E-Commerce

Black Friday e-commerce sales have tailed $640 million as of 10:00 a.m. on Black Friday, up an impressive 18.4 percent from the prior year. Mobile shopping is hitting record highs as well. However, brick-and-mortar stores are seeing a slow start to the unofficial start to the holiday shopping season. In talking to shoppers, it has…

U.S. consumers spent more than $1.52 billion online by Thanksgiving evening, and more shoppers went to stores this year after two weak holiday seasons as retailers opened their doors early on the eve of Black Friday. At the start of the holiday shopping season consumer spending rose 16.8 percent year-over-year until 5 p.m. ET on Thursday,…

Every year, retailers gear up for what's essentially their Super Bowl, Oscars, Emmys and Grammys rolled into one: the holiday season. Pundits make predictions. Analysts run forecasts. And, of course, every industry player has been plotting strategy for months, looking to beat last year’s numbers and earn kudos for standing out in an extremely crowded…

Every year, retailers gear up for what’s essentially their Super Bowl, Oscars, Emmys and Grammys rolled into one: the holiday season. Pundits make predictions. Analysts run forecasts. And, of course, every industry player has been plotting strategy for months, looking to beat last year’s numbers and earn kudos for standing out in an extremely crowded […]

Online clothing and gifts retailer ModCloth is closing down its site Friday and promoting family time over shopping. ModCloth, which Walmart purchased earlier this year, is focusing on generosity as well by donating $5 million in merchandise to Dress For Success, an organization that helps women transition back into the workforce, per a news release. The brand…

Glitches: they’re the bane of modern digital commerce. True, they’ve grown smaller in recent years. They’re no longer the site-swallowing monsters that once had digital stakeholders waking in a cold sweat. Today’s glitches are smaller and more insidious, but they’re also greater in number, more mysterious in origin and tougher to pin down. And they’re…

Three-quarters of Americans plan to shop over Thanksgiving weekend, according to new survey data from Deloitte. The survey, which was conducted online between Nov. 8-Nov. 10 and polled a national sample of 1,224 adults aged18 and older, also found that respondents plan to spend an average of $427 between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, up from…

Jumpshot's data report reveals that the growth of e-commerce platforms has driven consumers away from brand sites to marketplaces where consumers make over 50 percent of their retail purchases. Depending on product category and brand, this rate can increase to 60 percent. Jumpshot studied 42,000 consumer purchases among four major retail brands in the third quarter of 2017. This report analyzes conversions on the brands’ websites as well as popular marketplaces. The brands analyzed include Calvin Klein, Clinique, Michael Kors and Nike, across marketplaces including Amazon.com, Macy’s and Nordstrom.

I had a great time talking with Mark Friedman, president of e-commerce at Steve Madden. I was particularly interested in hearing his perspective on how retail is satisfying consumer needs while keeping up with the ever-changing world of digital.

The most recent high-profile victim of the retail apocalypse is Toys“R”Us, which has filed for bankruptcy. Toys“R”Us is another stark warning to legacy retailers to adapt to the changing landscape in which e-commerce and experiential retail have the power to make or break a retail business. Toys“R”Us’ decline is rooted in its continued reliance on…