News

Mobile will drive more than half of Thanksgiving Day online shopping visits (51%) for the first time in 2015.

That is just one mobile-friendly statistic from the new Adobe 2015 Digital Index Online Shopping Predictions. The Index also forecasts mobile will account for close to a third (29%) of all holiday sales, a 12% increase from 2014. iOS will drive 22% of sales, Android just 7%.

Baseball’s great accidental philosopher Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” In the retail business, knowing where you’re going means understanding sales, inventory, promotions, pricing, and assortment.

Mobile will drive more than half of Thanksgiving Day online shopping visits (51%) for the first time in 2015.

That is just one mobile-friendly statistic from the new Adobe 2015 Digital Index Online Shopping Predictions. The Index also forecasts mobile will account for close to a third (29%) of all holiday sales, a 12% increase from 2014. iOS will drive 22% of sales, Android just 7%.

Looking at another emerging customer engagement channel, Adobe predicts social media will drive 2% of referred visits (flat growth), with revenue per visit highest on Facebook ($1.24).

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube have some new competition as social commerce tools.

Visual commerce provider Curalate is releasing Curalate Reveal, a new solution enabling consumers to discover and shop products by clicking on images in blogs. Thus retailers can create shopping experiences on their own blogs or blogs of key influencers.

German discount grocery chain Lidl has broken ground for a new regional U.S. headquarters and distribution center in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.

Regional department store retailer Belk Inc. is using social media to make the holidays a little more fun and rewarding for its shoppers.

Build-A-Bear Workshop logged an increase in same store sales in the third quarter even as the company enters what is historically its most profitable season.

Same store sales at the specialty retailer increased 2.1% in the third quarter ended Oct. 3. This was the fifth consecutive quarter it grew same store sales.

More consumers plan to shop on Cyber Monday than on Black Friday, according to a recent Morpace Omnibus report.

Holiday intentions for U.S. consumers were revealed when the Omnibus data showed that out of 1,001 individuals surveyed, more than 57% plan to shop on Cyber Monday this year, compared to only 35% planning to shop on Black Friday. And of those planning to shop on Black Friday, only 23% will be strictly going to retail locations while another 55% will be shopping both in-store and online.

Walmart wants to use drones to check warehouse inventory and assist with curbside pickup and delivery services, and has applied for permission from regulators to do so, according to CNBC. “Drones have a lot of potential to further connect our vast network of stores, distribution centers, fulfillment centers and transportation fleet,” company spokesman Dan Toporek told CNBC. “There is a Walmart within five miles of 70% of the U.S.

Consumers are making more e-commerce transactions, and smartphones are helping to drive growth.

According to the new Q3 2015 Performance Index report from e-commerce technology platform MarketLive, e-commerce sales continue to improve across all retailer categories (apparel, beauty, home furnishings, catalog, brick-and-mortar, and brand-direct), and across all major performance metrics. These include revenues (+13.5%), traffic (+19.8%), and average order value (+3.9% to $158).