Retail

Graduation season is here, and Americans will shell out $4.6 billion to reward high school and college seniors, per results from a survey conducted for the NRF by BIGinsight. Gift-givers will spend about $94 on average, or $49 per recipient, down from last year's $100 average. Unlike other events and holidays tracked by the NRF, which have seen increases in spending this year, total projected spending on graduation gifts this year is down from last year's forecast of $4.7 billion. Read more »

Some retailers aren't sold on the concept of digital channels being the primary driver of future growth, at the expense of stores. But most do see the value of digital channels in driving traffic to stores - and they have some thoughts on which work best once the consumer is actually in the store. Results from RSR Research's "The Relevant Store in the Digital Age" [download page] reveal that nearly all retailers see their e-commerce sites as having a lot (58%) or some (38%) value in driving traffic to stores. And while there's some angst about showrooming, 87% recognize that smartphones have a lot (50%) or some (37%) value in driving store traffic. Read more »

PointRoll has released data [pdf] from its upcoming 2012 Benchmark Report, revealing that in-stream video ads achieved an average click-through rate (CTR) of 0.62% last year, far outpacing mobile (0.15%), rich media (0.14%) and standard banner (0.1%) ads. The findings support a similar conclusion reached earlier this year by DG MediaMind, which also found in-stream video ads to outperform those other formats, though with vastly different benchmark figures. (The DG MediaMind report put the US benchmark CTR for in-stream video at 1.11%, and mobile at 0.88%). Read more »

Wealthy consumers are as likely to make purchases in-store as online, and few have embraced showrooming, loosely defined as the practice of checking out a product in-store before buying online. According to new research from the Luxury Institute, 78% of wealthy consumers (earning at least $150,000 a year) had bought something in a store in the previous 12 months, and 77% had ordered something online via computer. Only 1 in 4 reported buying online after checking out merchandise in-store (the study did not mention the use of a mobile device in-store). Read more »

In conjunction with a new monthly e-commerce tracking initiative, Shopzilla has released research from a survey of online shoppers conducted immediately after their purchases from the Bizrate Insights Network of more than 5,200 e-commerce retailers in the US and Canada. The data shows that buyers were most likely to have first seen their most recent online purchase while surfing around online (29%) or when looking to find something specific (25%). Beyond those top 2 points of inspiration, store emails (11%) emerged as a key source, cited by more respondents than magazines (8%), ads (6%), blogs and other web content sites (4%). Read more »

Consumers continue to spend more and more online, as evidenced by the latest figures from comScore showing that Q1 represented the 14th consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth in retail e-commerce spending. In general, retailers feel that future retail growth will come primarily from digital channels, not stores, with 40% agreeing with that sentiment, versus 29% disagreeing, per results from a new RSR Research survey [download page]. However, top-performing retailers aren't as convinced: just 6% "strongly agree" that digital will be the primary driver of future growth, compared to 11% of respondents on average. Read more »

79% of smartphone owners qualify as "smartphone shoppers," says Google in new study results, using their devices to assist with shopping at least once a month. 84% of these smartphone shoppers use their devices to help them while they're in a store, equating to about 2 in 3 smartphone owners overall using their devices in-store. The most common way these consumers go about their research is through search, per the study, with store and brand websites less popular. That pattern also applies when smartphone owners compare prices, discover promotional offers, and find out where products are sold Read more »

US retail e-commerce spending grew by 13% year-over-year to reach $50.2 billion, estimates comScore in newly-released data. That makes Q1 only the second quarter to exceed the $50 billion threshold, after Q4 ended with an estimated $56.8 billion in spending. While the 13% rise in Q1 represented the 14th consecutive quarter of growth and 10th consecutive quarter of double-digit increases, it was slightly below 2012's growth rate of 15%. But, e-commerce spending accounted for 10.6% of discretionary spending in Q1, its highest share yet. Read more »

The mobile marketing ecosystem is demonstrating rapid growth, with $6.7 billion spent by client-side marketers and retailers in 2012, according to [download page] a study commissioned by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and conducted by researchers at Columbia University. That investment should grow to $10.5 billion this year before ballooning to $19.8 billion in 2015, with close to half of that ($9.2 billion) coming from mobile advertising alone. Read more »

Mother's Day spending outlooks are mixed, but generally positive, according to recent reports from the NRF, IBISWorld, and Brand Keys. The NRF forecast predicts that the average consumer will spend 11% more on Mother's Day (Sunday, May 12), for an average of $169, with total spending expected to reach $20.7 billion. Brand Key's survey results [pdf] are similar, with celebrants planning to spend an average of $171, for a total of $18.6 billion, which would be a 5% increase from last year. IBISWorld, though, sees total spending reaching a smaller total of $17.1 billion, just 0.2% higher than last year. Read more »