Consumer Attitudes & Behavior

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — As part of its 12 Days of Giving Facebook campaign, Walmart will distribute more than $1.5 million to 140 grant recipients in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., throughout the next 12 days.

The winning nonprofits were selected from more than 21,677 nominations submitted in November by Facebook users who felt compelled to enter and describe the community impact made by their favorite nonprofit organizations.

Online sales are up 13% so far this holiday season and approaching a record $27 billion, according to the latest tally from the digital measurement firm comScore.

From November 1 through December 7, comScore puts total online spending at $26.8 billion, up 13% from $23.7 billion during the comparable period last year. Last week saw spending on December, 3, 4 and 5 each surpass $1 billion, according to the firm. That brings the number of billion spending days to seven. The highest volume day so far was Cyber Monday when sales hit nearly $1.5 billion.

Online holiday sales continue to set new sales records, according to digital measurement firm comScore, and Walmart is presumably sharing in that growth given its site typically ranks second only to Amazon in terms of traffic.

Total U.S. Shopper Traffic in Retail Stores and Malls for November 2012

Shopper traffic in November increased as Black Friday weekend sales promotions — and the Veterans Day holiday earlier in the month — drew shoppers into retail stores.

As a result, the month saw an 18 percent increase in retail foot traffic compared to October. November 2012 continued a trend of year-over-year improvements with a 6 percent increase in retail foot traffic when compared to the same month last year.

New York -- Chain Store Age will hold a webinar on Thursday, Dec. 13, 2 p.m. ET (11 a.m. PT) that will examine email marketing trends for Black Friday 2012 and how marketers used email to promote store shopping and events during the holiday weekend.

The webinar, sponsored by Bronto, will also cover such topics as promotional trends and the influence of mobile and social. Find out what you will need to do early in next year’s holiday season to ensure success.

New York -- Consumer confidence declined more than expected in December, reaching a four-month low as Americans grew concerned about the possibility of higher taxes next year. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary consumer sentiment index decreased to 74.5 this month from 82.7 in November. Economists had projected a preliminary reading of 82 for December.

Chicago -- A report on Wednesday from ShopperTrak showed that retail foot traffic increased 3.7% and sales increased 2.3% year-over-year for the week beginning Nov. 25, ending Dec. 1.

This represented a 28.8% decline in traffic and 22.4% decline in sales from the 2012 Black Friday shopping week.  

Reston, Va. -- Online holiday spending reached $21.4 billion for first 32 days of the November-December shopping season, up 14% year-over-year, according to comScore.

The most recent week saw three individual days eclipse $1 billion in spending, led by Cyber Monday, which became the heaviest online spending day on record at $1.46 billion. However, growth rates softened considerably in the wake of Cyber Monday and through the weekend.       

Portland, Maine -- CashStar found in its latest survey that nearly 56 million adult online Americans are likely to forget to buy a gift for their mail carriers and nearly 44 million are likely to forget to buy a gift for their neighbors.

The survey, conducted online nationwide by Harris Interactive on behalf of CashStar, examined when online American adults remember to buy gifts and who they end up forgetting.

New York -- Although consumers are defecting in growing numbers, the majority say they could have been retained, according to survey results released Wednesday by Accenture.

According to the Accenture Global Consumer Survey, in 2012 one-in-five consumers switched companies they buy from -- including retailers, wireless phone and Internet service -- marking a 5% increase in switching over 2011 levels. However, the survey also found that 85% of consumers say the companies could have done something differently to prevent them from switching.