Winter Holidays

UPS is trying to capitalize on this year’s shorter holiday shopping season, which is six days fewer than last year’s, by touting the shipping services its UPS Store offers.

The UPS Store has a network of 4,300 employees at locally owned and operated centers ready to pack and ship everything from fragile glass ornaments to surfboards and golf clubs. The store also offers customers a Pack and Ship Guarantee.

Consumers who prefer packing their own gifts themselves can obviously still ship them via the UPS Store, but are asked to do the following:

Matthews, N.C. – Americans prefer to make most gift purchases in stores close to home. Seven-in-10 consumers in a recent survey conducted for Family Dollar say they describe themselves as in-person shoppers, while only 30% say they would be best characterized as online shoppers.

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in Nov. 2012 versus Nov. 2013 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. Last month, Toys “R” Us experienced a decrease of more than 65% on the page count and ads per circular metrics. For the month of Nov., however, the toy retailer completely reversed course with year-over-year increases in page count and ads per circular accompanied by a very minor decrease in ads per page.

 Chicago -- When compared to “Black Weekend” last year, brick-and-mortar retail sales between Thanksgiving and Sunday, Dec. 1 increased 1% as shoppers spent an estimated total of $22.2 billion across the four days. However, retail shopper traffic decreased by 4%, to an estimated 1.8 billion store visits, according to new data from ShopperTrak.

Ascena Retail Group, parent company of Lane Bryant, Dressbarn and Justice, may have just reported same store sales growth across all its formats and achieved Thanksgiving weekend sales objectives, but president and CEO David Jaffe remains cautious in his outlook for the remainder of the holiday season.

As so many other retailers have noted in recent weeks, Jaffe said this year’s highly competitive, promotional and compressed holiday season makes it difficult to know how the next few weeks will play out, despite the company’s recent performance.

By Leslie Hand, research director, IDC Retail Insights

New York -- Visa reported that Black Friday weekend e-commerce sales across smart phones, tablets and PCs conducted by U.S. Visa accountholders increased 30% to $7.8 billion.

The company also noted that Cyber Monday ruled the five-day period with spending on Visa cards up 28% to $2.6 billion while Thanksgiving Day saw a 30% jump to nearly $1 billion.

Wired, a Conde Nast brand, is getting ready to open a popup store for the ninth consecutive year in New York City, featuring electronics, rare objects d' art, apparel and accessories, musical instruments, kitchen gadgets and adventure gear.

Located in the heart of the Meatpacking District, at 353 West 14th St., the store will be open from noon-8 p.m., Tuesdays through Sundays, from Dec. 4 through Dec. 22. This year’s popup store is sponsored by Citi, the 2014 Corvette Stingray and Delta Air Lines.