“Cyber Monday Sales Jump 16% to $2.29 Billion; Internet Retailers Take 42% Share” via Adobe Digital Index.  “A record 18.3 percent of sales came from mobile devices, an increase of 80 percent YoY. Consumer shopping preferences continued to shift online with Cyber Monday being the fifth day in a row of record breaking online sales. While “Brick and Click” retailers dominated Thanksgiving weekend sales, Internet retailers generated the most sales on Cyber Monday with a 42 percent share.”  Read more

 

“IBM Benchmark:  Cyber Monday Sales Up 19%; Delivers Blow to Physical Stores” by Danielle Kucera at Bloomberg.  “Online sales rose 19 percent from 2012 as of 9 p.m. in New York yesterday, IBM said in an e-mailed statement. Retailers catering to smartphone and tablet users benefited the most, with mobile traffic accounting for 30 percent of the total site visits, an increase of more than 58 percent from last year, IBM said.  The results deliver another blow to physical stores.”  Read more

 

“The Most Effective Retailers on Social Media” by Ayez Nanji at Marketing Profs.

* BJ’s at #2 Bests Costco & Sam’s

* Walmart’s #3 Outperforms Target

* Home Depot Trails Lowe’s (and Ace and True Value!) but beats Menards (whew)

See the Top 40 Rankings

 

“Home Depot CEO Speaks at Cobb Chamber of Commerce Breakfast” by Jon Gillooly.  “Home Depot for the second quarter compared to 2012 saw the largest sales growth in same-store sales the company’s had in more than 20 years.” Blake said. “But to give you a perspective on just the size and power of the company that Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank founded just slightly over 30 years ago, in three months of the second quarter of this year, our business grew $2 billion. That’s pretty amazing.”  Read more

 

“Target:  No English for you; French-only self checkout irks Montreal shopper” at CBC News.  “The attendant came over as I had pressed the question mark button expecting to find the English panel there, and she said, ‘Well, we don’t offer it in English.’  “I rang through my items and then changed my mind. I said, ‘Nevermind. I’ll purchase these somewhere else.’  After some reflection, she wrote a complaint to Target. She was unsatisfied with the store’s response, and wrote a second email to that effect.  She said she was told, “We have to make a choice about our language.”  Read more

 

“Supplier Office Space Tightens in Bentonville” by Kim Souza at The City Wire.  “Gurganus said as new space comes online it may be harder for existing tenants to move up given the longer lease requirements now in play.  “We still see folks coming in here and asking for a one-year lease, but the minimum standard is 3, 5 or more years these days and that’s for Class B space,” he said.  The lease rates for typical class B space average between $14 and $16 per foot in and around Bentonville, according to Colliers. Class A space costs about $23 a foot and is rising.”  Read more

 

“Shoppers Lingered 37% Longer at Macy’s vs Walmart” by Alexander Coolidge at Cincy Enquirer.  “(Macy’s) commanded an average hour-and-18-minute visit over the weekend, according to the Menlo Park, Calif.-based tech company. The only other retailers to grab customers for more than an hour were J.C. Penney and Sears where the average shopper respectively spent 67 and 62 minutes.Wal-Mart’s average shopper spent 57 minutes over the Black Friday weekend. Ditto for Toys R Us.”  Read more

 

“Boston Consulting Group Releases Brand Advocacy Index” by Jack Neff at Ad Age.  “The ranking is its take on the Net Promoter Score popularized a decade ago in part by rival Bain & Co. but using a more complex survey that Boston Consulting Group says correlates better with sales growth…Top three grocers:  Trader Joe’s, Wegmans and Publix.”  Read more

 

“Walmart Ranks #1 for ‘Most Wanted’ Gift Card – Home Depot #5 – Costco #6” at Digital Journal.  See the Top 20 List

 

“Home Depot #1 in Radio Spots with 48,630” at Radio Ink.  “The Home Depot still dominates radio in the number one spot, having aired 48,630 commercials. Sears was number two, McDonalds number three, and Lowes came in at number four for the week.” Read more 

 

“Meet The Nomads Who Sleep In Walmart Parking Lots” at HuffPo.  “The series gives an unusual glimpse into the softer side of an often reviled company, showing how its policies have served a long-unnoticed demographic. The temporary citizens of Walmart are a diverse and colorful group, from lone drifters to young road trippers to entire families, fulfilling their pastoral aspirations.”  Read more / See the pictures

 

“U.S. Supreme Court Punts:  Amazon Must Continue Collecting Sales Tax” at Reuters.  “Amazon.com Inc and other online retailers with no physical presence in New York State must go on collecting sales tax after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a legal challenge to the law that requires it.”  Read more

 

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