Data & Analytics

MINNEAPOLIS — Target will donate $5 million to local schools nationwide as part of the company's commitment to give $1 billion for education by the end of 2015.

Retailers who promoted their online presence as a way to avoid the crowds this past weekend were rewarded for their efforts with record sales on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday.

All those flat screens televisions sticking out of shopping carts in the aisles of Target stores early Friday morning were no optical illusion.

Casey Carl is Target’s new president of multichannel with responsibility for the retailer’s website. In his new role, Carl will oversee Target’s digital platforms including mobile, social and Target.com and also will retain his prior responsibilities as SVP merchandising for entertainment, toys, sporting goods and electronics.

Few vehicles on the NASCAR circuit look as good or are as identifiable on the track as the No. 42 Target Chevrolet with its red-and-white color scheme and distinctive Bullseye logo adorning the hood. Unfortunately for Target, style doesn’t count for anything in auto racing and driver Juan Pablo Montoya failed to win a race this year.

Charlotte, N.C. — Harris Teeter will open a 61,000-sq.-ft. store in Baltimore, making it the chain's first in the city and seventh in Maryland.

The store, which will be located in the McHenry Row neighborhood of Baltimore, opens its doors on Dec. 7. The supermarket places strong emphasis on fresh foods, items-to-go and perishable items, Harris Teeter said.

The chain also is applying for LEED certification for the location, noting the supermarket will include electric vehicle charging stations and an integrated refrigeration.

New York City -- Online sales on Cyber Monday were up mid-afternoon by 15% from a year ago, according to IBM Benchmark.

In other mid-afternoon results, IBM reported:

• The number of consumers using a mobile device to visit a retailer's site is 12.4%.
• The number of consumers using their mobile device to make a purchase is at 7.37%; and
• iPhone continues to lead all mobile device traffic at 4.88%, followed by Android at 3.9% and iPad at 3.26%.

Minneapolis -- Target will donate $5 million to local schools nationwide as part of the company's commitment to give $1 billion for education by the end of 2015.

Target has teamed up with "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and its viewers to select 50 schools in need to receive a $100,000 grant. Viewers are encouraged to submit the name of a school that needs help, along with a compelling story that explains why the school should receive a grant, to "The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”

Holiday shoppers were hunting for big screen televisions, LeapFrogs, Angry Birds and anything with an “i” in its name this weekend, according to an analysis of online search behavior conducted by the price comparison website PriceGrabber.com.

According to the firm’s Holiday Dashboard Report, as of Friday morning the top searched Black Friday products included items in some of the most frequently promoted categories such as electronics and toys. The top searched products, according to PriceGrabber, included the following:

Armonk, N.Y. -- U.S. shoppers took advantage of early sales this holiday driving a 39.3% increase in online Thanksgiving day spending while setting the stage for 24.3% online growth on Black Friday compared with the same period last year, according to the fourth annual IBM Coremetrics Black Friday Benchmark study, which tracks more than a million transactions a day, analyzing terabytes of raw data from 500 retailers nationwide.