Consumer Attitudes & Behavior

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.

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 -- 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.

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 Francisco – In-store sales mostly showed small improvements in December 2014 compared to the prior year. According to the latest U.S. Retail Benchmarks report from in-store analytics provider Euclid, there was 0.6% year-over-year growth in general merchandise, apparel, furniture and other retail sales and a 1.2% increase in clothing and apparel sales, but a 1.5% decline in general merchandise sales.

Here are some of Euclid’s other top findings in its December report around shopper behavior metrics:

Retailers will hear a lot about innovation at the National Retail Federation convention this year, but the most innovative thing many will see is the trade group’s latest effort to elevate the industry’s profile.

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.