Seasonal

Washington, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation’s 2012 holiday consumer spending survey conducted by BIGinsight showed that 81.1% of shoppers will purchase at least one gift card and will spend an average of $156.86 on gift cards, the highest amount in the survey’s 10-year history. Total spending on gift cards will reach $28.79 billion.

According to NRF’s first holiday survey, released in October, six in 10 (59.8%) of those polled said they’d like to receive gift cards this year, up from 57.7% last year.

NEW YORK, N.Y. — Social media will influence how people plan to shop this holiday season nearly as much as word-of-mouth and store advertisements, according to a survey conducted by ConsumerSearch.com, part of the About Group.

Charleston, S.C. -- A shopping forecast released Tuesday by America’s Research Group found that 31.8% of U.S. consumers said they will shop Black Friday Weekend in search of big-ticket items. But the biggest boost will be in the five days before Christmas when more Americans than in the last seven years say they will shop.

New York -- A report released Wednesday by the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs found that consumers are more willing to spend this holiday season.

According to the 2012 Holiday Spending Intentions Survey, 19% of consumers plan to spend more (and 5% plan to spend substantially more) on holiday gifts this year versus last year.  This is the highest percentage of consumers reporting they intend to increase spending over the previous holiday season since ICSC began asking the question in 2004.

Washington, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation said Wednesday that, for the first time in three months, retail sales ticked down slightly as consumers cooled discretionary spending in the face of inclement weather and uncertainty in Washington.

October retail sales (excluding automobiles, gas stations and restaurants) decreased 0.3% seasonally adjusted from September yet increased 3.9% unadjusted year-over-year.



The busiest shopping weekend of the year is just around the corner and retailers who don’t hit their sales plan won’t be able to blame the weather.

Washington, D.C. -- A report released Tuesday by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates said that import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to increase 5.9% in November despite the temporary closure of some ports by superstorm Sandy.

The overall trend has been similar to what we saw last month with a marginal decrease in the number of circulars, while increases were seen in page counts per market. Average pages per market saw 10% increase this year October when compared with the same month last year.