Seasonal

Lebanon, Tenn. – Cracker Barrel Old Country Store is taking a decidedly new-fangled approach to promotion. The casual dining chain has enlisted Nashville-based advertising agency Redpepper to create a holiday-themed social marketing campaign.   The promotion targets a younger, more social demographic with Facebook posts. Some posts in the campaign have received more than 10,000 interactions.

Former top Sears executive Mark Cohen is at it again with harsh words recently about Sears holiday performance and long term viability.

Cohen, former chairman and CEO of Sears Canada turned teacher at Columbia’s business school, appeared on CNBC to share his views on a holiday season with top line growth that appears to have exceeded earlier forecasts.

“Sears again is going to be an enormous loser,” Cohen said.

Retailing Today will be closed for the New Year holiday, Dec. 31 through Jan. 2, and will publish again on Monday, Jan. 5. The editors and publishers of Retailing Today would like to wish you and your families our very best wishes for a happy and healthy 2015.

Mike Troy, Editor, Retailing Today

Retailers expected online sales to hit record levels in 2014 and did they ever.

New all-time highs for e-commerce sales are now expected for the November through December time frame following a strong surge in sales during the final week before Christmas, according to the digital measurement firm comScore.

New York - Christmas Day saw both strong online and mobile sales. Key Christmas Day trends reported by the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark include an 8.3% year-over-year increase in online sales.   In addition, mobile traffic accounted for 57.1% of all online traffic on Christmas Day, an increase of 18.6% from the prior year. Mobile sales accounted for 34.8% of all online sales on Christmas Day, an increase of 20.4% year-over-year.  

New York - The day after Christmas (Dec. 26) posted the highest traffic for online shopping, with 125 points, since the 2014 holiday shopping season began. According to Verizon Retail Index data, year-over-year, traffic attributed to online shopping was on par (125) with the same day in 2013.  

Didn’t get your Christmas gifts delivered on time? Don’t blame the major carriers this year, according to a new study from Kurt Salmon.

UPS, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service held up their end of the bargain this year when it came to delivering packages in time for Christmas, according to an analysis by the consulting firm. However, a troubling 13 percent of last minute e-commerce orders did not reach recipients in time for Christmas versus a 15 percent failure rate last year.

New York - Retail sales in the United States increased 5.5% from the day after Thanksgiving through Christmas Eve, fueled by demand for women's apparel, jewelry and dining out, according to MastyerCard Advisors. Spending Pulse holiday report. Consumer electronics, which many industry analysts had predicted would be among the strongest categories this holiday season, was actually among the weakest, according to the report, with sales "basically flat" from Black Friday to Dec. 24 and in negative territory starting on Nov. 1.