Consumer Attitudes & Behavior

New York City -- Online sales rose 22.4% on Christmas Day, according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, which tracks more than 1 million e-commerce transactions a day from 500 U.S. retailers.

The increase was higher than the 16.4% increase in 2011, and provided one bright spot in what has proven so far to be a lackluster holiday shopping season.

Amazon.com, LLBean.com and QVC.com were the top three retailers on ForeSee’s Annual Holiday E-Retail Satisfaction survey.

Woodcliff Lake, N.J. -- Seventy-four percent of workers report they are concerned that the U.S. fiscal cliff will lead to layoffs, according to a survey released Thursday by career transition and talent development consulting firm Lee Hecht Harrison.

In December, the firm surveyed more than 200 workers throughout the U.S. via an online poll asking, “Are you concerned that the U.S. fiscal cliff will lead to layoffs in your organization?” The results were as follows:
Very much 40%; Moderately 22%; 
Slightly 12%; Not at all 26%.

Ann Arbor, Mich. -- Amazon remains at the head of the class in terms of customer service, according to the annual Holiday E-Retail Satisfaction Index released Thursday by customer experience analytics firm ForeSee.

Chicago -- A report issued Thursday by ShopperTrak found that last-minute shopping activity drove large increases in both retail sales and foot traffic last week.
ShopperTrak reported that for the week ending Dec. 22, sales increased 39.1% and traffic increased 32% compared to the previous week.

Compared to the same week last year, however, retail sales declined 2.5% and foot traffic declined 3.3%.

Washington, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation on Wednesday was quick to shine a more positive light on holiday sales 2012, suggesting that reports of the worst holiday results since 2008 are not correct.

Matthew Shay, president of the NRF, said he's still predicting a 4.1% increase. "We're still pretty optimistic it's going to be a solid year," Shay said Wednesday on CNBC’s "Squawk on the Street." "We're still going to have year-over-year growth" of 4.1%. But that is down from 5.6% growth last year.

Washington, D.C. -- A report issued Thursday by the Conference Board said that its consumer confidence index fell sharply in December to 65.1 from 75.1 in November, impacted by fears of tax increases and impending government spending cuts.

The fall in confidence is the second straight decline and the lowest level since August.

The survey showed that consumers are slightly more optimistic about current business conditions and hiring. But their outlook for the next six months deteriorated to its lowest level since 2011.

Generally speaking, I’m not big on trend forecasts. Maybe it’s because there are so many of them, particularly at this time of the year. They all seem to blend together into a mass of predictions and statistics.

WASHINGTON — The National Retail Federation welcomed the House vote on legislation intended to avoid middle-class tax increases in the fiscal cliff, saying progress on the issue is critically important.

Greek yogurt is all the rage in the dairy aisle and General Mill’s Yoplait brand of the popular product and other new items made meaningful contribution to the company’s second quarter sales.