eCommerce

Return fraud during the holidays is a growing problem for retailers—and also an extremely expensive one.

When it comes to retail diversity, Manhattan is about as inclusive as it gets.

A first-of-its-kind survey of 906 existing retailers in three of Manhattan’s leading shopping districts (SoHo, Fifth Avenue, and Madison Avenue) found a virtual “United Nations” of merchants originating from 26 countries. The Cushman & Wakefield study found that nearly four out of 10 retailers – 39% -- originate from outside the United States.

Delivery performance in the first half of December may land many providers on the naughty list.

According to analysis of what more than 130,000 shoppers said in surveys about on-time deliveries of their full orders between Dec. 1 - Dec. 15 by Bizrate Insights, a division of Connexity, time is not on their side.

Bizrate Insights data indicated on-time delivery rate went from 93.3% on Tuesday, Dec. 1 to 89.9% on Tuesday, Dec. 15. There were small day-over-day spikes in on-time delivery rate on Saturday, Dec. 5, Tuesday, Dec 8 and Friday Dec. 11.

Close to nine in 10 consumers will take a look at one specific retailer before making a holiday gift purchase.

According to a survey of 3,000 U.S. consumers by marketing platform provider BloomReach, 87% of respondents will comparison shop at Amazon.com before buying a gift. This frequency of product searches is paying off for Amazon, as 73% of respondents said they will buy from Amazon and 71% will spend more than a quarter of their holiday budgets on Amazon.

2015 has been a good year for e-commerce. Alibaba shattered records on Singles Day with $14.3 billion in sales. India witnessed a boom in e-commerce investment from companies looking to win the millions of new smartphone users. Even the Girl Scouts joined the digital mix, rolling out version 2.0 of their Digital Cookie program to boost their online cookie sales.

One of New York City’s most iconic luxury apparel stores is getting bigger.

Bergdorf Goodman will relocate its executive offices and other non-sales related functions to 4 West 58th Street, adjacent to its iconic Fifth Avenue location. The move will create an additional 25,000 sq. ft. of retail space in the retailer’s flagship, including the entire 8th and 9th floors.

eBay has come up with a clever solution to help Americans solve a common dilemma: what to do about unwanted holiday gifts.

The online marketplace retailer will operate pop-up selling stations in three select Westfield shopping centers across the country during “Boxing Weekend” from Dec. 26 (Boxing Day) to Dec. 27. The stations will be located at Westfield San Francisco Centre, San Francisco; Westfield Garden State Plaza, Paramus, New Jersey; and Westfield Hawthorn Center, Vernon Hills, Illinois.

2015 has been a good year for e-commerce. Alibaba shattered records on Singles Day with $14.3 billion in sales. India witnessed a boom in e-commerce investment from companies looking to win the millions of new smartphone users. Even the Girl Scouts joined the digital mix, rolling out version 2.0 of their Digital Cookie program to boost their online cookie sales. We expect even bigger things from 2016.