Winter Holidays

Washington, D.C. - Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to continue to slow down in December. According to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates, import volume at U.S. ports covered by the Global Port Tracker report is expected to total 1.37 million containers this month as the holiday shipping cycle winds down.   

Eighties sensation Weird Al Yankovic is offering RadioShack a new hope for the holidays.

Yankovic is appearing in the chain's holiday ad campaign called "Gift Smart.” In the ad, he sings his own unique take on the holiday song “Toyland.”

"He's tech-savvy, smart and a social media guru," said RadioShack chief marketing officer Jennifer Warren. Yankovich has more than 3.5 million Twitter followers and 1.6 million Facebook fans. "I don't think there could be a better fit for our brand right now."

So the retail industry made it through another five-day Thanksgiving weekend, stretching from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday. As the dust begins to settle and the pundits make their pronouncements, let’s look at a few technology lessons retailers can learn from this year’s kickoff to the all-important holiday sales season.   Little Mobile is All Grown Up

Social media is front and center at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores this holiday season with the retailer tapping into customers’ desire to share with the introduction of the Holiday Hub.

As holiday shoppers hunted for online deals Thanksgiving weekend the Overstock.com Web site provided fertile hunting grounds.

The retailer said its sales between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday increased 23 percent compared to the same period the prior year. In addition to new customers, the increase was driven by an 8 percent increase in average individual order size. Cyber Monday sales increased 24 percent while Thanksgiving day saw the largest gain, up 38 percent off of a smaller initial base than Cyber Monday.

San Francisco — Shopping activity increased slightly from October in November 2014, but slumped compared to November of the previous year. Monthly retail benchmarks from in-store analytics provider Euclid reveal that  traffic lagged significantly throughout the month, with Black Friday also failing to match the previous year as deals were more distributed across time and channels.   

Big Lots hypothetical core customer Jennifer isn’t feeling so cheerful this holiday season as the nation’s leading closeout retailer is eyeing a low single digit fourth quarter comp increase.

Meijer is responding to a need from food pantries for nutrition education resources by publishing a cookbook that features recipes using ingredients frequently found in food pantries.

The retailer has distributed English and Spanish versions of Simply Cook to its food bank and pantry partners across the Midwest. During the holiday season, food banks see a tremendous increase in demand of free meals per day.