Winter Holidays

The Amazon Marketplace, an online mall that that allows third-party sellers to reach customers around the world, hit big milestones during the holiday season.  

New app allows shoppers to skip the checkout line

Sam’s Club is no stranger to embracing digital disruptors. In one of its most recent initiatives, the retailer is rolling out a free app that allows members to use their smartphone to completely bypass the checkout lane at any Sam’s Club location nationwide. The chain sees the program — called Scan & Go — as an early holiday gift for its harried, time-starved shoppers.

While results were conservative, holiday digital sales surpassed 2015 figures.  

Initial reports about holiday spending bode well for retailers.   Consumers spent 16% more on holiday purchases this year than in 2015, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers Post-Holiday Shopping Survey.  

Initial reports about holiday spending bode well for retailers.      Consumers spent 16% more on holiday purchases this year than in 2015, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers Post-Holiday Shopping Survey.   

While most retailers have already bid adieu to the 2016 holiday shopping season, Amazon has one more trick up its sleeve.  

While most retailers reduced traditional advertising spend in favor of digital sources this holiday season, Amazon made an unprecedented move to television.   This was according to the “MediaRadar Trend Report” that examined holiday advertising spend among Amazon, Walmart, Target, Macy’s, Sears, Kohl’s, Nordstrom, and J.C. Penney, between October and November 2016.    When comparing holiday ad spend by retailer, here is how the companies fared:  

Digital commerce stole the show during the 2016 holiday shopping season, and mobile and social had the biggest impact on shoppers.   That’s according to data from Salesforce Commerce Cloud, which reports digital commerce was up 34%  globally over last holiday — well surpassing last year’s 24% growth rate.