News

New York -- When compared with a baseline shopping period of mid-October of this year, total mobile visits on Thanksgiving and Black Friday increased 93%. Data from multichannel platform provider Usablenet also shows that overall mobile transactions increased 219% and total revenue from mobile transactions increased by 368%.

In addition, average order value increased by 56.3%, conversion rates increased by 93%, and shoppers spent an average of 47 seconds longer on site (the average length of visit was just more than six minutes per site).

Third party logistics provider Transplace named veteran finance executive Tony Cossentino as its new CFO reporting to CEO Tom Sanderson.

Cossentino replaces Steve Crowther, who joined Transplace in 2007 and helped guide the company through management-led private equity deals with CI Capital Partners and Greenbriar Equity Group, as well as strategic acquisitions of SCO Logistics, Torus Freight Systems and partnership with Celtic International.

By Leslie Hand, research director, IDC Retail Insights

By Rodney Mason, CMO, Parago, [email protected]

In its annual survey of holiday spending trends, Deloitte reports that 46% of consumers plan to do their holiday shopping online. That puts online shopping in the number-one position for the first time in the survey’s history. Deloitte also found that nearly six out of 10 shoppers plan to use self-help technologies in-store when holiday shopping.

Peter Freedman was appointed managing director of the Consumer Goods Forum with responsibility for leading the Paris-based organization’s efforts to promote better lives through better business.

Mechanicsville, Va. – Supervalu is shipping goods to its grocery stores across the Eastern region with a much smaller carbon footprint, thanks to the recent addition of 35 Class 8 Volvo trucks that operate on compressed natural gas (CNG). The fleet is the largest of its kind on the East Coast, and the company plans to add another 20 trucks next year.  

New York -- There are significant similarities between Millennial and Boomer shoppers. A study of Millennial and Boomer purchasing trends conducted by Radius Global Market Research shows that while there are certainly differences, there are also significant similarities between the groups.

Same store sales increased 10.1% during November at J.C. Penney, the company announced during an update on its holiday performance.

In addition to the double digit comp performance, J.C. Penney said its e-commerce sales through jcp.com continued to be strong, running well ahead of last year, consistent with last month's trend.