Retail

More than a fifth of the world’s retail sales occurred in the United States this year.

That’s according to the latest forecast of retail and e-commerce sales from eMarketer, which estimates that total U.S. retail sales hit $4.8 trillion in 2015 and will approach $5 trillion in value in 2016.

When it came to clicking online coupons in 2015, consumers had clear preferences about what they wanted discounts for.

Online deal and discount platform RetailMeNot.com released a list of the 10 most popular coupons among its users in 2015. Some offers received close to 1.5 million clicks. In order, consumers clicked:

• 20% off one item at Tillys
• $5 off an online order of $15 or more at Ulta
• Up to 35% off a car rental at Budget

The October 2015 launch of the Handmade at Amazon online arts and crafts marketplace was seen as a harbinger of doom for Etsy. However, Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson has publicly stated he doesn’t see Handmade at Amazon as a threat, and TheStreet reports that feedback from sellers on both platforms backs up Dickerson’s assertion. [TheStreet]

The three-day Christmas weekend (Dec. 25 - Dec. 27) showed strong consumer interest in online shopping during and immediately after the holiday.

According to Verizon Retail Index, broadband traffic attributed to e-commerce shopping activity increased dramatically starting on Christmas Day to 26% above average daily levels, posting a seasonal high of 30% above normal levels by Sunday, Dec. 27.

Did a last-minute rush make for stronger holiday sales than many — including the National Retail Federation — had expected?

That’s the way it looks based on the MasterCard Spending Pulse report, which found that sales (excluding auto and gas) increased 7.9% during the holiday season, led by double-digit gains in e-commerce, women’s apparel and furniture.

The SpendingPulse report, released on Monday, December 28, looked at U.S. sales trends across cards, cash and checks from Black Friday to Christmas Eve.

Staples Inc. is turning to Twitter to provide extra assistance for its small business customers.

Staples is preparing the launch of the #MoreSmallBiz Squad, a group of experts who will directly interact with small business customers through use of the #MoreSmallBiz hashtag. The experts will offer blog posts and other content, and also directly interact with small businesses who post questions on Twitter using the hashtag.

The holiday season got off to a horrible start at Bed Bath & Beyond and things went downhill from there, judging from the industry leader’s uncharacteristic and concerning profit warning.

The company badly missed its third quarter sales and profit forecast for a period that included most of Thanksgiving weekend, and said its same-store sales for the fourth quarter were likely to increase 1%.

Teen retailer rue21 is collaborating with a youth nonprofit to make a positive impact on the lives of its customers.

The company announced it is partnering with Together We Rise, a nonprofit dedicated to transforming the way youth navigate through the foster care system in America. The collaboration is a new addition to rue21’s philanthropy initiative, rueGIVESback.