Consumer Analytics

Washington, D.C. -- A report released Thursday said that consumer confidence in the U.S. was little changed for a second week, holding at a level typically reached during past recessions.

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index was at minus 50.3 in the period ended Dec. 4, after a reading of minus 50.2 the prior week. The gauge has been at minus 50 or worse for 11 of the past 12 weeks.

Yonkers, N.Y. -- Despite flagging consumer confidence, December's Consumer Reports Index, a measure of overall consumer financial health, showed that the holiday season is off to a good start, with excellent activity in November and the prospect of a strong December.

The Past 30-Day Retail Index for December was 13.9, up from 12.4 a year ago, and planned spending for December was also strong at 12.7 compared to 11.8 last year. Among the categories comprising the Retail Index, the largest gains were in personal electronics.

New York City -- Saks Fifth Avenue announced Thursday a redesign of the SaksPOV website.

SaksPOV presents a point of view from Fifth Avenue on fashion, culture and art, and the site features robust multimedia content, designer features, Saks brand coverage and lifestyle pieces. SaksPOV launched initially in December 2010.

“We will use SaksPOV as an outlet to engage with our customers and as a portal for our fashion lifestyle content,” said Denise Incandela, CMO and president of Saks Direct.
 

New York City -- Consumers and their smartphones are becoming inseparable when it comes to shopping, according to a survey by Verve Wireless, a mobile advertising company, which found that over 60% of respondents use their smartphone for shopping one or more times each month.

The top three product categories shopped for on smartphones are electronics (51%), entertainment (50%), books (45%), closely followed by clothing (38%) and automotive (21%), the survey revealed.

In other findings:

LOS ANGELES — Among those that have shopping-related applications on their smartphone, most of them will use this method to help save money when purchasing gifts this holiday season, according to a new PriceGrabber survey.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — During Lowe's annual conference Tuesday, SVP marketing and advertising Tom Lamb defined the company's target customer by first breaking down home improvement consumers into four distinct groups.

Lowe's target, he said, is on the two largest spending groups, together called "creators."

"I know half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, but I can never find out which half."

 – John Wanamaker, Department Store Tycoon and Marketing Pioneer of the early 20th Century

“There is an online privacy war going on, and without help, consumers will lose.”

– Chris Calabrese, Legislative Counsel, American Civil Liberties Union

New York City -- The retail sector continues to edge tentatively toward recovery, buoyed by a strong start to the holiday shopping season, but several obstacles stand in the way of sustained progress in 2012, according to Jones Lang LaSalle’s North America Year-end Retail Outlook.

Philadelphia — Comparable sales for the third quarter took a slight dip at The Pep Boys due to continued weakness in the company's retail segment. The company reported that comparable sales fell 0.4%, consisting of a 0.4% comparable service revenue increase and a 0.6% comparable merchandise sales decrease. Total sales increased 5.2% to $522.2 million, from $496.4 million for the same period last year.

Beachwood, Ohio -- DDR Corp announced the launch of ValuText, a location-based, mobile marketing service specifically designed to drive sales and productivity at the company's prime assets. ValuText couples physical retail assets with state-of-the-art, location-based mobile marketing. The program allows shoppers to connect with desired retailers as they enter the shopping center to avail themselves of real-time sales and promotions.