Smartphones may be among retailers' strongest allies this holiday season, according to Deloitte's annual holiday survey of consumer spending intentions and trends.

Josh Neblett, co-founder and chief executive of online retailer GreenCupboards, is busy planning how he'll get the word out about his "eco-friendly" products during the holidays, including e-mail campaigns, Facebook ads, and joint promotions with suppliers. One item not on his list: The daily deal coupons popular in 2011.

While a majority of start-up business owners do not believe the economy will grow in the next 12 months, 83 percent are nonetheless confident that their own profits will, according to the fourth-quarter Kauffman/LegalZoom Startup Confidence Index.

So much for the enduring power of big-box brands. On Oct. 31, the owner of Circuit City and CompUSA's brands decided to kill the online remnants of the former chains, redirecting traffic to TigerDirect.com.

Larry Lapide, research affiliate at MIT's Center for Transportation and Logistics, employs a maritime metaphor to dramatize the pressing need for companies to implement an effective sales and operations planning (S&OP) process.

To help fuel its rapid geographic expansion, specialty value retailer Five Below has signed the lease for a new distribution center in Olive Branch, Miss. The 600,000 square-foot facility is the retailer's second DC and will allow the company to more quickly and efficiently supply stores in the South and Midwest with its range of products all priced at $5 and below.

Aldata has developed the Aldata Omni-Shopper Suite, an integrated set of software applications aimed at retailers and manufacturers of fast-moving consumer goods.

As Superstorm Sandy blew its devastating winds through much of the Eastern U.S. starting on Halloween, retailers had to deal with it just like everyone else. But few seemed to have anticipated the more than eight days - and more, in some cases - of outages, along with the gas shortages, closed roads, lack of food and water, plus the dead phone lines, lack of internet broadband access and dead cell towers.

JustEnough Software, a vendor of demand-management applications for retailers, distributors and brand owners, has launched its new Promotion Management tool.

Intermec Inc. has created the CK3 Next Generation Series of rugged mobile computers.