Deloitte

By Mike Romano, [email protected]

New York -- Monday launched with heavily attended keynote addresses at the National Retail Federation’s 102nd BIG Show at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.
    
Former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan shared his views about the state of world politics, joined by moderator and Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren, who also is the outgoing chairman of the NRF.
    

New York -- After nearly a year of steady gains, the Deloitte Consumer Spending Index (Index) fell in November due to a slowdown in the rise of new home prices and an accelerating decline in real wages. The Index tracks consumer cash flow as an indicator of future consumer spending.
 

NEW YORK — In an era of increasingly complex global supply chains and product safety concerns, Deloitte and Decernis have formed a strategic alliance to provide compliance solutions to consumer product, food service, retail and distribution companies.

The alliance combines Deloitte's food safety, quality and supply chain experience and the software platform and content provided by Decernis for tracking and alerting consumer businesses about compliance issues.

Chicago — The overwhelming majority of retailers offer some kind of service for mobile shoppers, and one national retail pharmacy chain was named among those leading the way, according to a new study.

Digital marketing and e-commerce company Acquity Group released results of a report showing that 82% of retailers have a mobile-optimized site, 72% have a mobile or tablet app, and 66% have both. Most of them, 88%, use basic mobile capabilities like shopping carts, while 85% use featured products, 63% use customer reviews, and 54% use contact forms.

New York -- Sixty percent of Americans plan to shop in stores or online over the Thanksgiving weekend – up from 51% in 2011, according to Deloitte’s pre-Thanksgiving survey.

Among these weekend shoppers, 63% plan to shop in stores on Black Friday and 23% plan to shop in stores on Thanksgiving day (up from 17% in last year’s survey). Shoppers expect spend an average of $286 over the holiday weekend – up 28% from the 2011 survey

The survey also indicates:

New York -- Deloitte reported Friday that its Consumer Spending Index rose sharply in October, primarily due to the significant increase in new home prices.

The Index tracks consumer cash flow as an indicator of future consumer spending.