Omnichannel

The use of mobile phones in retail is increasing dramatically, according to a survey released at the National Retail Federation’s Annual Convention & Expo in New York City. The study, conducted by ForeSee Results and entitled “Explosion in Mobile Retail Provides Huge Opportunity for Retailers,” found that shoppers are using mobile phones to access websites and apps more than ever before.

Sidney, Neb. -- Cabela’s announce the launch of an optimized mobile website through mobile-commerce provider Digby. Through Digby’s mobile-commerce software platform, Cabela’s is enabling mobile as a strategic channel that complements their e-commerce website, catalogs and products sold in more than 30 stores in the United States and Canada.

NEW YORK — Fujitsu on Monday unveiled its latest checkout technology at the National Retail Federation trade show.

According to the company, the new technology boasts reduced time on lines and a customer-friendly checkout experience. Fujitsu also said that supermarket giant Kroger currently is evaluating the new technology in a limited number of its stores to boost the retailer's Advanced Checkout areas.

By Manish Lonial and Akhilesh Srivastava  [email protected], [email protected]

Columbus, Ohio -- Retail same-store sales eased to 3.2% growth in December in the wake of November’s exceptionally strong promotional activity and an ongoing shift toward online shopping, according to Kantar Retail. The sales-weighted composite for the 31 retailers reporting -- most of them apparel retailers -- was weaker than the 5.6% same-store sales gain last month, but slightly better than the 3.0% gain in December of 2009. (The calculations no longer include Walmart, which stopped reporting monthly results in 2009. )

Transaction marketing gained widespread acceptance among retailers in 2010, as they began to recognize marketing in the electronic banking channel as a far more cost effective way to encourage repeat business, increase the average transaction sizes and drive same-store sales. It enabled retailers to overcome the marketing waste associated with other channels -- like Groupon -- and consistently provided compelling and measurable return on their marketing investment.

Toronto -- Opterus announced that fashion accessories retailer Charming Charlie has implemented Opterus Store Ops-Center to increase store operational efficiencies.

The final holiday numbers are in from online measurement firm comScore and it was a record year. November and December online sales increased 12% to $32.6 billion and, considering the surge in traffic that takes place at Walmart.com during those months and the increasing level of cross-channel integration, the retailer likely captured at least a fair share of the growth.