Seasonal

Washington, D.C. -- The average person celebrating Christmas, Kwanza and/or Hanukkah will spend $804.42, up nearly 5% from 2013’s actual $767.27, according to the National Retail Federation’s 13th annual Holiday Consumer Spending Survey, conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics. In other results, the average shopper plans to do 44% of their holiday shopping online, the most in the survey’s history.  

Regional discounter Shopko has added a range of omnichannel capabilities to its retail operations just in time for what is expected to be the most digital Christmas ever.

Shopko announced the rollout of expanded omnichannel capabilities it said would provide shoppers more access to products, the ability to buy products on-line and ship them to store for free. The capabilities were extended to 310 of the company’s locations.

Seattle -- Starbucks Coffee Company continues to extend its mobile offerings. The coffee giant will launch mobile ordering in its locations in the Portland, Ore., area by year end, with a full rollout nationwide in 2015.    The mobile-order app will enable customers to place orders in advance of their visit and pick them up at their selected Starbucks location.   

Food Lion partnered with its customers and Feeding America to help provide 1.5 million meals to families in need.  

Thanks to a program that began on September 17, each time a customer purchased the specially-marked apples Food Lion helped provide five meals to local food banks.

When it comes to domestic divas, Martha Stewart has few rivals, but Ellen DeGeneres is dipping her toe in the water with a new seasonal home collection branded as E.D. On Air.

The popular comedian and talk show host announced the creation of her new lifestyle collection in July called simply E.D. The new seasonal home collection is called E.D. On Air because it was created exclusively for QVC. It will debut on Friday, October 8 when DeGeneres introduces the line live on her show.

Seattle –- Amazon.com will open a holiday pop-up store at San Francisco Westfield Centre, in San Francisco, on Wednesday, Oct. 22, according to the San Francisco Business Journal.   

A delayed start to the shopping season is causing consumers to postpone their holiday purchases until Thanksgiving weekend, according to the 2014 Holiday Purchase Intentions Survey from global information company The NPD Group.

In what promises to be the most digital holiday season ever, Amazon has issued an appeal to shoppers who want to avoid busy parking lots, crowded stores and long checkout lines.

Amazon’s appeal to shoppers was made in conjunction with the release of the online retailers 2014 Holiday Toy List and compounds traditional retailers’ already challenging effort to generate traffic to stores during the holiday season.