News

ICSC: Holiday shopping to begin early; electronics to be most popular gift
New York -- Holiday shopping is going to start early this year, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers’ latest consumer tracking survey. About 35% of consumers have or will have started their holiday shopping by the end of October. Roughly three out of five shoppers will begin shopping by Thanksgiving this year, and by the end of the Thanksgiving weekend 86% will have started making purchases.
Land O’Lakes challenges food leaders
Ensuring the roughly nine billion people who are estimated to inhabit the planet by 2050 have enough to eat is a big challenge. That’s why Land O’Lakes has introduced new program to fund big ideas from future food leaders.

Dollar General adds another DC

Even if Dollar General doesn’t prevail in its efforts to acquire Family Dollar the company’s expanding distribution infrastructure is positioned to support future growth.

Dollar General said it plans to build the 13th distribution center in its nationwide network in San Antonio. The facility will measure more than 900,000-sq.-ft., employ roughly 530 people and serve more than 1,000 stores when it opens in October 2015, the company said.
SGI releases tool to scale SAP HANA

Milpitas, Calif. –- SGI, a provider of data analytics solutions and an SAP global technology partner, has introduced SGI UV for SAP HANA. It is a purpose-built, in-memory computing appliance for growing environments running the SAP HANA platform.
‘Tis the season for temporary jobs

Amazon’s 50 fulfillments centers and 15 sortation centers are looking to hire 80,000 seasonal works to cope with an anticipated surge in U.S. holiday sales.

Amazon, like other retailers, touts the seasonal positions as an opportunity to get in on the ground floor with the company and establish a foundation for a career. Last year, Amazon said it converted thousands of seasonal employees into regular, full-time roles after the holidays, and expects to do the same this year.
Gap approves $500 million share buyback program

San Francisco –- Gap Inc. has approved a new $500 million share repurchase authorization for the company’s common stock, in an effort to return excess cash to shareholders. The new $500 million repurchase program for Gap’s stock follows the company’s previous $1 billion share repurchase program.
Shopko enters omnichannel era

Regional discounter Shopko has added a range of omnichannel capabilities to its retail operations just in time for what is expected to be the most digital Christmas ever.

Shopko announced the rollout of expanded omnichannel capabilities it said would provide shoppers more access to products, the ability to buy products on-line and ship them to store for free. The capabilities were extended to 310 of the company’s locations.
NRF: Per-person holiday spending to rise 5%, with 44% of shopping done online

Washington, D.C. -- The average person celebrating Christmas, Kwanza and/or Hanukkah will spend $804.42, up nearly 5% from 2013’s actual $767.27, according to the National Retail Federation’s 13th annual Holiday Consumer Spending Survey, conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics. In other results, the average shopper plans to do 44% of their holiday shopping online, the most in the survey’s history.
Shaq-A-Clause and Toys”R”Us spread holiday cheer

The holidays will be a little more joyous this year for some of the 14.7 million U.S. children living in poverty.
Survey: 63% of online shoppers never familiar with Alibaba

Los Angeles -- More than half (63%) of U.S. online shoppers are not familiar with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.com, according to a survey by Bizrate Insights, a division of Connexity (formerly Shopzilla).

Interestingly, respondents not familiar with the Alibaba brand or website skewed toward younger generations and women (who traditionally are the decision makers behind the lion’s share of retail).