eCommerce

Retailers’ with robust mobile e-commerce capabilities were able to cash in on Christmas Day as sales increased 8.3% compared to the prior year, according to the latest update from IBM’s Digital Analytics Benchmark report.

In addition to the 8.3 percent in online Christmas Day sales, IBM said mobile device traffic increased 18.6 percent to account for 57.1 percent of all Christmas day e-commerce traffic. Mobile sales increased 20.4 percent and accounted for 34.8 percent of all online sales, according to IBM.

Seattle – It was a very mobile holiday season for Amazon.com. Nearly 60% of Amazon.com customers shopped using a mobile device this holiday.     Mobile shopping accelerated as customers got later into the shopping season. Cyber Monday continues to be Amazon.com’s peak mobile shopping day. On Cyber Monday, Amazon customers worldwide ordered more than 18 toys per second from a mobile device.  

New York – When it came to fulfilling holiday deliveries, Apple, Dell, Nordstrom and Zappos stood out among other major competitors. According to research from StellaService, all four provided an aggressive guarantee that orders placed by Dec. 23 would be delivered by Christmas and managed to meet that promise in all regions of the U.S.  

Walgreens is poised to start 2015 off with a bang, as the company has nearly finalized its mega-deal with Alliance Boots.

Walgreens shareholders voted to approve all proposals related to the company’s acquisition of the remaining 55% of Alliance Boots that it does not currently own and the reorganization of the company into a holding company structure.

Female executives make their mark on the world of retail IT

It’s no secret that neither the retail industry nor the technology industry has exactly achieved parity when it comes to granting women access to top-level decision-making positions. According to a report from IIC Partners, 64% of retailers said their senior executive team was less than 25% female — despite the fact that women drive a whopping 85% of all consumer purchases.

Women are famously underrepresented in technology.

New York - Retail sales worldwide, including both in-store and Internet purchases, will total nearly $22.5 trillion this year. According to new figures from EMarketer, the global retail market will see steady growth during the next few years, and in 2018, worldwide retail sales will increase 5.5% to reach $28.3 trillion.  

Sunnyvale, Calif. – Business accelerator Plug and Play Tech Center and Simon Properties are hosting an event, “Silicon Valley Retail CMO Summit 2015,” Feb. 4-6, 2015 at Plug and Play’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. The event is open to chief marketing officers and other digital marketing decision-makers in the retail industry, and features expert speakers, a networking dinner, and an afternoon of themed start-up presentations.  

New York – The weekend of Dec. 20-21, which included “Super Saturday” (the last Saturday before Christmas) saw the highest daily back-to-back Internet traffic from online consumer retail shopping activity since tracking began before the Thanksgiving weekend. According to the Verizon Retail Index, average daily traffic was 119 on Saturday and 122 on Sunday.