News

comScore: Desktop Cyber Monday sales pass $2 billion
Reston, Va. - Cyber Monday reached $2.04 billion in desktop online spending, up 17% from a year ago and representing the heaviest online spending day in history and the only day ever to surpass $2 billion in sales. According to data from comScore, the weekend after Thanksgiving also reached a major milestone as it saw its first ever billion-dollar online shopping day on Saturday, while Sunday’s sales just fell short of the $1 billion mark.
TJX offers limited gift-giving advice
Just like many of the products sold in its stores, TJX Companies is offering a limited duration holiday helpline staffed by folks who presume to know the perfect gift for anonymous recipients.

T.J. Maxx and Marshalls this week said they are bringing back their “Holiday Gift Hotline” to combat the issue they identified in a survey of people buying uninventive gifts. The hotline is a free service only available for limited hours Dec. 4-7 and is designed to provide shoppers with a variety of gift ideas to help them give gifts people really want to receive.

Analysis: Walmart had best return on Black Friday weekend ad spend
Record-setting Cyber Monday for Walmart—biggest day ever for online orders

SAN BRUNO, Calif.- It was a very busy Monday—Cyber Monday to be more specific— for Walmart. The discounter said that Cyber Monday 2014 (Dec. 1) was the biggest online day in its history for orders. Customers viewed more than 1.5 billion pages on Walmart.com between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.
Survey: Consumers trust online brands too much—to benefit of cybercriminals

Portland, Ore. – Consumers have trust in well-known brands online, possibly to the detriment of themselves and their employers and to and the benefit of cybercriminals. According to a new survey of 2,011 U.S. and U.K. consumers from security solutions provider Tripwire, more than 40% of consumers believe emails from “trusted brands” are safe to click, and nearly a quarter (24%) anticipate doing at least part of their holiday shopping while at work.

Survey findings include:
Kmart campaign makes a difference for kids

Shoppers at Kmart who are looking for that must-have toy this holiday season will be also able to help raise money to end childhood cancer and other diseases.

Kmart has announced that beginning this Sunday through Dec. 13, the retailer will donate $1 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for every purchase from its annual Fab 15 toy list, up to a maximum donation of $25,000.
Adobe – Top 25 retailers drive strong Cyber Monday sales

San Jose, Calif. - Total online sales for Cyber Monday came in at $2.65 billion, up 16% compared to 2013. According to data from Adobe Systems, the top 25 retailers, who each generated $30 million or more on Cyber Monday, saw online sales increase by 25%, capturing nearly $1.8 billion.
Smaller retailers, those generating $2 million or less, grew sales by 5%. Consumers saw the highest discounts of 23% in the early morning hours and more than half (54%) of online sales occurred outside of normal working hours.
Walmart pledges $1.5M giveaway on Giving Tuesday

At a time when food pantries have a critical shortage of supplies and increased demand from those in need, Walmart is making a major pledge to help the hungry.
IBM: Mobile consumers boost Cyber Monday performance

Armonk, N.Y. – Mobile traffic and sales trends indicate that Cyber Monday is increasingly becoming an event consumers take with them wherever they go. According to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark data, Cyber Monday mobile traffic accounted for 41.2% of all online traffic, up 30.1% from 2013.
Study: Who you gonna call? For customer service, L.L. Bean

New York – If you were looking for quality call center service from an online retailer during Black Friday or Cyber Monday, then you wanted to shop at L.L. Bean. According to data from analysis firm StellaService, L.L. Bean led in customer service call response time on Black Friday (10 seconds), Cyber Monday (six seconds) and Cyber Weekend (nine seconds).

L.L. Bean actually improved its call center response time compared to its month-to-date average. Other notable findings included: