Social Media

New York City -- New shopping apps, mobile technologies and social media rewards are moving buying decisions back into the stores, according to WSL/Strategic Retail. The finding are part of the company’s Buzz to Buy 2.0 trend report, its second annual survey measuring how the power of Social Media and online information are impacting buying decisions.

NEW YORK — While advances in smartphones and social media use has lead many consumers to shop online, those same technologies are being utilized by retailers to get customers back into the stores. New shopping apps, mobile technologies and social media rewards are moving buying decisions back into the stores, according to WSL/Strategic Retail's second annual Buzz to Buy 2.0 trend report.

SAN BRUNO, Calif. — Walmart is looking to help holiday shoppers find the perfect gift this season with the launch of a new social shopping application.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Wednesday it has debuted a social networking application, calling it Shopycat.

The app uses Facebook data to recommend gifts to consumers, on the company's Facebook page. It is one of the first products to roll out of @Walmartlabs, a unit of the company charged with developing social-networking and mobile technologies for the retailer.

A tacky holiday sweater – and most of us have one – can make for an innovative mall marketing campaign.

Inland US Management, Inland Southwest Management and Inland Pacific Property Services, subsidiaries of Inland Western Retail Real Estate Trust, have kicked off an ugly sweater contest on its holiday website, HolidayFunForAll.com, developed in partnership with Studio 318 out of San Diego. Contest participants are asked to answer a few basic questions and upload a photo of their worst “knitmare” to the website.

Westboro, Mass. -- Micros-Retail, a division of Micros Systems, announced Tuesday that Pendleton has selected it to redesign and re-launch pendleton-usa.com.

New York City -- Online sales on Cyber Monday were up 33% over 2010, with shopping peaks occurring at 2:05 p.m. EST, according to IBM’s fourth annual Cyber Monday Benchmark study. The average ticket increased 2.6% to $198.26, compared with $193.24 last year.

Among other key Cyber Monday Benchmark findings:

Armonk, N.Y. -- U.S. shoppers took advantage of early sales this holiday driving a 39.3% increase in online Thanksgiving day spending while setting the stage for 24.3% online growth on Black Friday compared with the same period last year, according to the fourth annual IBM Coremetrics Black Friday Benchmark study, which tracks more than a million transactions a day, analyzing terabytes of raw data from 500 retailers nationwide.