Winter Holidays

Razor USA said it set holiday sales records this year due to the surging popularity of a $399 ride-on product called the Crazy Cart that YouTube helped make a hit.
 

Purchase, N.Y. – U.S. retail sales reportedly rose 3.5% between Nov. 1 and Dec. 24, 2013 compared to the same period in the prior year. According to data from MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, sales of holiday-related categories, such as clothing, electronics and luxury goods, rose 2.3%, after rising 0.7% in 2012.

New York – Eight of the 25 largest retailers (32%, or roughly one-in-three) failed to deliver at least one package ordered on the cutoff date to arrive before Christmas via standard shipping in a study performed by StellaService. The study involved placing three orders, one each in the East, West and Midwest regions, from each retailer.

Of 75 total orders, 12% missed the delivery estimate. All but one of these orders were shipped using UPS, which is the preferred carrier for most of the top 25 retailers. Some retailer-specific results include:

Macy’s is looking to drive post-holiday shoppers to its stores with its “Week of Wonderful” campaign, which it started last year.

Aiming to capitalize on shoppers who are hitting stores to use their gift cards, the retailer is touting the seven-day shopping event as an opportunity for consumers to stock up on “fresh merchandise” for the New Year.  

Record levels of mobile traffic helped Christmas Day online sales advance 16.5%, according to IBM digital Analytics Benchmark data.

Armonk, N.Y. -- Overall Christmas Day online sales were up 16.5% from the same period last year. IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark data for Dec. 25, 2013 shows mobile traffic was the highest IBM recorded this holiday season, accounting for 48% of all online traffic, up 28.3% compared to the same period last year.

Mobile sales also remained strong, approaching 29% of all online sales, up 40% from 2012.

Online holiday sales from desktop computers increased a less-than-expected 10% after a late season surge failed to materialize, according to comScore.

The digital measurement firm in late November predicted online sales from desktop computers would increase 14% during the November and December time frame and reach slightly more than $48.1 billion. However, as of December 26, data from the firm showed sales were up 10% to $42.8 billion for the comparable period.

Amazon announced a record-setting holiday season for its annual membership program Amazon Prime. More than 1 million customers around the world became new Prime members in the third week of December.

On Amazon’s peak shipping day, more Prime items were shipped worldwide than ever before. The entire 2013 holiday season was the best ever for Amazon, with more than 36.8 million items ordered worldwide on Cyber Monday, which is a record-breaking 426 items per second, and millions of customers unwrapped Kindle e-readers and Kindle Fire tablets this holiday season.