News

NPD Group has released its 2013 holiday gift predictions for the home.

“Some items on this year’s home holiday shopping lists deliver warmth, and others make it cold; some items are functional, and some are about the fun factor,” said Debra Mednick, executive director and home industry analyst. “Either way, the hottest home categories for the 2013 holiday season are designed to conveniently deliver comfort, improve health, or bestow simple affordable pleasures.”

The research company pointed to the following leading items:

San Francisco – Free digital personal shopping assistant Shop It To Me has released an iPhone app. This makes Shop It To Me, previously available via Internet and e-mail, available to smartphone users.

Shop It To Me searches more than 100 online department stores and specialty retailers to uncover sales on items that exactly match each shopper's preferences. Relevant sale items are compiled into a single email and delivered to the shopper, who can click through to a retailer to make the purchase.

Retailers anticipate a 3.1% increase in sales on Black Friday this year, mirroring their projections from last year. However, a new a survey of top retail chief marketing officers by BDO USA shows that retailers have moderated their expectations for growth in Cyber Monday sales, predicting that sales will grow by 3.7% this year, down slightly from last year’s sunnier 4.3% growth projection.

Electrolux has named former Sears executive Nolan Pike as SVP and GM of its North American cooking business.

Pike most recently worked for Sears as their Kenmore brand VP and GM and as the top merchant for Sears Home Appliances, the nation’s largest appliance retailer. Additionally, Pike spent many years in manufacturing and led the development, launch and product management of several notable cooking lines.

CVS has appointed Tracy Bahl as EVP, health plans, leading the teams responsible for supporting health plan clients and offering health plans guidance to help them navigate the evolving health care marketplace.

Workforce management data, such as time and attendance and payroll, is generally seen as information pertaining to the back end of retail operations. Managing employees is an activity that generally does not involve front-end customer interaction and data generated from this activity is usually siloed from the data retailers use to help guide their customer-facing activities.

New York – More than half of Americans (53%) prefer general purpose gift cards as opposed to branded gift cards. In addition, new survey data from Bankrate.com shows that almost two in three Americans have given a gift card, and more than three in four have received one.

The most common value of gift cards, both given and received, is between $25 and $50. People older than 65 and those between 18 and 29 years old are the least likely to give a gift card. As income level increases, Americans are more likely to give and receive gift cards.

Chicago -- Retailers anticipate a 3.1% increase in sales on Black Friday this year, mirroring their projections from last year. However, a new a survey of top retail chief marketing officers by BDO USA shows that retailers have moderated their expectations for growth in Cyber Monday sales, predicting that sales will grow by 3.7% this year, down slightly from last year’s sunnier 4.3% growth projection.