Research Topic

When it comes to retail diversity, Manhattan is about as inclusive as it gets.

A first-of-its-kind survey of 906 existing retailers in three of Manhattan’s leading shopping districts (SoHo, Fifth Avenue, and Madison Avenue) found a virtual “United Nations” of merchants originating from 26 countries. The Cushman & Wakefield study found that nearly four out of 10 retailers – 39% -- originate from outside the United States.

Going into the final stretch of the holiday season, a majority of Americans are far from finished with their holiday shopping.

Seventy-three percent (73%) plan to shop last minute (vs. 79% in 2014), as most wait to find the best deals (44% vs. 46% in 2014), according to the latest American Express Spending & Saving Tracker.

Other reasons consumers are shopping last minute include trying to save up until they have enough money (22%, on par with 2014) and difficulty finding the time to shop (20% vs. 16% in 2014).

Shoppers are expected to turn out in droves this coming Saturday (“Super Saturday”) and also on Sunday, the last weekend before Christmas.

Return fraud during the holidays is a growing problem for retailers—and also an extremely expensive one.

Rapidly growing extreme value retailer Five Below could see its share price improve in the coming months as it is added to an important market index.

Five Below will join the S&P SmallCap 600 index effective after the close of trading on Friday, Dec. 18. The change is noteworthy for Five Below because such moves offer trigger increased buying of the company’s shares by funds that track the performance of the index which the company is joining. Five Below replaces UIL Holdings which merged with Iberdrola USA.

Delivery performance in the first half of December may land many providers on the naughty list.

According to analysis of what more than 130,000 shoppers said in surveys about on-time deliveries of their full orders between Dec. 1 - Dec. 15 by Bizrate Insights, a division of Connexity, time is not on their side.

Bizrate Insights data indicated on-time delivery rate went from 93.3% on Tuesday, Dec. 1 to 89.9% on Tuesday, Dec. 15. There were small day-over-day spikes in on-time delivery rate on Saturday, Dec. 5, Tuesday, Dec 8 and Friday Dec. 11.

The value proposition of Perfumania stores is under scrutiny after the retailer reported dismal same store sale for the third quarter.

For the 13-week period ended Oct. 31, net sales at Perfumania decreased 8% to $142 million, compared to $154.3 million in the prior year. Same-store sales decreased 22.1%. Net income was $3 million, or net income per diluted share of 20 cents, compared to a net income of $7.5 million, or a net income per diluted share of 48 cents during last year’s third quarter.

In the first part of December, delivery providers experienced difficulties that probably left some holiday shoppers less than merry.

According to analysis of what more than 130,000 shoppers said in surveys about on-time deliveries of their full orders between Dec. 1 - Dec. 10 by Bizrate Insights, a division of Connexity, the timeliness trend is clearly downward.

Digital marketing is a discipline that is rapidly evolving; that’s because the Web itself is changing faster than ever. We’re nearing the realization of Web 3.0 – The Semantic/Intelligent Web – thanks to the mountains of data pouring out of new devices, products, and social platforms every second of every day.

As a result, marketers need to understand how this deluge of data impacts content & community marketing strategies.

Before you declare your personalized marketing efforts a success, check with your customers.

That is the overriding message from a global study of 1,200 consumers and 200 marketing professionals conducted in October 2015 by Forrester Consulting for hybris. The study, “The Contextual Marketing Imperative,” finds that while 66% of marketers rate their efforts at personalization as “very good” or “excellent,” just 31% of consumers report companies are consistently delivering personalized, cross-channel experiences