Research Topic

Boston – College students are planning to buy holiday gifts that offer experiential value or economic flexibility and will frequent discount stores, according to a new survey of roughly 1,000 college students from consumer marketing firm Fluent.

Richmond Hill, Ontario – Cross-channel fulfillment programs are the top omni-channel priorities among retailers, a newly released study of 337 global retail decision-makers, “The Retail Order Management Imperative,” conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of OrderDynamics, revealed.

While only 49% of retailers currently use an order management system, many of these solutions are ill-equipped to support complex cross-channel fulfillment offerings.

Leading data collection and mobile research provider Field Agent added new insights capabilities to its solutions offering with the acquisition of CORE4 Research.

Plano, Texas – J.C. Penney will no longer be included on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.  

Dow Jones Indices, which manages the S&P 500 as well as many other financial indices, said on Nov. 22 that Allegion, an Ireland-based provider of mechanical and electronic security products, will replace Penney on the S&P 500. Penney will join the S&P MidCap 400. The change will become effective after the stock market closes on Nov. 29.

New York – More than half of consumers plan to shop on Black Friday this year, although the number has decreased since last year. According to the Deloitte Pre-Thanksgiving Survey, 53% of 1,000 consumers polled will shop on Black Friday, compared to 63% in 2012.

Younger consumers are more likely to shop Black Friday, with 68% of weekend shoppers age 18-29 planning to shop that day and 44% of Black Friday shoppers in this age group planning to hit the stores between midnight and 5 a.m., compared to 30% of those 30 and older.

Los Angeles -- Black Friday shoppers are looking to extend the Black Friday experience as much as possible. According to new survey results from PriceGrabber, 24% of Black Friday shoppers plan to start shopping on the evening of Thanksgiving. When asked if they plan to take advantage of extended hours during the weekend, 57% said they plan to do so.

Philadelphia – Holiday spending looks strong this year, with 85% of U.S. consumers planning to maintain or increase their holiday spending levels from last year. According to a new survey of 2,000 respondents from Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT) and Harris Interactive, of those who plan to spend more, 15% plan to increase spending on electronics, 14% plan to purchase more gift cards, 13% will spend more on apparel and 10% will spend more on home goods.

Austin, Texas -- Nearly nine-in-10 (86%) working consumers plan to spend at least some time shopping or browsing online for gifts during work hours this Cyber Monday. A new RetailMeNot retail trends report also shows that 25% of working Americans plan to actually spend four hours or more shopping online for gifts during work hours that day.

Foster City, Calif. – Although many retailers will be open for business Thanksgiving, they may wind up angering more consumers than they please. According to a new survey conducted by Prosper Insights for Visa, 62% of more than 4,600 adult U.S. consumers said they would not shop on and are opposed to shopping on Thanksgiving.

More than half of consumers plan to shop on Black Friday this year, although the number has decreased since last year. According to the Deloitte Pre-Thanksgiving Survey, 53% of 1,000 consumers polled will shop on Black Friday, compared to 63% in 2012.

Younger consumers are more likely to shop Black Friday, with 68% of weekend shoppers age 18-29 planning to shop that day and 44% of Black Friday shoppers in this age group planning to hit the stores between midnight and 5 a.m., compared to 30% of those 30 and older.