Winter Holidays

St. Louis -- Build-A-Bear Workshop is opening a new store location in the Brill Building in Times Square in New York City on Tuesday, Oct. 28. This seasonal pop-up shop offers an assortment of proprietary products, licensed properties and New York City-themed merchandise.   

A strong start to holiday season at Toys “R” hinges on a carefully curated offering of merchandise offered online and in a catalog known as The Great Big Christmas Book being distributed to households this week.

Washington, D.C. –- Nearly eight in 10 (79%) retailers surveyed will set their standard shipping deadlines for guaranteed Christmas delivery to expire at least a week before the holiday, compared to 74% who said in the 2013 holiday season. In addition, according to Shop.org’s EHoliday survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, approximately one in five (21%) will set those deadlines to expire Dec. 19 or later, compared to more than one-quarter who said so last year (25%).

Washington, D.C. –- Nearly eight in 10 (79%) retailers surveyed will set their standard shipping deadlines for guaranteed Christmas delivery to expire at least a week before the holiday, compared to 74% who said in the 2013 holiday season. In addition, according to Shop.org’s EHoliday survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, approximately one in five (21%) will set those deadlines to expire Dec. 19 or later, compared to more than one-quarter who said so last year (25%).  

New York -- Congestion at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach (California) are causing logistical headaches for retailers that could turn into serious problems as they head into the holiday shopping season, according to the Los Angeles Times.  

St. Petersburg, Fla. –- HSN is offering a range of special events and deals for the 2014 holiday season. The interactive retailer will offer special “Black Friday” sale events on Nov. 7, 14 and 21, and also run its annual “Thanksgifting Weekend” event Thursday, Nov. 27 to Monday, Dec. 1 with special “Doorbuster” sale items.  

New York –- Imports to the U.S. were down in September from August, but still there was a measurable year-over-year increase. Sept. 2014 showed levels of imports 7% above imports in Sept. 2013.   

New York -- Retail e-commerce in the US grew 16.5% in 2013 to reach $264.3 billion, and will increase another 15.7% in 2014 to reach $305.7 billion, or 6.5% of all U.S. retail sales, according to Emarketer.      In other findings, mobile retail sales in the U.S. totaled $42.28 billion in 2013, 16% of all U.S. retail ecommerce sales, and will increase another 37.3% to reach $58.07 billion in 2014, accounting for 19% of the total US ecommerce market.