Data & Analytics

Cautious spending and a spending divide that has bifurcated the American holiday shopper into two distinct segments,  are two of the 10 big trends that are expected to drive the 2014 holiday shopping season, according to a new report from PwC US and Strategy&.

Dallas -- Cypress Equities companies announced that Cypress Lake Pleasant, LP, a new affiliated partnership, has purchased the fee simple interest in the Lake Pleasant Crossing shopping center in Peoria, Arizona.

Cypress previously held a ground lease interest in the property, having developed the existing shopping center and Lowe’s Home Improvement Center on the site. With the purchase, Cypress is in the process of making several upgrades to the existing center as well as planning for the second phase of development.

Scott Fenwick, Manhattan Associates

For the average consumer, the holiday season probably seems far away. As we recover from back-to-school mayhem, holiday shopping lists are not likely to be top of mind. Very soon, however, decorations will begin creeping onto store shelves, and seasonal commercials will make their first appearances during our favorite TV shows.

Holiday sales are projected to grow at their fastest level in years, rising 4.1% to nearly $617 billion after a 3.1% increase last year, according to an annual forecast released by the National Retail Federation.

For the first time in its history, Amazon will feature top deals from sellers on holiday deal pages worldwide. The holiday deals from sellers will now appear on the Amazon Today’s Deals page, Black Friday Store, Cyber Monday Store and many other high customer traffic site features.

With average in-store purchases exceeding online sales by two and three times, popular online-only retailers, including Birchbox, Piperlime, Bonobos and Blank Label are continuing their expansion into physical storefronts, further accelerating the trend of online retail concepts expanding their omnichannel sales strategy to include physical locations.

Chico’s is looking to evolve its omnichannel retailing strategy, and to that end, has partnered with Tyco, a leading global provider of retail performance and security tools and technology, to address inventory accuracy and visibility challenges in 13 Soma Intimates pilot stores.

Tyco's RFID-based Inventory Intelligence tool is designed to enable store assistants to access accurate, real-time inventory information in one place to better manage their deep merchandise assortment and to drive increased sales and shopper satisfaction, according to the company.

The 2014 holiday shopping season will be characterized by cautious spending, while economic realities create one of two American holiday shoppers — survivalists and selectionists — according to a new report released Tuesday from PricewaterhouseCoopers U.S. and Strategy, titled "2014 Holiday Outlook: Top trends, consumer behaviors and implications for retailers."

Despite sluggish comparable store sales in the second quarter, Container Store chairman and CEO Kip Tindell is pleased with the company’s overall earnings performance, driven in part by increased average ticket growth as well as new store growth.

Franklin, Tenn. – Mobile POS technology is growing in popularity among retailers, particularly in the enterprise space, according to the new Mobile POS Software Market Share report from global research and advisory firm IHL.