Research Topic

Los Angeles -- American shoppers feel they can’t trust retailers to protect their credit card and personal information either online or in brick-and-mortar stores.  According to a survey by Bizrate Insights, 62% of shoppers agreed that "Current security to protect credit card and personal information at a retailers’ brick-and-mortar stores isn’t strong enough.”

This was only marginally worse than concerns for security on websites (60% agree) but better that mobile transactions (65% agree).

Austin, Texas – Retailers should love the latest predictions for consumer spending on the upcoming Valentine’s Day holiday. According to a recent survey of about 1,000 U.S. adults by digital offers destination RetailMeNot, those surveyed who are in relationships are planning to spend an average of $148 on their significant other, up 30% from $114 in 2014.

Fort Worth, Texas – Hedge fund Standard General LP is reportedly arranging to act as the lead “stalking horse” bidder for troubled electronics retailer RadioShack Corp. According to the Wall Street Journal, Standard General, which is RadioShack’s largest shareholder and has already provided financing that allowed RadioShack to operate through 2014, is currently negotiating a stalking horse deal with the company.

Carle Place, N.Y. – The September 2014 closing of its acquisition of the Harry & David brand helped produce extremely strong performance during the second quarter of fiscal 2015 at 1-800-Flowers.com Inc. The retailer reported net income of $45.54 million, more than double the $17.99 million reported in the same quarter a year earlier.

San Jose, Calif. – Homeowners stuck shoveling out more than two feet of snow were not the only ones in the Northeast negatively impacted by winter storm Juno the week of Jan. 26. Analysis from RetailNext shows that between Monday, Jan. 26 and Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015, store traffic at Northeast retailers dropped 35.6% from the same three-day period the prior year.

It may be hard to believe (considering its financial troubles), but Sears was the most popular U.S. department store on Facebook during the 2014 holiday shopping season, according to a new study. 

The data also show that Walmart.com was the most popular mass merchant store site.

Franklin, Tenn. – About four- in-10 retailers plans on using both Apple Pay (43%) and predictive analytics (42%) by the end of 2015. According to a new study from IHL Group, “Retail 2018 – Retail Transformed,” things are looking up for both store growth and IT spend.

San Luis Obispo – In what could be a preview of Sunday’s Super Bowl performance, Patriots fans have been outselling Seahawks fans overall in the month of January by 258%. According to data from Shopatron, although in total Patriots fans have spent more, individually their Seahawks counterparts have been more zealous, spending an average of 15% more than Patriots fans on each individual order.