Activists who blocked the entrances to stores on North Michigan Avenue on Black Friday to protest the fatal shooting of a black teenager by a white Chicago cop may have split opinions with their tactics. But their goal of forcing retailers to suffer economic pain on what's historically the busiest shopping day of the year…
Birchbox, the online beauty subscription service, is preparing to make a further incursion into brick-and-mortar retail with some key hires from big-name retailers to support its strategic retail expansion plans for 2016, the company announced yesterday. Most notably, it's brought in Philippe Pinatel as its new chief operations officer and president. Pinatel joins the company…
Shoppers this year still wanted to get a head start on their holiday gift list on Black Friday, but overall were less willing to brave the crowds. Sales on Thanksgiving and Black Friday both fell in stores this year, with a growing amount of people pursuing their discounts online instead. Brick-and-mortar sales on Black Friday fell from…
Thanks to nearly $965 billion in sales projected between November and January — a 4 percent increase over last year, according to Deloitte’s latest holiday sales forecast — retailers are about to enjoy this holiday shopping season even more than usual. To cash in on the opportunity, every retailer needs to have an impeccably timed, customer-focused sales…
Crowds were thin at U.S. stores and shopping malls in the early hours of Black Friday and on Thanksgiving evening as shoppers responded to early holiday discounts with caution and bad weather hurt turnout. Bargain hunters found relatively little competition compared with previous years. Some on Friday morning said they had already shopped online or visited…
Early reports for Thanksgiving sales show a record number of consumers using their mobile devices for shopping. Software firm Adobe, which tracks sales at 4,500 websites, predicts $1.7 billion will be spent for the 24-hour Thursday period. Researcher Shoppertrack says retail stores rang up $3.2 billion in sales last Thanksgiving, while the Thursday/Friday period total was…
Once upon a time, Black Friday shopping actually took place on Friday. In recent years, retailers have pushed the envelope by offering deals as early as Nov. 2, allowing consumers to start shopping ahead of the official holiday season kickoff. Many have even kept their doors open on Thanksgiving Day to the dismay of retail…
Target Corp. and RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust, one of the retailer's former landlords in Canada, have settled a dispute over the leases the retailer left behind when it scrapped its ill-fated international expansion. The Wall Street Journal reported on the $99 million deal, which covers 18 leases between Target and RioCan and its partners.
Traditionally, retailers have considered consumers’ online experiences completely separate from in-store sales. However, new research indicates that customer service mistakes with online shoppers on Cyber Monday could lead to significant in-store sales losses during the 2015 holiday gift-buying season. In October, LoyaltyOne conducted a nationwide survey of more than 1,000 U.S. consumers. Nearly half (47…
Sales at U.S. retailers barely rose in October and were weak for the third month in a row, a sign that shoppers have little appetite to boost spending despite cheap gas and an improved labor market. Retail sales rose a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent last month, the Commerce Department said Friday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had…
