Online sales up 14 percent during holidays by Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz at Chicago Tribune. “The growth was more dramatic than the previous year. Online sales grew 8.5 percent during the 2013 holidays compared with the same period in 2012. People spent less per transaction, though. The average online order value dropped 8 percent in 2014 to $119.33.” Read more

 

Home Depot & Walgreens have the best In-Store Mobile Apps by Sarah Mahoney at Media Post. “L2 taps Walgreens and the Home Depot as the winners for in-store mobile apps, citing Walgreens’ enormous popularity with shoppers: It is used by an estimated 55% of consumers while roaming the drugstore chain’s aisles…And the Home Depot wins based on its apps’ “In-Store Experience,” which uses geolocation for store-specific deals and maps, with an easy-to-use list-building interface and ready access to inventory.” Read more

 

Amazon big at the CES party; Apple mostly stays home by Ian King at Bloomberg via Seattle Times. “Amazon, the third-biggest consumer-electronics retailer in the U.S., sent 405 representatives to CES 2014. Apple, the fourth-biggest, sent four, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, which puts on the conference.” Read more

 

Tales Of CES: We Were Promised Flying Cars, We Got Washing Machines Instead by Romain Dillet at Techcrunch. “While LG announced a new phone, most of the other announcements revolved around washing machines and other home appliances. And now, people can’t stop talking about washing machines.” Read more

 

Petco says it pulled remaining Chinese treats nationwide amid fears they sickened, killed pets by Sue Manning at AP via Star-Tribune. “Petco is the first national pet retailer to pull the treats from its 1,300 stores. Phoenix-based PetSmart Inc. said Monday that it plans to have them off shelves at its roughly 1,300 stores by March.” Read more

 

Netflix Will Start Blessing Some Internet TVs With Its Logo by Peter Kafka at Recode. “The streaming video service says it will start designating some new sets as “Netflix Recommended” this spring. Netflix says it wants to highlight sets that come with “consumer benefits including turning the TV on instantly, faster app launch and faster resume of video playback.” Read more

 

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Amazon reportedly restructures hardware development unit by Jay Greene at Seattle Times. “Fast Company cited the failure of the Fire Phone as one reason for the changes, as well as a “bloated” organizational structure at the unit, which has grown to employ more than 3,000 workers. “ Read more

 

Instacart teams with recipe app Yummly for on-demand ingredient delivery by Marlize van Romburgh at San Francisco Business Times. “With a few clicks, items from any Yummly recipe or shopping list can be brought to a customer’s doorstep in as little as one hour by an Instacart Personal Shopper,” the companies said in a Jan. 5 statement.” Read more 

 

Free shipping pounding Amazon’s bottom line by Ben Miller at Puget Sound Business Journal. “Analysts estimate that Amazon loses $1 billion to $2 billion a year on U.S. Prime shipments, and its shipping costs during the first nine months of 2014 rose 32 percent compared with 29 percent for the same time in 2013.” Read more

 

Chicago: Chilly day for some OfficeMax workers by Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz at Chicago Tribune. “While outside temperatures hovered around 5 degrees, the thermostat inside OfficeMax at 550 N. St. Clair St. registered a chilly 54.5 degrees Monday afternoon. Several employees wore their winter coats and hats as they manned the registers.” Read more

 

2014 Digital Cities Survey Winners (LA #1, Seattle/KC #2)  See the list

 

Former intern releases CNN’s ‘doomsday’ video by Adam Carlson at Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “People thought he was joking. We have proof that he wasn’t,” wrote Jalopnik’s Michael Ballaban, a former CNN intern. The video will be the thing “the last living CNN employee will be required to play before succumbing to radiation poisoning, the plague, zombies, or whatever crazy end Turner saw coming.” Read more

 

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