Seasonal

Seattle – Starbucks anticipates record purchases and activations of Starbucks cards on Thursday, Dec. 19. Last year, more than 2 million Starbucks cards were purchased in the U.S. and Canada on the Thursday before Christmas, representing nearly 1,500 cards purchased per minute in the U.S. and Canada.

Washington, D.C. -- According to NRF’s latest holiday survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, nearly half (49.9%) of holiday shoppers indicate they plan to do the remainder of their holiday shopping online, the highest percent in the survey’s 11-year history. As of Dec. 9, before the most recent weekend, 32 million holiday shoppers had not even started shopping.

Rakuten LinkShare announced double-digit year-over-year growth during Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, driven primarily by transactions conducted on mobile devices.

It has been a rough start to the holiday season for the closeout retail sector. Building #19, a New England-based closeout chain that became something of a local institution, recently closed its doors after 50 years in business (though it plans to reopen a few locations as specialty rug stores). A few days later, national closeout powerhouse Big Lots reported disappointing financial results for the third quarter.

New York -- Duane Reade, a division of Walgreens, on Friday at midnight launched a holiday photo contest on Facebook. The “Show Us Your Party Legs”  promotion  is a three week, omnichannel social media marketing campaign to raise awareness of Duane Reade-brand hosiery products. It will run through Jan. 4.

Duane Reade launched a “Show Us Your Party Legs” holiday photo contest on Facebook. The contest is a omnichannel social media marketing campaign that aims to raise awareness of Duane Reade-brand hosiery products that will run through Jan. 4.

Millburn, N.J. – A 30-year-old man was fatally shot during a carjacking at The Mall at Short Hills, an upscale shopping center in Millburn, N.J. According to the Newark Star-Ledger, the man and his wife were entering their Range Rover on a parking deck at around 9 p.m., on Dec. 15, following an evening of holiday shopping at the mall when two men fired multiple shots.

New York -- Analysis has uncovered a 46% increase in social networking referrals to top 500 retail websites during the most critical week of the year, just one of four key trends identified in a report by Experian Marketing Services.

The 2013 holiday marketing analysis from the holiday shopping season's peak week, the period beginning Thanksgiving and ending on Cyber Monday, cited the following four trends: