“Walmart #1 Beneficiary of ‘Webrooming’ “ by Michelle Groenke at UPI.  “Webrooming” — researching a product online before going to the store to make the actual purchase — appears to be the shopping trend to watch this season…The survey found 26 percent of webrooming shoppers head to Walmart to make their purchase, followed by Best Buy (11 percent) and Target (11 percent).  “…two-thirds (67 percent) of those webroomers who typically do their investigating at Walmart online say they usually go on to make their in-store purchases at a Walmart brick and mortar store,” Harris Interactive said.” Read more

 

“Target’s Launches ‘Awesome Shop’ to Spotlight Pinterest hits” by John Vomhoff Jr. at Minn./St. Paul Bus. Journal.  (Target) has launched Target Awesome Shop, a new website that curates and ranks the Target products that are most frequently pinned by Pinterest users. And it only includes products that have at least a four-star guest review or no reviews at all.”  Read more

 

Costco & General Motors Promotion Delivers; 51% of Those Who Signed Up Bought a Vehicle! by Arlena Sawyers at Automotive News.  “Almost half of the Costco members who bought vehicles under the program so far became first-time owners of the GM brand they purchased…Customers who registered for the program: 19,426.  Customers who followed through with a vehicle purchase: 51%.  Buyers who had planned to buy a non-GM vehicle: 45%.  Read more

 

“Home Depot Beats Lowe’s in ‘Cost per Visitor’ “ by Nicole Seghetti at Motley Fool.  “A recent analysis by Placed and Kantar Media uncovered which retailers had the best Black Friday weekend based on one key metric, “cost per visitor share.” This metric gives insight as to how well television advertising helped drive in-store customer traffic…Home Depot boasted the lower cost per visitor share of the two rivals. Home Depot and Lowe’s spent $2.9 million and $4.0 million, respectively, per visitor share.”  Read more

 

“Wal-Mart agrees to contribute $25 million to settle gas can explosion lawsuits” by Lisa Myers at NBC.  “In depositions, Wal-Mart officials insisted that the manufacturer — not Wal-Mart — was responsible for the safety of the product. A former gas can buyer for Wal-Mart, Jacques DesHommes, said when questioned in 2010 for a lawsuit that even after being sued over alleged gas can explosions, the company did not conduct any tests or investigate whether explosions were actually occurring.” Read more / See the video

 

“Canada Safeway Fights B.C. Canada Ban on Pharmacy Incentives” by Jenny Lee at Vancouver Sun.  “The College’s new incentive prohibition bylaw, which took effect Dec. 2, prohibits pharmacies from being involved in incentives that induce a patient to use a particular pharmacy or pharmacist.  Prohibited incentives include money, gifts, discounts, rebates, refunds, customer loyalty schemes, coupons, goods or rewards.”  Read more

 

Walmart Pumps up ‘Green Monday’  “Green Monday refers to the second Monday of December, which is becoming a leading traffic and sales day for online shopping. According to comScore, Green Monday was the third-highest online shopping day of the 2012 holiday shopping season. Green Monday on Walmart.com will offer more than 300 online specials…”  Read more

 

“Sears Reports Dreary Q3 Results”  “The comparable store sales decrease of 2.0% was comprised of a 1.5% decrease in Hometown and a 3.4% decrease in Outlet.”  Read more 

 

“Meet the man trying to shake up luxury retail in Canada” by Marina Strauss at Globe & Mail.  “This will be the second-largest Saks in the world,” Baker proclaims with a wave of his hand. “Ground zero for luxury goods in Canada.” And with a nod to Holt Renfrew & Co., the country’s dominant luxury player—whose flagship stands guard a block to the west—he adds: “Did I say it will be double the size of Holt’s?”  Read more

 

“Harris Teeter-Kroger merger could close by Feb. 1” by Jennifer Thomas at Charlotte Bus. Journal.  “That date marks the end of fiscal 2013 for the Cincinnati-based grocery chain — and its target date to close the merger. Kroger said Thursday during its quarterly earnings call that the merger is proceeding as planned.”  Read more

 

Follow @retaileyeretail