Apple, Inc.

While we wait for all of the official numbers to come in from the 2013 holiday shopping season — a topic I’ll address in a future column — I thought this might be a good time to expand on one of the points I made about retail downsizing in my 2014 forecast piece.

Ann Arbor, Mich. – Amazon.com and L.L. Bean tied for the highest company-level customer satisfaction scores during the 2013 holiday season. According to the ForeSee Experience Index: 2013 U.S. Retail Edition, Amazon and L.L. Bean both scored 90, while Priceline had the lowest company-level satisfaction score (75) of 100 top retailers included in the Index.

The study offers a comprehensive view of satisfaction at the company-level and across every applicable sales channel including store, contact center, web and mobile.

New York – Eight of the 25 largest retailers (32%, or roughly one-in-three) failed to deliver at least one package ordered on the cutoff date to arrive before Christmas via standard shipping in a study performed by StellaService. The study involved placing three orders, one each in the East, West and Midwest regions, from each retailer.

Of 75 total orders, 12% missed the delivery estimate. All but one of these orders were shipped using UPS, which is the preferred carrier for most of the top 25 retailers. Some retailer-specific results include:

I’ll hold off on talking about the holiday shopping season in detail until all the numbers are in, but it’s clear that we’ve already learned quite a lot from 2013. In fact, the more I think about this past year the more I think that the holiday numbers aren’t even the most important takeaway. What’s far more interesting to me is what 2013 has to tell us about where we go next. With that in mind, here’s my early take on what 2014 might have in store (and in stores!) for us:

Slow, steady and sustainable growth

San Jose, Calif. – Samsung has reportedly hired a high-level store designer from Apple. According to multiple media reports, the U.S., telecom unit of Samsung recently hired Tim Gudgel, a five-year veteran store designer at Apple, as VP and GM of retail sales operations.

Fort Worth, Texas — RadioShack has opened a new concept store in Fairfax Center II in Fairfax, Va.

The new concept stores feature a speaker wall where customers can compare 13 different speakers; interactive displays with headphone demo stations; technology explained by touch-screens and apps; brands such as Apple, HTC and Samsung as well as mobile carriers including AT&T, Sprint and Verizon; and a do-it-yourself area where customers can plan projects.

Washington, D.C. -- The U.S, Department of Commerce will reportedly start meeting with companies including Facebook, Apple and Wal-Mart in February 2014 to create voluntary guidelines for the commercial use of facial recognition technology. According to Bloomberg, the Department of Commerce plans to have formal guidelines ready for release in June 2014.

Columbus, Ohio — Glimcher Realty Trust has announced that its Board of Trustees has elected Yvette McGee Brown, Esq. and Nancy J. Kramer to serve as trustees on the Board, effective Dec. 12. McGee Brown and Kramer are eligible to be nominated for re-election to the Board at the company’s 2014 Annual Meeting of Shareholders.

Boston – Eight-in-10 (77%) consumers would be willing to share their smartphone location data as long as they received enough value in return. A new study from in-store mobile marketing platform provider Swirl also revealed that consumers are much more likely to entrust their location information to their favorite retailers (65%) than to shopping/deals apps, Google or Facebook.

Boston – Eight-in-10 (77%) consumers would be willing to share their smartphone location data as long as they received enough value in return. A new study from in-store mobile marketing platform provider Swirl also revealed that consumers are much more likely to entrust their location information to their favorite retailers (65%) than to shopping/deals apps, Google or Facebook.