eCommerce

Beloit, Wis. – Athletic brand Nike, which first rose to dominance with the ascent of longtime spokesperson Michael Jordan as an NBA superstar in the early 1990s, is maintaining its leading position with consumers.

According to a new survey of 1,000 U.S. adults by online deal site FatWallet, a leading 41% of kids are asking for Nike products this back-to-school season.

New York -- A survey released Monday is in line with other reports that consumers do not plan to spend more this year on back-to-school supplies than they did last year. The survey also lists the 10 most popular retail brands for back-to-school purchases.

Target ranks as the most popular retail brand for back-to-school purchases, just ahead of Walmart, in the 21st annual Back-to-School survey by Brand Keys, the New York-based brand loyalty and emotional engagement research consultancy. Macy’s, CVS and Best Buy round out the top five.

Los Angeles – Cart abandonment is a problem that continues to plague online retailers, but some answers may have been uncovered. A site abandonment survey of more than 60,000 e-commerce shoppers by Bizrate Insights, a division of retail marketing solutions firm Connexity http://connexity.com/ (formerly Shopzilla), found that retailers can reduce abandonment by targeting customers who visited with the intent to buy, but didn’t complete a purchase (“true abandoners”).

South Korean beauty fave TonyMoly is laying down U.S. roots. With one store in New York City’s Chinatown, limited product distribution in Urban Outfitters and Sephora and a new website, the brand has opened its second Big Apple location.

New York -- In its latest round of housecleaning, eBay is killing same-day deliveries and three mobile apps.

The company on Monday said it is shutting down eBay Now, a three-year-old service that allows customers to buy items from local sellers and then have the goods delivered as soon as the same day. The service, the company’s answer to the fast-growing on-demand delivery market, never really took off.

The calendar may only say July, but retailers are already promoting back-to-school.  

Here are four promotional trends the folks at Market Track predict will play out this selling season:

• Retailers/e-retailers creating new mid-year “Black Friday” type events concurrent with Back to School. (e.g., Amazon's Prime Day, Target’s Black Friday in July, etc.)

Minneapolis – Consumers who want to purchase an Apple Watch will have a new option as of Friday, Aug. 7.

 On that date, Best Buy will become the first national retailer, other than Apple Stores, where customers can buy the Apple Watch.

It will begin to arrive in more than 100 Best Buy stores and will also be available on BestBuy.com. Another 200 Best Buy stores will have the Apple Watch in time for holiday shopping.

Seattle – Last month Facebook overtook Wal-Mart in valuation, and now another digital giant has reportedly achieved the same feat. According to the Associated Press, after intense after-hours trading, which followed Amazon’s rare report of a second quarter fiscal 2015 profit, Amazon now has market capitalization of about $264 billion.