Consumer Attitudes & Behavior

San Jose, Calif. -- A Friday report by RetailNext said that its analysis of 8.5 million shopping trips to big-box and specialty retailers in the U.S. during the 2011 and 2012 holiday seasons revealed that:

Online holiday season sales grew 14% to $42.3 billion, a little short of comScore’s pre-season forecast.

The online measurement firm originally projected that online sales during the November and December period would increase 16% to $43.4 billion. However, after a strong start online sales fizzled a bit in early December and never quite regained enough momentum to achieve the firm’s earlier target.

Matthews, N.C. -- Family Dollar Stores Inc. reported Thursday a profit of $80.3 million for the quarter ended Nov. 24, compared with $80.4 million in the year-ago period.

The company said that higher sales on everyday items like cigarettes and soft drinks put pressure on margins.
    
Net sales increased 12.7% to $2.42 billion in the period, and same-store sales grew 6.6%.

New York -- An apparel last-minute surge in holiday shopping helped many key retailers report better-than-expected sales in December. Twenty retailers reported sales in December rose an average of 4.5%, compared with the year-ago period, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. Costco, Gap, Nordstrom and TJX Cos. were among the best performers.
 

Purchase, N.Y. -- Spending in key categories experienced a slight year-over-year gain of 0.7% during the 2012 holiday period, with the season slowed down by a combination of factors, according to a SpendingPulse report released by MasterCard Advisors, the professional services arm of MasterCard. Sub-sectors measured in the SpendingPulse Holiday Index report are apparel, electronics, online, luxury, jewelry and furnishings. (SpendingPulse data estimates retail sales across all payment forms.)
 

An annual holiday e-retail satisfaction report produced by analytic's firm ForeSee showed a slight deterioration in Walmart’s satisfaction score during the holidays.

Amazon.com, LLBean.com and QVC.com were the top three retailers on ForeSee’s Annual Holiday E-Retail Satisfaction survey while Walmart.com fell in the middle of the pack.

Washington, D.C. -- A report released Thursday by Bloomberg showed that consumer sentiment climbed last week and U.S. companies added more workers than projected in December.

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index rose to minus 31.8 in the period ended Dec. 30, its highest since April, from minus 32.1 a week earlier, according to the report. Figures from the ADP Research Institute showed a 215,000 increase in employment, the largest since February, while the Labor Department said more Americans filed claims for jobless benefits last week.

After year of record online sales it’s not surprising that returns are also forecast to hit new highs, especially this week.