News

Pittsburgh - Just more one-third of all Black Friday online revenue came from shoppers on mobile devices, up 48 percent from 2013. According to Branding Brand's sample of 35 North American retailers running on its commerce platform, 90% of these consumers were on Apple devices.   Mobile devices (smartphone and tablets combined) produced a total of almost 2.2 million visits, 48,000 orders, and $5. 54 million in revenue on Black Friday. In addition, mobile devices generated:

Mississauga, Canada -  Walmart Canada is adding 33 Grab and Go lockers in the greater Toronto area.  The lockers allow customers to buy online then pick up their items in stores.   The retailer installed its first set of lockers at 10 locations in the Toronto area in August. The announcement follows a series of initiatives Walmart Canada has launched in the past year to accelerate its e-commerce program.  

By Scot Wingo, CEO, ChannelAdvisor Happy Cyber Monday! Each year we at ChannelAdvisor track the five days from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday and call that the “Cyber Five.” This year, our Cyber Five Same Store Sales (SSS) data to date shows that Holiday ’14 is off to a very strong start.

Washington, D.C. - The Alliance for Main Street Fairness (AMSF) launched a television advertising campaign to educate lawmakers on what is says is the imminent threat posed by China's online mega-retailer Alibaba as it enters the U.S. retail market. Retailers are asking the U.S. House of Representatives to join the U.S. Senate by passing e-fairness legislation that closes the online sales tax loophole this year.    

St. Petersburg, Fla. - HSN Inc. has named Jeffrey Kuster as president of Cornerstone and executive officer of HSNi. Kuster, 48, has held various leadership positions in the apparel, fashion and retail industries, most recently as executive VP, chief marketing and strategy officer for Berkshire Hathaway's Fruit of the Loom.  

Washington, D.C. – Online sales are expected to reach $300 billion in 2014, $335 billion in 2015 and $512 billion by 2020. According to predictions from FTI Consulting Inc., despite sluggish retail sales in the past year, FTI Consulting's Retail & Consumer Product experts believe online sales will continue to grow at a double-digit rate for the next several years.  

New York - Ike Boruchow, analyst, Sterne Agee, reviews Black Friday results in the specialty retail sector:    

New York - Despite some of the most promotional activity and extended operating hours the retail industry has ever seen, total spending for the four-day Black Friday weekend came in below projections, down a surprising 11.3% from last year.  According to the National Retail Federation's preliminary figures,  weekend spending dropped to  $50.9 billion from $57.4 billion last year.   

New York - Online sales were up 17% on Saturday and Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend, compared to the same weekend in 2013, according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark. What's more, mobile traffic accounted for 51.2%  of all online traffic this past weekend, an increase of 25.5% year over year, and mobile sales accounted for 28.9% of all online sales this past weekend, an increase of 24.9% year over year.   

San Francisco – Social media posts around holiday shopping peaked on Black Friday (Nov. 28) at 2.7 million. According to data from Salesforce, there were also about 1.84 million holiday shopping posts on Thanksgiving (Nov. 27), and about 719,000 posts the day before Thanksgiving (Nov. 26).