Seasonal

Shoppers are expected to turn out in droves this coming Saturday (“Super Saturday”) and also on Sunday, the last weekend before Christmas.

Return fraud during the holidays is a growing problem for retailers—and also an extremely expensive one.

Going into the final stretch of the holiday season, a majority of Americans are far from finished with their holiday shopping.

Seventy-three percent (73%) plan to shop last minute (vs. 79% in 2014), as most wait to find the best deals (44% vs. 46% in 2014), according to the latest American Express Spending & Saving Tracker.

Other reasons consumers are shopping last minute include trying to save up until they have enough money (22%, on par with 2014) and difficulty finding the time to shop (20% vs. 16% in 2014).

Delivery performance in the first half of December may land many providers on the naughty list.

According to analysis of what more than 130,000 shoppers said in surveys about on-time deliveries of their full orders between Dec. 1 - Dec. 15 by Bizrate Insights, a division of Connexity, time is not on their side.

Bizrate Insights data indicated on-time delivery rate went from 93.3% on Tuesday, Dec. 1 to 89.9% on Tuesday, Dec. 15. There were small day-over-day spikes in on-time delivery rate on Saturday, Dec. 5, Tuesday, Dec 8 and Friday Dec. 11.

eBay has come up with a clever solution to help Americans solve a common dilemma: what to do about unwanted holiday gifts.

The online marketplace retailer will operate pop-up selling stations in three select Westfield shopping centers across the country during “Boxing Weekend” from Dec. 26 (Boxing Day) to Dec. 27. The stations will be located at Westfield San Francisco Centre, San Francisco; Westfield Garden State Plaza, Paramus, New Jersey; and Westfield Hawthorn Center, Vernon Hills, Illinois.

Allen, Texas -- Trademark Property, announced that jewelry designer Kendra Scott will open at Watters Creek at Montgomery Farms, the 800,000-sq.-ft. mixed-use center in Allen, Texas. The 2,054 sq. ft. boutique, which will be located near White House | Black Market and Anthropologie, is slated to open in spring 2016.

This holiday season, both laptop/desktop computers and mobile phones will play a critical role in the online path to purchase.

According to a new study of more than 1,000 U.S, consumers from online discount platform Ebates, more than half of Americans (53%) are choosing to use their laptops to shop this holiday season, followed by their home computer (39%) and their mobile phone (24%).

Chattanooga, Tenn. -- CBL & Associates Properties along with its corporate partner, Coca-Cola, are encouraging shoppers at CBL Malls across the country to get social this holiday season with an in-mall holiday promotion.