Consumer Attitudes & Behavior

Walmart’s foes are at it again this holiday season, looking to disparage the company with misinformation and publicity stunts that harm the workers the organization claims to help.

A familiar name factors heavily into the online holiday shopping plans of consumers.

Outlet malls are often associated with not only appealing deals on name-brand products, but also with driving long distances to get to the far-flung locations where outlets have traditionally been located.

But that is all changing — and changing fast.

A familiar name factors heavily into the online holiday shopping plans of consumers.

According to a new poll from Reuters and Ipsos, 51% of consumers plan to do most or all of their online holiday shopping at Amazon.com. This dwarfs the next-most-popular specific retailer, Walmart, favored by 16%.

Other traditional and online retailers combined for the second-highest response of 18%. Other popular retailers with low responses include Target (3%) and Macys (2%).

It appears that Abercrombie & Fitch Co. is starting to making progress in its turnaround efforts.

Helped by a less promotional stance and cost cuts, the teen retailer saw its profit more than double in its third quarter as it beat expectations. But similar to many other retailers, Abercrombie struck a cautious note and said it expects fourth-quarter same-store sales to be about flat.

Retailers looking to satisfy customers this holiday season need to be sure all channels are aligned and working properly.

Urban Outfitters Inc. will spend less than $20 million on its acquisition of Vetri Family Restaurant group, which owns the well-regarded Pizzeria Vetri chain, Bloomberg reported. The acquisition comes as consumers are spending more on “experiences” rather than clothing. “We believe that we do experiences really well and know our customer very well, and we have a lot of history in growing brands organically,” Urban Outfitters CFO Frank Conforti told Bloomberg.

EMV adoption by consumers is on the rise, even as merchants are struggling to catch up.

Those are among the key findings of a survey by Ingenico Group, which found that 60% of U.S. cardholders have received EMV cards from their banks/card issuers.

Out of the U.S. cardholders who have both EMV and magstripe cards, 54% prefer magstripe cards over EMV cards, with 44% attributing their preference to habit.

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