Winter Holidays

Boca Raton, Fla. – Polaroid is opening three locations of its Fotobar experiential retail concept in the Los Angeles area, with the first debuting Nov. 18 at Westfield Culver City. The 300-sq.-ft.micro-stores offer a cube shape and Polaroid Color Spectrum logo, and customers can take a seat at the Fotobar and transform their pictures instantly from their smartphone, Facebook or Instagram  into three different size Polaroid pictures which can be collected in unique Polaroid shadowboxes or other picture accessories.  

For many shoppers, it’s that time of year to skip the holiday meal, devise a shopping strategy and get in line, right?

Well, not if you are a Toys”R”Us Rewards member.

The company is now among the growing ranks of retailers looking to create an aura of exclusivity with shoppers by promoting early access to the hottest holiday prices.

The retailer plans to give its nearly 19 million loyalty program members a sneak peek of Black Friday deals on more than 100 items beginning Nov. 23.

Hollywood, Calif. - Online and offline consumer conversations and recommendations account for 13% of consumer sales, on average, which represents $6 trillion in annual consumer spending. In higher price-point categories, word of mouth's impact is almost 20% of sales, according to a new study from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA).

New York, N.Y. - Just more than half of all Americans (51%) plan to purchase toys as gifts in the upcoming holiday season, nearly consistent with the prior year's intent (50%). Not surprisingly, according to a new Harris Poll of 2,205 U.S, adults, parents of a child under the age of 18 are twice as likely to purchase toys as those without children younger than the age of 18 (82% compared 41%, respectively).   

Framingham, Mass. – The TJX Companies Inc. met Wall Street expectations with net income of $594.96 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2014, down 4% from $622.65 million in the same quarter the prior year. Net sales rose 5% to $7.37 billion from $6.98 billion, short of Wall Street expectations.

Increased use of tablets and smartphone this holiday season will help online sales grow 16% to a record $61 billion, but desktop computers still dominate, according to the online measurement firm comScore.

The company said online sales during the November and December timeframe would be primarily driven by desktop computers, but noted that mobile devices are growing at a faster rate. Spending using desktop computers is projected to grow 14% to $53.2 billion while mobile commerce is projected to grow 25% to $7.9 billion and account for 13% of total e-commerce sales.

DENVER — An estimated 28% of shoppers plan to do most of their shopping at mass retailers versus 26% who will opt to shop online retailers this holiday season, according to an ongoing shopper behaviour study conducted by The Integer Group and M/A/R/C Research.

Holiday shoppers plan to cash in on a range of offers and value-add services this holiday season. Free shipping continues to be the most popular offer for holiday shoppers, with 58% of shoppers reporting they expect to take advantage of it this holiday season.

Milwaukee, W.I. - Most shoppers believe that the best time to shop online for Black Friday deals is on Black Friday itself. However after examining data from the past two years, the staff of Black Friday site GottaDeal.com has determined that the best time to shop online is actually late Wednesday night into early Thursday morning.