Monday Tipsheet: Black Friday Downer | Forecasts Hold | Amazon’s Kiva

 

“Black Friday Fizzles With Consumers as Sales Tumble 11%” by Lauren Coleman-Lochner at Bloomberg. “The NRF had predicted that 140.1 million customers would visit retailers last weekend, a small decline from last year’s 140.3 million. Instead, only 133.7 million showed up. An effort by some retailers to put items on sale ahead of Thanksgiving may have contributed to sluggish demand on Black Friday, Shay said.” Read more

 

ShopperTrak: Sales at retail stores totaled about $12.29 billion on Thursday and Friday, down 0.5 percent from last year at Reuters via Yahoo. “The research firm stuck by its forecast for November and December sales to increase 3.8 percent.” Read more

 

‘Black Friday’ Fades as Weekend Retail Sales Sink by Shelly Banjo at WSJ. “Shoppers spent an average of $380.95, down 6.4% from a year earlier.” Read more (Subscription)

 

Black Friday 2014: Ecommerce desktop pages were 20% slower than in 2013, mobile pages were 57% slower at Venture Beat. “The five fastest desktop sites, according to Catchpoint, were H&M, Costco, Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Etsy.” Read more

 

One-third of Black Friday Online Revenue Was Mobile  Read the release

 

For the first time, online traffic from mobile devices outpaced traditional PCs on Thanksgiving Day  Read the release

 

“Data breaches now industrywide problem: Target CEO” by Tom DiChristopher at CNBC. See the video

 

“The Girls Scouts are going digital for the first time to sell you cookies” by Leanne Italie at Star-Tribune. “For the first time in nearly 100 years, Girl Scouts of the USA will allow its young go-getters to push their wares using a mobile app or personalized websites. But only if their scout councils and guardians say OK.” Read more

 

Alex from Target Interview at WXYZ-Detroit ABC  See the video

 

“Wal-Mart investors to reconsider gun sales after NYC church challenge” by Carey Reed at PBS. “U.S. District Judge Leonard Stark handed down the ruling in favor of New York City’s Trinity Wall Street church, allowing for their original proposal to be presented and voted on by shareholders in 2015.” Read more

 

“Retailers target Alibaba in online sales tax push” by Martin Matishak at The Hill. “Thanks to the online sales tax loophole this Chinese company will decimate our local retailers. Unless Congress ends special tax treatment for Alibaba and other online giants, Main Street will never look the same,” the narrator states.” Read more / See the ad

 

“Army of Amazon robots ready to help fulfill orders on Cyber Monday” by Andrea Chang at LA Times. “The robots — more than 15,000 of them companywide — are part of Amazon’s high-tech effort to get orders to customers faster. By lifting shelves of Amazon products off the ground and speedily delivering them to employee stations, the robots dramatically reduce the time it takes for workers to find items and put them into boxes for shipment.” Read more

 

“Attention shoppers: Customer tracking in cereal aisle” by Jonnelle Davis at News & Record. “Lowes Foods and Wake Forest University business students are watching you…Beahm said students in Wake Forest’s MBA program will analyze the large volume of data gleaned from the lab as part of their business studies, and faculty will use it to do research. The labs are set up in 10 Lowes grocery stores in North Carolina.” Read more

 

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