Research Topic

Cincinnati – Ever wonder what to do with all those unused loyalty points you probably have floating around? According to a survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers by loyalty intelligence provider Colloquy, six out of 10 shoppers intend to use points they’ve earned through customer-loyalty programs to save money on holiday gift-buying this year.

That represents a 22% increase in the number of shoppers who are planning to cash in reward points on gift purchases, compared to the 2013 holiday season.

Memphis, Tenn. - Fred's Inc. total sales for November 2014 increased 2% to $154.3 million from $151.2 million in November 2013. Same-store sales for the month decreased 2.3% compared to flat sales in the same period last year.
Fred’s said that same-store sales were in line with previously issued guidance and that the decision to close stores Thanksgiving Day pushed same-store sales from flat to negative growth.

Reston, Va. - Cyber Monday reached $2.04 billion in desktop online spending, up 17% from a year ago and representing the heaviest online spending day in history and the only day ever to surpass $2 billion in sales. According to data from comScore, the weekend after Thanksgiving also reached a major milestone as it saw its first ever billion-dollar online shopping day on Saturday, while Sunday’s sales just fell short of the $1 billion mark.

Boston - A new study shows just how diluted Black Friday has become to holiday shoppers: Twenty-eight percent of shoppers shopped in stores Nov. 22/Nov. 23 and 34% of shoppers chose to shop in stores the weekend after Black Friday (Nov. 29/Nov. 30), while 25% shopped on Black Friday, according to Kantar Retail.

In other results, 65%  of shoppers surveyed chose not to shop because of crowds while 42% stayed out of stores to avoid traffic.

The dynamics of Thanksgiving weekend retail activity continue to evolve, but Cyber Monday still rules with sales that topped $2 billion for the first time ever this year.

San Jose, Calif. –  Brick-and-mortar sales and traffic patterns during the five-day Thanksgiving weekend may have benefited customers who hate crowds, but were not good news for retailers. According to data from in-store analytics provider RetailNext, sales during the period fell 10.7% compared to the same five days in 2013, while traffic dropped 12.4%.

Houston - Mattress Firm Holdings met Wall Street expectations with its financial performance in the third quarter of fiscal 2014. In addition, the company increased its guidance for store growth in the fiscal year 2014, and now plans to have opened a total of 200-220 new stores and acquire 665 stores by the end of the fiscal year.

The new store total includes 163 stores opened and 619 acquired so far this year.

New York – Black Friday was a more social event than Cyber Monday, with 3.5 million tweets and 838 million impressions compared to 839,000 tweets and 309 million impressions. According to a study from StatSocial, women were more likely than men to socially comment on both events, accounting for 59% of

Black Friday comments and 63% of Cyber Monday comments.