Research Topic

New York -- Consumers who use mobile devices to research purchases visit retailer sites more frequently than those who use PCs alone. According to research from Millward Brown Digital, mobile visitors engage with top retailers twice as often as PC visitors (on average, 6.2 times per month compared to 2.9 times per month).

Retail sales fell in September for the first time in six months, but the decline was credited to a drop-off in auto purchases. Most U.S. retail sectors actually experienced broad sales gains during the month, according to the National Retail Federation, which reported that, excluding automobiles, gas stations and restaurants, retail sales grew a seasonally 0.6% compared to the previous month and 3.8% unadjusted compared to the prior year.

Results of specific sectors include:

Nestlé plans to relocate its pizza business from Northbrook, Ill., to Solon, Ohio. Nestlé Pizza operates the Digiorno, California Pizza Kitchen, Tombstone and Jack's brands. The company anticipates completing the move by mid-2014.

The Nestlé Pizza Division brands were acquired from Kraft Foods in 2010 for $3.7 billion. The acquisition allowed the company to expand its frozen prepared foods category.

PriceGrabber, a leading distributed e-commerce platform and shopping site, conducted its Winter Holiday Shopping Survey and found that 69% of consumers plan to shop at the same retailers at which they shopped last year.

New York -- Consumer confidence fell sharply in October, according to The Conference Board, whose monthly consumer confidence measure dropped to 71.2 in October, down from 80.2 in September. Economists had expected a reading of 75.0 in October.

The Present Situation Index decreased to 70.7 from 73.5.The Expectations Index fell to 71.5 from 84.7 last month.

New York -- Looking ahead, there is a sense of pessimism on the economy in the next few months among U.S. consumers. In September 2013, Harris Poll results showed that almost half of U.S. adults (46%) said, in the coming year, that they expect the economy to stay the same, while less than one-quarter (22%) expected it to improve and one-third (32%) expected it to get worse.

Chicago -- Four of the 10 busiest holiday shopping days will occur between Dec. 20 and Dec. 24, and retailers should prepare accordingly, according to ShopperTrak, a leading provider of shopper analytics. Additionally, with a shortened shopping season and only four weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas – down from five last year – retailers must be ready to capture holiday spending during a narrower window of time.

According to ShopperTrak, a leading provider of shopper analytics, the busiest holiday shopping days will occur between Dec. 20 and Dec. 24, and retailers should prepare accordingly.

Additionally, with a shortened shopping season and only four weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas — down from five last year — retailers must be ready to capture holiday spending during a narrower window of time.

Salt Lake City -- Consumers value salesperson expertise above all else, but they often find such expertise lacking, according to eXperticity’s first-ever Retail Buying Experience survey. The study found a striking expertise gap among sales associates in five retail areas: outdoor, sporting goods, hunting or fishing, health and nutrition, and prestige beauty.

 When asked to rate which services consumers most desire and value from retail sales associates, the top four were:

1. Product knowledge (73%);

New York -- J.C. Penney Co. on Monday reassured investors that sales trends are improving and reaffirmed its forecast calling for positive same-store sales results in the third quarter, Reuters reported.

The comments were made by Myron Ullman, Penney’s CEO, at the Women's Wear Daily conference on Monday.