Winter Holidays

New York -- RadioShack Corp. has agreed to a financing packaging arranged by its biggest investor, hedge fund Standard General, that would help ease the retailer’s cash crunch as it heads into the holiday selling season, Bloomberg reported.

How well many retailers perform this holiday season in store and online will be determined by the shopping preferences of a demographic group that doesn’t typically get a lot of love from marketers.

Spending on consumer electronics this holiday season is projected to reach a record level of nearly $34 billion as shoppers clamor for ultra high definition televisions, smart watches, tablets and a new crop of smartphones.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) predicts the 2014 holiday season will see the highest levels of consumer spending on consumer electronics since the group began tracking the category two decades ago. The trade group’s holiday outlook envisions total tech spending increasing 2.5% to $33.76 billion.

The consumer electronics category is expected to set a holiday sales record this season and one of the hottest brands going right now is the GoPro line of cameras and accessories.

That explains why Best Buy just expanded its offering of the popular brand to feature a striking 12 foot display that features an endcap with a 40 inch monitor to showcase the type of video the GoPro line is capable of capturing. A centerpiece of the display will be the brand’s new HERO4 model which will be available on October 5.

Denver - Location marketing provider Placeable is predicting that online sales will grow by more than 15% during the 2014 holiday season, compared to the same period the prior year, more than tripling the anticipated 4%-5% growth rate for overall holiday sales. However, Placeable expects more than 90% of holiday sales to take place in brick-and-mortar stores, with 58% of consumers shopping at a national retailer they normally don’t visit.

Other Placeable predictions for the 2014 holiday season include:

Denver - Wrap & Send Services, a luxury retail packing and shipping solution, is offering professional in-store and warehouse support for the 2014 holiday season. Currently, Wrap & Send Services works with many luxury big-box stores in New York City, as well as 30 cities across the U.S.

Wrap & Send's expert packing and shipping solution help manage the volume, cost, speed and branding standard that is required when shipping from the store.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. – Sears Holdings Corp. is selling most of its 51% stake in its Sears Canada division to shareholders as its looks to boost its liquidity before the crucial holiday selling season. Sears, which previously said it was exploring options for the struggling Sears Canada unit and retained Bank of America Merrill Lynch in May 2014, expects to raise as much as $380 million by November 2014. 

As part of its agenda to boost liquidity ahead of the highly contested holiday shopping season, Sears Holdings plans to sell most of its 51% stake in its struggling Sears Canada division to shareholders — a move that stands to raise as much as $380 million by November.

Ann Arbor, Mich. -- Shoppers are planning to spend less money and purchase gifts for fewer people this holiday season compared to last year, while also maximizing their budgets through Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales and online cost comparison, according to the CFI Group 2014 Holiday Retail Spending Report: Black Friday is Back.  

New York - Imports to the U.S. were up in August from July, and there was a measurable year-over-year increase. According to a new report from supply chain research firm Panjiva, imports in August 2014 were 4% higher than imports the same month the prior year.