News

Boca Raton, Fla. – Polaroid is opening three locations of its Fotobar experiential retail concept in the Los Angeles area, with the first debuting Nov. 18 at Westfield Culver City. The 300-sq.-ft.micro-stores offer a cube shape and Polaroid Color Spectrum logo, and customers can take a seat at the Fotobar and transform their pictures instantly from their smartphone, Facebook or Instagram  into three different size Polaroid pictures which can be collected in unique Polaroid shadowboxes or other picture accessories.  

DENVER — An estimated 28% of shoppers plan to do most of their shopping at mass retailers versus 26% who will opt to shop online retailers this holiday season, according to an ongoing shopper behaviour study conducted by The Integer Group and M/A/R/C Research.

Holiday shoppers plan to cash in on a range of offers and value-add services this holiday season. Free shipping continues to be the most popular offer for holiday shoppers, with 58% of shoppers reporting they expect to take advantage of it this holiday season.

Hollywood, Calif. - Online and offline consumer conversations and recommendations account for 13% of consumer sales, on average, which represents $6 trillion in annual consumer spending. In higher price-point categories, word of mouth's impact is almost 20% of sales, according to a new study from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA).

A lack of golfers and hunters didn’t prevent Dick’s Sporting Goods from realizing third quarter profit expectations and increasing e-commerce penetration to a new high.

The company’s total sales increased 9% to $1.5 billion and sames-store sales increased 1.1%, toward the low end of the company’s guidance, which envisioned a 1% to 3% increase.

New York, N.Y. - Just more than half of all Americans (51%) plan to purchase toys as gifts in the upcoming holiday season, nearly consistent with the prior year's intent (50%). Not surprisingly, according to a new Harris Poll of 2,205 U.S, adults, parents of a child under the age of 18 are twice as likely to purchase toys as those without children younger than the age of 18 (82% compared 41%, respectively).   

Atlanta – The Home Depot Inc. showed solid performance in the third quarter of fiscal 2014 despite reporting a major data breach in September, but still has not fully accounted for all the costs related to the breach. Home Depot reported net earnings of $1.5 billion, topping Wall Street projections and a 7% increase from $1.4 billion the same quarter in fiscal 2013.

For many shoppers, it’s that time of year to skip the holiday meal, devise a shopping strategy and get in line, right?

Well, not if you are a Toys”R”Us Rewards member.

The company is now among the growing ranks of retailers looking to create an aura of exclusivity with shoppers by promoting early access to the hottest holiday prices.

The retailer plans to give its nearly 19 million loyalty program members a sneak peek of Black Friday deals on more than 100 items beginning Nov. 23.

LONDON — Macy's continues to innovate its omnichannel experience with  the launch of a new iOS app that incorporates image recognition and visual search software. The tool allows consumers to search through thousands of inventory items by simply using a picture snapped from their iPhone to find similar products available at Macys.com.

The photo search app was designed in the Macy's Idea Labs facility in San Francisco, and the software for the image recognition was developed and supplied by Cortexica, a leader mobile image recognition.