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It turns out that the No. 1 retail perk for online shoppers is not speedy delivery, according to Deloitte's 30th annual holiday survey of consumer spending intentions and trends.

The survey shows that free shipping is the top retailer policy preferred by shoppers. Furthermore, the ubiquity of personal mobile devices allows consumers to take their time researching purchases and store policies giving them opportunity to request exactly what they want.

With a little over two weeks until Black Friday weekend, Best Buy, HHgregg and other retailers are hoping many U.S. consumers have made shopping after Thanksgiving dinner a holiday tradition.

The consumer electronics retailers joined a growing list of retailers that released their Thanksgiving 
plans this week. Both Best Buy and HHgregg have decided to keep their same holiday sales plans from last year.

Nearly one-third of retailers surveyed by JLL say they plan to open on Thanksgiving Day in order to get a jump on Black Friday sales.

JLL’s 2015 Holiday Sentiment Report, which includes feedback from largely national or global retailers in JLL-managed shopping centers across the United States, also reveals more than half of those retailers expect an uptick in shopper traffic this year.

The acquisition of Sheplers weighed on Boot Barn Holdings Inc. in the second quarter as the company reported flat same store sales.

Boot Barn said that for the second quarter ended Sept. 26, net sales increased 50% to $129.7 million; same store sales increased 0.1%; and net income was $1.2 million, or 4 cents per diluted share. 

Online retail sales continue to increase – both in absolute terms and as a percentage of total retail sales. The fact remains, however, that online commerce takes place in what is essentially a one-dimensional transactional venue.

Visual search, or the ability to click on an image of a product and obtain information, or even make a purchase, without typing in any words, is growing in popularity.

Retailers including Urban Outfitters are offering variations of visual search functionality, and the failed Amazon Fire smartphone essentially made the world into an Amazon showroom with an advanced virtual search tool. Considering that Pinterest has become one of the leading visually-oriented consumer sites, it’s not surprising the social platform has joined the fray.

It would take a pretty big event to cause Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Off 5th, and Neiman Marcus to all align their online discount offers.

Singles Day, coming up on Nov. 11, is just that size of an event. Once an informal celebration of the Chinese singles dating scene, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba formally turned Singles Day into a shopping holiday in 2009. The occasion generated gross merchandise volume of more than $9.3 billion on the Alibaba Alipay mobile and digital payment platform alone in 2014.

Everyone wants to know how Walmart can compete with Amazon in e-commerce when the latter doesn't really make money at it. According to Ad Age, "The more Walmart does to differentiate itself from Amazon and offer a better value proposition, the more it will succeed," she said. "The more it focuses on price and value, the more it can compete." But it's a very long game. [Ad Age]

Target is planning to not only open on Thanksgiving Day but also roll out a new “10 Days of Deals” promotion to increase traffic to its stores.

As part of the “10 Days of Deals,” the retailer announced it will offer daily discounts on electronics, kitchenware, toys and more from Nov. 22 through Dec. 1. In addition, guests will have access to a Black Friday presale on Nov. 25.

E-commerce platform provider Demandware has released its annual list of retail predictions for 2016, and many of them center on how machines will continue taking over tasks once done by people.

Out of the nine trends Demandware identifies, four are related to growing IT automation: machine learning driving voice-based intelligence assistants, in-store payment evolving dramatically, data-driven decision marketing replacing gut instinct, and last-mile fulfillment providers driving instant gratification.