Research Topic

Retail sales sizzled in January, beating expectations. Even the struggling department store sector managed to beat the odds.   Retail sales, excluding automobiles and gasoline, grew 0.4% in January, according to the National Retail Federation. (The numbers exclude automobiles, gasoline stations and restaurants)  

Disappointing shopping experiences are costing brick-and-mortar retailers serious money.   Stores left about $150 billion in potential revenue on the table in 2016 by failing to offer shoppers personalized in-store shopping experiences. Shoppers would increase their in-store spending by 4.7% — if they received better, more personalized service from retailers.   

Organizations are throwing away billions of dollars annually on customer loyalty programs that just don’t work like they used to.   This was revealed in the Accenture report, “Seeing Beyond the Loyalty Illusion: It’s Time You Invest More Wisely.” The study gauges the experiences and attitudes of 25,426 consumers around the world about their current loyalty relationship with brands and organizations.  

Remember the memory-erasing Neuralyzer in "Men in Black"? Or more recently, "Ex Machina," the Oscar-winning story of a humanoid robot that uses emotional persuasion to outsmart humans and escape from the secluded home of its creator?  

For the first time ever, Amazon has released data that details how much money its Prime membership program and other subscription services bring in.    Amazon disclosed in its latest annual filing that it brought in $6.4 billion from Amazon Prime and other subscription services, Bloomberg reported.   

While supermarket shoppers engage with their primary grocer on one or more digital platforms, social media sites are not a priority.    This was according to the “U.S. Supermarket Shopper Digital Update,” a report from the Retail Feedback Group (RFG). The new study, an offshoot of RFG's “U.S. Supermarket Experience Study,” focuses specifically on the digital aspects of shopper engagement with supermarkets.   

Another corporate ranking, another first place finish by Amazon.   The online giant came out on top in Harris Poll’s annual corporate reputation rankings report. The poll measures the reputations of the 100 most visible companies in the United States as perceived by the general public.        

Digital shoppers across the United States outdid themselves in the fourth quarter.   Shoppers spent $109.3 billion online during fourth quarter 2016, according to comScore. Overall, this marked an 18% increase compared to the same quarter in 2015.    The majority of this online spending — $86.6 billion — occurred on desktop computers, a 13% increase compared to a year ago.