Consumer Attitudes & Behavior

 Chicago -- When compared to “Black Weekend” last year, brick-and-mortar retail sales between Thanksgiving and Sunday, Dec. 1 increased 1% as shoppers spent an estimated total of $22.2 billion across the four days. However, retail shopper traffic decreased by 4%, to an estimated 1.8 billion store visits, according to new data from ShopperTrak.

Same store sales increased 10.1% during November at J.C. Penney, the company announced during an update on its holiday performance.

In addition to the double digit comp performance, J.C. Penney said its e-commerce sales through jcp.com continued to be strong, running well ahead of last year, consistent with last month's trend.

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in Nov. 2012 versus Nov. 2013 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. Last month, Toys “R” Us experienced a decrease of more than 65% on the page count and ads per circular metrics. For the month of Nov., however, the toy retailer completely reversed course with year-over-year increases in page count and ads per circular accompanied by a very minor decrease in ads per page.

The 80 million strong Gen Y is a retail force to be reckoned with

A generational shift is afoot that’s about to upend the retail landscape.

Tablets, headphones and gaming hardware were the most frequently purchased consumer electronics products during a weekend which saw more than half of CE sales occur online.

The Consumer Electronics Association said 55% of U.S. adults who bought consumer electronics on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday did so online, well ahead of the 45% who did so in 2012.

Boston – The top five brand experience trends for 2014 include retail relevancy and “small data,” according to brand experience agency Jack Morton. The company predicts the following five trends will prove dominant in brand experience during the upcoming year.

By Ike Boruchow, analyst, Sterne Agee, New York

This year, Black Friday gave us a taste of what to expect for the remainder of the holiday selling season: intense competition, deep discounts, and choppy mall traffic. Earlier store openings drove heavy traffic, which dissipated and then bounced through the day.

New York -- Hispanic adults are more frequently visiting retailer websites than the average online population, according to Experian Marketing Services.

During a 24-week period, from June 2013 through November 2013, Hispanics' market share of visits to Experian Marketing Services' Hitwise Retail 500 Websites was 21% higher on average than the online population. Further, the analysis found that this market share widened in October 2013 and continued to increase through November.