Consumer Analytics

Retailers who do not offer an option for online or mobile shopping may find their customers opting out. A new survey of U.S. and Canadian consumers from MasterCard, “The Psyche of Shopping,” shows that consumers have purposely chosen not to buy something when a retailer did not have an online payment option (68%), a mobile payment option (19%), or an in-app payment option (14%).

It’s no secret that e-commerce is continuing to grow as a portion of holiday shopping volume. But a newer trend shows that holiday e-commerce growth is shifting away from the desktop channel. According to a new survey from digital promotion platform RetailMeNot Inc., mobile app visits and transactions closed on desktop visits and transactions during the 2014 holiday season. If the trend keeps pace in 2015, mobile visits and transactions will surpass desktop visits and transactions as a holiday e-commerce channel.

What growth there is in the food channel these days is being driven by specialty products and the trend shows no sign of abating.

When it comes to tech companies, millennials place their trust in a well-known e-commerce retailer. A nationwide survey commissioned by the Marketing Executives Networking Group reveals that more than half of millennials age 18-34 indicated they trusted Amazon more than any other major tech company.

Most of us don’t know our customers. Picture the shopper who walks into a store. They’re blank canvases with no visible history, and that means there’s no easy way for sales associates to shape what happens in the next 10, 20 or 30 minutes, before they walk back out the door.

The highly anticipated EMV deadline of October 1 has come and gone, leaving many retailers and payment solutions providers to ponder what’s next?

As of Oct. 1, 2015, any U.S. retailer that does not have the necessary POS hardware, software, and operational and network protocols in place to process an EMV-compliant chip card transaction faces a shift in fraud liability.

As chip-based EMV cards become the payment norm for retailers, Visa continues to assert that PINs and even signatures are unnecessary security measures in a rapidly evolving payments landscape.

In a conference call, Visa executives explained why the company is taking the view that not only is PIN verification not a major concern, but neither is obtaining the customer’s signature.

Videos just became more valuable to retailers. YouTube is releasing Shopping ads, a new advertising format that lets viewers click and buy products directly from videos.

Consumers may make merry during the upcoming holiday season, but mobile devices may be less a part of the action than retailers like.

According to a new survey from marketing automation platform provider Bronto Software, only 19% of holiday shoppers plan to purchase from a tablet, and 22% from a smartphone.

Consumers will use mobile devices to search for the best deal: 65% will look for promotions and coupons, 63% will check prices on that store's website and 61% will search for lower prices at another store or site.

Despite all the commotion surrounding the Oct. 1 deadline for U.S. retailers to accept EMV-compliant payment cards, the National Retail Federation (NRF) expects no drastic shifts to occur.