Sales & Marketing

Ordering groceries online and digitizing the store rank among the top trends in grocery shopping for 2016, according to GroceryStories.com.

GroceryStories identified the following full list of top grocery trends for 2016:

Amazon.com had a merry (and prosperous) holiday season, at least according to a limited set of statistics released by the e-tail giant.

Amazon touted the impact of mobile commerce on its 21st holiday season, reporting that nearly 70% of its customers shopped using a mobile device. However, Amazon did not break that figure down into how many shoppers actually made mobile purchases compared to those who browsed on a mobile device and bought through another channel.

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

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.

Born the six of seven kids to parents of modest means, Conn’s CEO Norm Miller knows firsthand the challenges facing working families. That’s why he’s proud of Conn’s approach to serving customers and believes the retailer’s unique business model offers staggering growth potential.

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%.

When it comes to reaching today’s consumers, Richardson, Texas-based vertical specialty apparel/accessories retailer Fossil Group Inc. is not living in the past.

“We are focusing on image creation for our social promotions,” said Jencey Keeton, marketing manager, digital branding and global marketing for Fossil, during an interview with Chain Store Age. “Images are now the way consumers are speaking. To be relevant, social platforms must include images.”