Seasonal

By Scott Fenwick, Manhattan Associates

For the average consumer, the holiday season probably seems far away. As we recover from back-to-school mayhem, holiday shopping lists are not likely to be top of mind. Very soon, however, decorations will begin creeping onto store shelves, and seasonal commercials will make their first appearances during our favorite TV shows.

Washington, D.C. - The National Retail Federation (NRF) expects sales in November and December (excluding autos, gas and restaurant sales) to increase a healthy 4% to $616.9 billion, higher than 2013’s actual 3% increase during that same time frame. This would mark the first time since 2011 that holiday sales would increase more than 4%.

Holiday sales are projected to grow at their fastest level in years, rising 4.1% to nearly $617 billion after a 3.1% increase last year, according to an annual forecast released by the National Retail Federation.

Party City has promoted Gregg A. Melnick to president of Party City Holdings, effective immediately. Party City Holdings is the parent company of the Party City Retail Group and Amscan Inc., among other entities. Most recently, Melnick was president of the Party City Retail Group.  

The consumer electronics category is expected to set a holiday sales record this season and one of the hottest brands going right now is the GoPro line of cameras and accessories.

That explains why Best Buy just expanded its offering of the popular brand to feature a striking 12 foot display that features an endcap with a 40 inch monitor to showcase the type of video the GoPro line is capable of capturing. A centerpiece of the display will be the brand’s new HERO4 model which will be available on October 5.

New York -- RadioShack Corp. has agreed to a financing packaging arranged by its biggest investor, hedge fund Standard General, that would help ease the retailer’s cash crunch as it heads into the holiday selling season, Bloomberg reported.

How well many retailers perform this holiday season in store and online will be determined by the shopping preferences of a demographic group that doesn’t typically get a lot of love from marketers.

Arlington, Va. - The 2014 holiday season will see the highest levels of consumer spending on consumer electronics (CE) since 1994. According to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) holiday outlook, total tech spending during the holidays will increase 2.5% to reach a record $33.76 billion during the 2014 holiday season.