In 2012, the coverage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday became as much a part of the story as the actual shopping that was being reported. This is thefifth year that IBM has prepared its Holiday Shopping Report, and it was able to report in near real time the kind of activity that was under [...]
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holiday shopping
Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the Din of Irrelevant Analysis
During the past week — unless you were blissfully disconnected from all sources of media — you were likely inundated with news articles, tweets, posts and endless TV stories about Americans as weapons of massive consumption. Reporters and pundits alike pontificated about the significance of earlier and earlier store openings, the relentless quest for the [...]
Cyber Monday Sets Record. Are We Surprised?
Americans spent the weekend shopping, increasingly online, so they surely left nothing for Cyber Monday, right? Well, plenty of outlets today are declaring Monday online shopping’s biggest day ever. IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, which tracks e-commerce transactions from more than 500 retailers, said online sales on Monday were up 30 percent from Cyber Monday a [...]
Black Friday and Beyond: 5 Shopping Tools for Happier Holidays
More and more holiday shoppers are looking for inspiration online, according to the National Retail Foundation, which recently published a survey saying that 47.3 percent of consumers will look online for holiday gift ideas this year. Interestingly, that’s a higher percentage than the 45.2 percent who said they’d look for ideas in stores. Online shopping [...]
Is This the Death of Black Friday?
Black Friday is a week away, and the news is full of stories anticipating retailing’s version of New Year’s Eve. But this year will be different – a lot different, I think – so much so that I wonder if Black Friday as we know it is dying. The designation of the day after Thanksgiving [...]
For 2012, Mobile Shopping’s Going Big Time
There’s plenty of optimism about holiday sales this year, and why not? The convergence of online and in-store experiences continues to pick up speed. Retailers have recognized the huge opportunities in mobile retail. And the popularity of tablet computers has opened the way for a new wave of shoppers who never leave home. If 2011 [...]
Online Sales Now An Essential Element of Holiday Projections
Online retailers got an early Christmas present from the National Retail Federation, which for the first time in its history released a holiday forecast for online sales. The NRF predicted holiday sales online will grow 12 percent over last year to as much as $96 billion. News outlets picking up that story delved into the [...]