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Retail sales may have recovered nicely in the past year, but a resurgence in acquisitions and IPO activity may have to wait until next year due to tougher financing and market volatility. The number of U.S. retail deals has totaled 113 so far this year, down slightly from 120 deals in the same period a year ago, according to data from Thomson Reuters. "There's very little M&A activity. There's very little bankruptcy activity. There's very little retail closure activity, and there's very little retail expansion activity," said Hilco Real Estate Executive Vice President Nina Kampler.

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) today released its Quarterly Business Review for the first quarter of 2010. As the trends toward increased accountability and technical innovation continue their rise in popularity and ROI among the business community, the digital channels have consumed the top slots for new marketing spending. The study shows that for the first time in two years, marketers and their service providers reported across-the-board increases in revenue, marketing expenditures and profitability compared with both the fourth quarter of 2009 and the same quarter last year. Their optimism about the second quarter also grew.

Shopatron announced today, based on initial analysis, that sales conversion rates on the Apple iPad are much higher than rates on other mobile devices. The results are based on an analysis of conversion rates across dozens of branded stores on the Shopatron platform. Initial analysis of data, collected since early March, indicates that average conversion rates for nonoptimized stores on mobile devices, including iPhone, Android, and iPod devices, average 0.37 percent. The iPad, however, performed much better, with an average conversion rate up to 2.04 percent. For some stores, the iPad conversion rate was as much as double the conversion rate from personal computers.

What do CVS Caremark Corp. and a northwest Michigan newspaper have in common? They both rely heavily on Saturday mail delivery. So when the Postal Regulatory Commission held a hearing Monday at City Hall, they came out to speak against the U.S. Postal Service's plan to eliminate Saturday delivery, which would save $3 billion annually. Under the plan, letter carriers would not deliver mail or pick up letters from blue collection boxes on Saturdays. Mail would be accepted at post offices on Saturdays, but it wouldn't be processed until after the weekend. Express mail and remittance mail services would continue seven days a week. The plan comes as the Postal Service is faced with a projected $238 billion deficit over the next decade.

In 2006, computer maker Dell Inc. launched a social media and community department to manage consumers’ then-burgeoning use of the Internet. At the time, so-called social media was viewed as a specialized approach to marketing. Four years later, it has become as much a part of doing business as conventional advertising, and companies such as Dell have integrated social media with broader marketing strategies and made it more mainstream. Although Dell still operates a social media department, it's now using social media across all its divisions to connect with customers through online channels such as Facebook and Twitter. Last year, the company revealed that about 100 employees send tweets through 35 channels, reaching customers in more than 12 countries. Dell, which operates more than 80 user groups, reported generating more than $6.5 million in business through Twitter deals during 2009.

Brookstone is expanding into the mobile space with its first mobile commerce-enabled website. Brookstone teamed with mobile developer Usablenet to create a website compatible with any web-enabled handheld. The site adds value by letting customers shop for products, view rich media content and locate nearby stores.

This fall, customers using Target-branded credit cards will a get 5 percent discount on every purchase at its stores. Gauging by the results of an eight-month test Target recently concluded in Kansas City, the company expects the program to drive a 1 percent to 2 percent nationwide increase in sales at stores open at least a year by luring shoppers to its stores more frequently to take advantage of the savings.

Retailers stand to reap billions from the financial-overhaul legislation being finalized by Congress this week, possibly giving them a long-sought victory by slashing the "swipe fees" that credit-card companies charge merchants for every debit-card transaction. Members of the House and Senate announced an agreement Monday to include the debit-card fee cuts in the final version of the overhaul bill — a loss for the financial industry, which had mounted a furious campaign to eliminate or water down the proposed regulations.

Wal-Mart launched a public-relations campaign ahead of a City Council committee vote later this week, vowing to build "several dozen stores" and create 12,000 jobs in Chicago over the next five years. The announcement was the first time Wal-Mart has provided specifics on its goals for store openings, job creation and tax revenue. But the City Council has yet to take any action on approving Chicago's second Wal-Mart store. Wal-Mart has been thwarted in its push to grow in Chicago for six years. A weakened economy and high unemployment rates have swayed dozens of ministers here to reverse their stance and start supporting the opening of Wal-Mart stores on the city's South Side.

Sears is offering military veterans a chance to own their own Sears Hometown Store through their Operation Stores and Stripes contest. The contest, which is sponsored in part by Maytag Appliances, will supply the winner with their very own Sears Hometown Store location and license, merchandise, renovation, the first 90 days of the lease as well as 90 days of operating cash flow up to $130,000.