Research Topic

The Container Store is teaming up with the Rhode Island School of Design on a contest that invites design students to re-think the organized home.

The goal is to give design students a platform to present their product ideas to The Container Store and the chance to see their ideas produced. The product submissions need to appeal to The Container Store’s consumer.

Virtually all U.S. consumers will do at least some holiday shopping online this year.

According to the new Consumer Pulse survey from Rubicon Project, more than one-third of shoppers anticipate conducting the majority of their shopping online.

Consumers who conduct most of their holiday shopping online plan to spend 20% more than consumers who plan to do the majority of their shopping in-store. Amazon.com is the top holiday shopping destination, followed by Walmart and Target.  

Retailers are extremely aware of the looming Oct. 1 deadline to securely accept payments from chip-enabled, EMV-compliant cards. But according to a new survey of 18,000 U.S. adults, consumers have much lower awareness.

The survey, conducted in late August by POS technology provider Harbortouch, shows that 56% of consumers are unware of what “EMV” or “chip-enabled” mean.

San Francisco – Marketers and consumers are both discovering mobile apps in a big way.

According to the second Mobile App Advertising Trends Report from marketing technology provider Kenshoo, marketers increased their investment in mobile apps 293% in June 2015, compared to the same period a year earlier.

This increased investment followed a 346% increase consumer mobile app installs and 32% increase in click-to-install rate.

Petco is launching an omnichannel promotion to get pet parents ready for the spookiest holiday of the year.

Pet parents who plan to dress up their pets can participate in the Petco "Make a Scene" Photo Contest on Instagram. Beginning Oct. 1, pet parents are encouraged to take a photo of their costumed pet in a scene that matches the pet's costume and post it on Instagram with the hashtag #MakeASceneContest for a chance to win a $5,000 grand prize.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association introduced its second Retail Energy Management Report, a resource for companies to compare energy management programs across the industry and identify opportunities for progress.

The report was released prior to the opening of RILA’s 2015 Retail Sustainability Conference, now in its eighth year.

Since its launch in July, Jet.com is surpassing other retailers on gross merchandise value and doing a good job of building customer loyalty, according to Channeladvisor.

According to The Washington Post, Jet has had a 23% repeat buyer rate, better than the 17% seen at eBay and the 11% seen at Amazon during the same time period.

Organized crime is on the rise — and it’s taking a heavy financial toll on the nation’s retailers.

Retailers on average report they lost $453,940 per $1 billion in annual sales over the past year due to organized crime, according to the National Retail Federation’s 11th annual Organized Retail Crime Survey, which put a $30 billion price tag on the problem.