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| News for the retail industry | December 28, 2011 |  | |
| Retailer Holiday Watch |  |  | | - Best Buy apologizes for canceled holiday orders
More-than-expected orders during Black Friday weekend led Best Buy to cancel orders in the days leading up to Christmas. The company apologized to irate shoppers. "There was an unacceptable delay between order confirmations and cancellations, and for that we are very sorry," a spokeswoman said. "The challenges related to this situation are being addressed." The Wall Street Journal (12/24)      | Seasonal Trends | | | | - Do holiday season's sales signal a recovery?
Strong holiday sales cheered merchants and industry analysts and spurred NRF to raise its estimate of sales growth to 3.8% earlier this season. But analysts say all the shopping may not equal a recovery -- retailers including Bloomingdale's and J. Crew sported deep day-after-Christmas discounts and one analyst says nearly half the season's expected growth may come from higher prices rather than shoppers buying more. USA TODAY (12/26), Bloomberg Businessweek (12/27) - Men led the last-minute shopping rush, merchants say
About 37 million Americans hadn't started their shopping two weeks before Christmas, according to NRF, and many were men who waited until the 11th hour. Retailers say they saw a surge of Christmas Eve shoppers, and some say men made up about 80% of the crowd. "As a man, I just wanted to watch the game and get it over with and then come out and finish shopping basically," said one Kansas City, Mo., shopper. FoxNews.com/Kansas City, Mo. (12/25) - Merchants keep shelves leaner in budget-conscious climate
U.S. retailers had record low inventories in October, and lighter imports heading into the holidays show they didn't beef up merchandise levels considerably heading into the holidays. In years past, that would have boosted merchants' ability to charge full price, but consumers' increased sensitivity to price could change that. The Wall Street Journal (12/24) - Shoppers across all income levels shop dollar stores
Consumers looking to pack as much as possible under the tree recently ranked dollar stores as their second-favorite place to shop for the holidays, behind online retail outlets. Even consumers making $100,000 or more per year made 11% more trips to the dollar store than they did in 2008 and boosted their average purchase by 23%. Time.com (12/23) - Retailers in New York, London see similar seasonal challenges
Retailers in London and New York City faced many of the same challenges that led to deeper discounting during the holidays, including inflation concerns and unseasonably warm weather that slowed sales of winter apparel, writes analyst Stacey Widlitz. Merchants from Gap to Debenhams marked down some seasonal merchandise up to 60% in recent weeks. CNBC (12/23)  | |  | | | Join TradeStone at Booth #1465 at NRF 2012
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| Research and Releases | | | | - As holiday returns hit stores, 9 in 10 shoppers say return policies are fair
A recent NRF survey found more people are paying attention to and agreeing with retailers' return policies as nine in 10 Americans say they find return policies to be fair. NRF's 2011 Holiday Returns survey also found that more than 60% of holiday shoppers say they would provide a gift receipt most or some of the time -- the highest percent in the survey's history. Read more. - Maximize online post-holiday sales with search and social media
Historically, the days immediately following Christmas have been intense shopping periods for consumers looking to take advantage of sales, return items that weren't quite right or spend gift cards. In a recent post on the Shop.org blog, Head of Research Fiona Swerdlow shares four tips on how to maximize online sales following the holiday season. 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, December 27, 2011
- Friday, December 23, 2011
- Thursday, December 22, 2011
- Wednesday, December 21, 2011
- Tuesday, December 20, 2011
| | | Lead Editor: Megan Conniff
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