Data & Analytics

Nearly all shoppers will be shopping a variety of channels this holiday season.   Ninety-six percent of shoppers plan to make a purchase from a retailer who has both a physical and an online presence, with 40% of them buying online and picking up in-store, according to a report by the International Council of Shopping Centers. And 81% of those shoppers plan to make additional purchases when collecting their item(s).  

Visual content has made H&M, Topshop/Topman Forever21 the most successful social media brands in the competitive fast-fashion industry.   This was according to data from visual content performance platform ShareIQ. The analysis digs into the data for the first three quarters of 2017 among the top brands in the fast-fashion category in the United States: H&M, Forever21, Uniqlo, Gap, Old Navy, Topshop/Topman, Zara, Mango and American Apparel.  

Walmart is bucking the holiday hiring trend again this year.    Unlike other competitors that are hiring thousands of temporary workers to service shoppers during the holiday season, the discount giant plans to offer extra hours to its current associates. These shifts will staff traditional roles like cashier and stocker, and newly created technology-empowered positions, such as personal shoppers and Pickup associates, according to Walmart.  

To work in retail is to accept the inevitability of déjà vu. But what returns is often never quite the same, as can be seen in the current struggle by many shopping malls to generate enough traffic to remain viable. Let me take you back to the days of my initiation to retail in New Orleans (site of next week’s National Retail Tenants Association conference), when malls began rising in former fields and woodlands and store owners in all regions struggled to manage the change.  

Amazon is giving Hilton Honors members a new way to redeem their points.    The global hospitality company is joining Amazon’s Shop With Points program, a move that will enable Hilton Honors members to redeem their loyalty points for purchases on Amazon. Hilton is the first hotel brand to join Amazon’s program.   

An uptick in consumer spending could drive sales as high as $1.05 trillion this holiday season.   Retail holiday sales should rise a healthy 4% to 4.5% over last year's shopping season — a factor that could drive sales between $1.04 trillion and $1.05 trillion between November 2017 and January 2018, according to the annual retail holiday sales forecast from the firm’s retail and distribution practices. (Holiday sales are seasonally adjusted, and exclude motor vehicles and gasoline.)  

Looking toward the future, Toys ‘R’ Us’ CEO has established a recovery plan.   In a meeting at Toys “R” Us’ pop-up store in Times Square, chief executive David Brandon outlined the company’s turnaround plan, internally called “Project Sunrise.” From a high-level, it includes integrating its online and in-store shopping experiences, adding faster shipping and better technology and customer service, according to Reuters.