Research Topic

It’s no wonder so many shoppers were not impressed with some of the big holiday deals being offered by big retailers this past week.

Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Jet did not heavily discount most popular products and prices actually increased in key categories after Black Friday, cementing a perception that the two celebrated shopping days are waning in importance, according to research from Boomerang Commerce, which aggregated and analyzed online price discounts and price perception for 1,000 popular products sold by Walmart, Target, Amazon and Jet.

One retailer was clearly in a league of its own when it came to social media dominance of Cyber Monday.

The details of how millennials shop may differ from their elders, but the ultimate goal is the same.

Millennials shop differently than their parents, but when it comes to the end result, they are looking for the same thing: a great deal.

According to the Blackhawk Engagement Solutions’ “Millennials Disrupt Shopping” report, based on two separate surveys of 500 millennial consumers each, smartphones are a dominant method of connection to the web for millennials, with 89% using them to connect to the Internet. This compares to 75% using laptops, 45% using tablets and 37% using desktop computers.

In-store sales declines over Black Friday weekend had many analysts buzzing about the future of brick and mortar. But an expert in store traffic cautioned that the declines should be taken with a grain of salt.

“It’s important to view the decrease in context,” said Bill Martin, founder, ShopperTrak.

Martin noted that where are several contributing factors, including fewer available store hours on Thanksgiving Day and a later Hanukah that is anticipated to push sales into December.

Black Friday may not be what it used to be in the United States, but the tradition has caught on big time across the pond, according to a report by the New York Times.

The BBC reported that shoppers in different parts of the country experienced gridlock, biting, pinching, punching, kicking and merchandise flying through the air as shoppers leapt over barriers to get their hands on heavily discounted items, the report said.

Chain Store Age recently spoke with Kyle Nel, executive director of Lowe’s Innovation Labs, who discussed the mission and activities of the retailer’s proprietary technology development center.

How will retailers fare in 2016? Very well, according to experienced market watchers.

“We expect core retail sales to grow 5.3% in 2016,” says Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics for Moody’s Analytics, a research firm based in West Chester, Pa. (Core retail sales exclude volatile revenues from auto sales and gas stations.)

That is notably faster than the 4.2% rate anticipated when 2015 sales are finally tallied. The 2015 experience was, again, slightly better than that the 3.9% growth of 2014.