| News for the retail industry | November 30, 2011 |  | |
| Retailer Holiday Watch |  |  | | - Macy's CEO bullish on the holiday season
About 10,000 shoppers waited outside Macy's Herald Square flagship for the midnight Black Friday opening, and the retailer expects the crowds to continue throughout the holiday season, says CEO Terry Lundgren. Opening at midnight instead of 4 a.m. drew younger crowds, spurring sales of Justin Bieber perfume and Rampage boots priced at $19.99. "We knew the younger crowds would stay up all night while the Baby Boomers went for a nap," Lundgren said. The Wall Street Journal (11/26), CNBC (11/25)      - Best Buy bargains drew bigger Black Friday crowds
Best Buy drew crowds when it opened at midnight on Black Friday and throughout the holiday weekend, reversing last year's slowdown by cutting prices on big-screen TVs and other popular items. Macy's and Wal-Mart Stores also saw a strong start to the season. The weekend saw 226 million consumers shopping in store and online, up from 212 million last year, according to the National Retail Federation. Reuters (11/28) - Florida jeweler set for sparkling holiday season
 Consumers are expected to spend more on discretionary items including jewelry this holiday season, according to NRF, and Port Orange, Fla., jeweler Aaron Kilman has similarly optimistic expectations. Traffic will be higher this year, he says, but sales may not exceed last year's because shoppers are in search of bargains on diamond stud earrings, solitaire necklaces and other popular pieces. Daytona Beach News-Journal (Fla.) (11/27)  | |  | | | See Which Retailers Achieved 100% Adoption Rate Among Employees
Read anecdotes from three different retailers on employee adoption and success with TradeStone’s Merchandise Lifecycle Management solutions. | |  | |  |
| Seasonal Trends | | | | - Retail lessons from Black Friday weekend
Time's Brad Tuttle shares observations from the first big shopping weekend of the holiday season, starting with the fact that consumers really liked the idea of shopping at midnight on Thanksgiving. Some other trends: Thanksgiving has become a bigger online shopping day, younger people and men enjoy late-night online shopping, and credit-card use may be on the rise. Time.com (11/29) - Record holiday season proved positive for retail stocks
Retailers from Macy's to Amazon saw their stock prices rise Monday after reporting heavy traffic and higher sales during Thanksgiving weekend. Analysts expect to see the weekend's strong performance reflected in the November sales reports several merchants will issue later this week. Reuters (11/28) - Analyst: Will discounts, perks hit merchants' bottom lines?
Record Black Friday and weekend crowds and stellar sales seem to make for a merry holiday, but deep discounting and perks such as free shipping may take a toll on retailer's profit margins, says Goldman Sachs analyst Adrianne Shapira. "I think it is coming a bit at the expense of margins." CNBC (11/28) - Black Friday kicks off part-time job season
Retailers are expected to hire about 500,000 temporary part-time workers for the holiday season, with earlier opening hours spurring a greater need for seasonal staffers. While seasonal part-time work is a longstanding tradition, this year it also reflects a larger trend of more U.S. jobs shifting from full-time to part-time as companies seek greater efficiencies. USA TODAY (11/25) | Research and Releases | | | | - Black Friday weekend spending reaches record $52 billion
This year was one for the books as a record 226 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend, up from 212 million last year. Digging deep into their holiday budgets, the average holiday shopper spent $398.62 this weekend, up from $365.34 last year with total spending estimated at $52.4 billion. Additionally, shoppers also checked out retailers' deals online, spending an average of $150.53 on the Web -- 37.8% of their total weekend spending. Read more. - More than 122 million planned to shop on Cyber Monday
Online shopping continues to win over millions of Americans this holiday season, with a record number who planned to hit retailers' websites on Cyber Monday to take advantage of one-day only deals, website-wide savings, and free shipping offers. According to a survey conducted for Shop.org by BIGresearch, 122.9 million Americans planned to shop on Cyber Monday this year, up from the 106.9 million who shopped on Cyber Monday in 2010. Eager to meet consumers' demands, nearly eight in ten retailers planned to offer a special promotion for Cyber Monday, according to a survey released last week. Read more. | | | 
Product announcements appearing in SmartBrief are paid advertisements and do not reflect actual NRF endorsements. The news reported in SmartBrief does not necessarily reflect the official position of NRF. | This SmartBrief was created for cpgbrokers.data@blogger.com
| | | | | | | | | Recent NRF SmartBrief Issues: - Tuesday, November 29, 2011
- Monday, November 28, 2011
- Wednesday, November 23, 2011
- Tuesday, November 22, 2011
- Monday, November 21, 2011
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