Consumer Attitudes & Behavior

More Americans were online in September, and traffic to such major retail sites as Amazon.com and Walmart.com increased, but Target.com traffic was flat in the first full month following a late August site relaunch, according to the most recent “Top 50 Web Properties” report from online measurement firm comScore.

Los Angeles -- Fifty-two percent of consumers plan to spend $500 or more on gifts this season, according to a new survey by PriceGrabber, a part of Experian. Thirty-six percent said they will spend less than $500, and 12% indicated that they do not have a budget.

Other key findings of the survey, conducted from Sept. 7-15, 2011, include:

Consumers overwhelmingly chose clothing as the most popular holiday gift purchase (chosen by 66%), followed by gift cards (52%), books, CDs, DVDs or videogames (46%) and toys (43%).

New York City -- While 43% of smartphone owners have installed and used a retailer's app, only 14% of those who installed them say the app led to a purchase decision, according to the most recent Retrevo Pulse Study, an ongoing study of tech industry trends conducted for the consumer electronics shopping and review site.

CHICAGO — As many as 71% of consumers earning less than $100,000 per year are planning to trim back their spending this holiday season, according to new research, “Holiday Shopping 2011,” released Tuesday by SymphonyIRI Group.

WASHINGTON — It looks like this year's holiday shoppers have a renewed focus on value and will comparison shop by utilizing smartphones, tablets and mobile applications to make purchasing decisions, according to the latest National Retail Federation Survey.

WASHINGTON — It looks like this year's holiday shoppers have a renewed focus on value and will comparison shop by utilizing smartphones, tablets and mobile applications to make purchasing decisions, according to the latest National Retail Federation Survey.

PHILADELPHIA — Shoplifting, employee or supplier fraud, organized retail crime and administrative errors cost the retail industry $41.7 billion in the United States in 2011, representing 1.6% in sales, according to the Global Retail Theft Barometer released Tuesday by Checkpoint Systems. Of that, $18.4 billion was attributed to employee theft, $14.9 billion to shoplifters, $6.6 billion to internal error and $1.8 billion to suppliers.