Social media and digital, customer data and brand awareness are the top three challenges in retail marketing, and digital advertising is among the most important tools in that arena, says a survey by SAP AG.
In China, three-quarters of online shoppers make e-purchases at least weekly, according to a new survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers. And mobile is king. Of those online shoppers, 77 percent made at least some of their purchases online using smartphones.
Import volume at the nation's major retail container ports is expected to increase 6.1 percent in April, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.
The most recent earnings for Dollar General and Dollar Tree were healthier than rival Family Dollar's, but each one missed Wall Street's estimates as the economy has begun to improve.
Swedish home goods giant Ikea Group is investing in its first wind farm in the U.S., joining a parade of other companies that are venturing into the renewable energy sector. The company purchased Hoopeston Wind, an energy project under construction in Illinois.
The number of UK shoppers using so-called click & collect - picking up orders in store - is poised to more than double by 2017. Currently, 35 percent of online shoppers in the UK buy online and self-collect, compared to 13 percent in the U.S. and 5 percent in Germany, according to research from Planet Retail.
Ongoing innovation at Men's Wearhouse has led to the launch of its omni-channel inventory program, which gives customers visibility and access to all merchandise within the company's distribution center and its 900-plus retail locations from one location. Now, regardless of whether a customer is shopping in a single store or online, they can see all merchandise available to them throughout the company and pick up any item at the store of their choosing.
At the beginning of 2013, Williams-Sonoma outlined four key areas of focus: strengthening its brands, laying the foundation for global expansion, investing in supply chain and investing in the technologies and infrastructure that underlay all these initiatives.
While the mobile channel grows in importance and revenue for merchants, so does their fear of fraudulent attacks and the realization that combating that risk requires specialized tools. Those are some of the key findings from the Second Annual Mobile Payments and Fraud Survey, available for free download at the Kount Inc. website.