Winter Holidays

A just-released holiday survey reinforces the dominance of the omnichannel shopper.

Nearly one-third (32%) of shoppers the past holiday season used the click and collect method – with 69% of these shoppers purchasing additional items in the store when they went to pick up the item and 36% making another purchase in an adjacent store, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers’ Holiday Consumer Purchasing Trends study.

Ollie’s Bargain Outlet is raising its full year outlook after the discount retailer holiday strategy delievered strong sales growth.

The company annouced that net sales over the holidays increased 23%, while same store sales increased 5.6%.

Toys “R” Us produced surprisingly strong results, especially online, in what is proving to be a holiday season characterized by mixed results from retailers who have disclosed results.

In what was arguably one of the strangest holiday season in recent memory – for a variety of reasons – retailers have reported a variety of results ranging from impressive to outright awful.

Toys “R” Us produced surprisingly strong results, especially online, in what is proving to be a holiday season characterized by mixed results from retailers who have disclosed results.

Overall retailers had a good 2015 holiday from a digital commerce standpoint, but some patterns changed.

According to the Verizon Retail Index, days that previously had unusual spikes in e-commerce activity, such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, now show more normal levels of online traffic and purchase activity. Part of this shift is attributed to the widespread availability of high-speed online connections from consumer mobile devices.

Less than 12 hours after Macy’s shared bleak holiday results, J.C. Penney said enhanced digital capabilities helped it to produce strong holiday season same store sales growth which allowed the company to reaffirm its full year profit forecast.

The numbers are in and one specific device clearly served as a major catalyst for increased e-commerce sales during the 2015 holiday season.

According to the MarketLive 2015 Holiday Flash Report, smartphone revenue during the just-completed holiday season (Nov. 23, 2015 – Jan. 3, 2016) increased 50%. Overall e-commerce revenue grew 8% during that period.

Children’s Place did the most shareholder friendly thing possible just days after it announced a slate of other shareholder friendly measures.