National Retail Federation (NRF)

A strong report on Friday from the Labor Department shows that retail employment was up 51,100 jobs in February on the heels of a gain of 52,100 in January.

Compared with February 2015, retail jobs were up by 247,300. The numbers exclude gasoline stations, automobiles and restaurants.

Yonkers, N.Y. -- Brixmor Property Group announced it has strengthened its tenant offering at Highridge Plaza in Yonkers, New York, with the addition of Hmart, an Asian-American supermarket chain. Hmart is scheduled to open a 41,764-sq.-ft. store in fourth quarter 2016.

National Retail Federation president and CEO Matt Shay shared a message of inspiration and transformation to mark the beginning of the trade group’s annual Big Show, which again drew a record number of attendees to New York.

Huge numbers of shoppers feasted on deals over Thanksgiving weekend, but how and when Americans did so has forever changed, as online activity exceeded store visits.

Huge numbers of shoppers feasted on deals over Thanksgiving weekend, but how and when Americans did so has forever changed, as online activity exceeded store visits.

Retailers such as Walmart, Target, Best Buy and Macy’s spoke of well executed promotional strategies that leveraged their physical and digital presence and those insights were validated by data from the National Retail Federation’s Thanksgiving Weekend Survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics.

The October deadline for retailers to accept EMV (Europay, Mastercard, Visa)-compliant, chip-based payment cards or face increased fraud liability has placed payment card security in the industry headlines. While important, securing card-based payments at the store is one small facet of the huge undertaking retailers face in protecting their entire network.

Even though Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, a National Retail Federation consumer survey projects spending will decline compared to last year.

The pervasiveness of smartphones is making this back-to-school season the most technology-influenced ever, and a new study from Synchrony Financial provides fresh insight on the impact digital tools are having.