Research Topic

Sam's Club was among the highest-rated companies for customer service, according to new research from the Temkin Group. Other retailers included Publix, Hy-Vee, H.E.B., ShopRite, Aldi, Giant Eagle and JCPenney.

Other companies earning top marks included Chick-fil-A, credit unions and Starbucks. Meanwhile, companies with the lowest ratings included Charter Communications, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Citibank, Qwest, Cigna, and Bank of America.

The nation’s convenience stores continued to grow last year creating a peculiar blend of competitive challenges and sales opportunities for Sam’s Club.

Waban, Mass. -- Research results released Wednesday by Temkin Group put grocers Publix and Hy-Vee along with credit unions and Chick-fil-A at the top of its 2012 Temkin Customer Service Ratings, which examines how U.S. consumers rate the customer service of 174 large companies across 18 industries.

Other high marks were given by consumers to H.E.B., Sam's Club, Winn-Dixie, ShopRite, Aldi, Starbucks, Giant Eagle and J.C. Penney.

NEW YORK — A growing number of shoppers are using their smartphones to help them make in-store purchases. According to new Deloitte research, smartphones currently influence 5.1% of annual retail store sales, translating into $159 billion in forecasted sales for 2012, according to new Deloitte research. 

Deloitte arrived at its 5.1% figure by examining in-store sales driven by consumers' store-related smartphone activity such as product research, price comparison or other mobile application use.

New York -- A study released Wednesday by Deloitte found that smartphones – which already influence 5.1% of all retail store sales in the United States – are expected to impact 19% of total store sales, amounting to $689 billion, by 2016.

Downers Grove, Ill. -- Survey results released Wednesday by CompTIA, the non-profit association for the IT industry, found that innovations in information technology continue to transform the retail sector, with digital signage, payment processing, customer engagement and other solutions playing increasingly important functions.

Seventy-two percent of retailers surveyed rate technology as important to their business, CompTIA's Retail Sector Technology Adoption Trends Study revealed. That figure projects to increase to 83% by 2014.

Launching new products is difficult in the best of times, but winners of the 2012 Nielsen Breakthrough Innovation Award found ways to succeed during one the worst recessions in a generation.

Nielsen announced recipients of the awards at its annual Consumer 360 event in Hollywood, Fla., this week after analyzing more than 11,000 new products in the United States between 2008 and 2010. Of the products evaluated, only 34 met award criteria. These products comprise less than 0.5% of all new product introductions during the period.

Washington, D.C. -- The Conference Board, in its monthly sentiment index released on Wednesday, said that confidence among U.S. consumers dropped in June for a fourth consecutive month, reaching a five-month low.

The research firm’s sentiment index fell to 62, from a revised 64.4 in May. The slide in confidence raises the risk that the recently revealed slowdown in hiring will cause households to curb spending.

The median forecast of 69 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected the U.S. confidence index would fall to 63.