiday retail sales to their highest level since 2011.

According to the National Retail Federation, December retail sales, which exclude automobiles, gas stations and restaurants, decreased 0.9% seasonally adjusted month-to-month, and 4.6% unadjusted year-over-year. The significant drop in gasoline prices in the month of December brought down much of the month-to-month growth.

New York -- As the use in-store mobile payment becomes more pervasive, consumers require increased education on the performance and ease of use of mobile pay services, a recent survey by Verifone of U.S. consumer attitudes suggested.

Sam’s Club is taking its efforts to help and recognize small businesses to a new level with a $700,000 grant to SCORE.

The American Small Business Championship through SCORE will award 102 small businesses, two in every state and the District of Columbia, for their sacrifice and dedication to the success of their business. The Small Business Champions will receive a $1,000 Sam's Club gift card, an all-expense-paid trip to a training event, SCORE mentoring for one year, and promotion throughout the year to showcase each Champion's story.

New York -- Retail spending growth for the holiday period totaled 3.2%, and Christmas Eve, not Black Friday, was the busiest spending day of the year. Those are just two of the findings in the First Data SpendTrend annual holiday wrap-up.

The report, which includes only card-based forms of payment, is based on analysis of over 400,000 retail merchant locations across the nation, from Nov. 1, 2014 through Jan. 4, 2015, and had processing activity with First Data for the same period during the previous year.  

San Jose, Calif. -- Despite some surprising showings over the holiday 2014 shopping season, a report by RetailNext said that overall traffic at brick-and-mortar stores dipped 7.1% for the Nov. 30-Jan. 3 shopping period.

The newly released Retail Performance Pulse also showed a 6.5% year-over-year decrease in sales.

Plano, Texas – It will not be a happy New Year for employees of some 40 J.C. Penney stores. The company on Thursday said that it plans to close approximately 40 stores, which represent less than 4% of its total store base, on or about April 4, 2015. The closures will affect about 2,250 employees.