Cotton prices soaring

December 28, 2010

High fiber prices are expected to create some upheaval throughout the supply chain in the coming months.

Rising costs of raw materials deep in the supply chain haven’t yet made their way through to retail apparel prices, but that can’t continue indefinitely, experts said. Volatile cotton prices in the last year have soared to record highs, wool prices are higher than they have been in years and synthetic fiber prices, while not seeing upward pressure anywhere near the natural fiber industries, are also elevated.

“Once these higher fiber prices filter through the supply chain, it’s going to be painful,” said Gary Raines, vice president of economics and analysis with FCStone Fibers & Textiles. “Who’s going to crack first? Will consumers willingly pay higher year-over-year prices for apparel? I’m not sure. 2011 is shaping up to be unlike any year we’ve seen. There is a major disjoint between retail trends and what’s happening on the fiber side.”

Prices will eventually come down from current elevated levels, but it could take some time and they won’t fall far enough to avoid creating reverberations in the apparel industry, Raines said, impacting profits all along the supply chain.

“The assumption is they’re going to have to pass some of this on at the retail level; the question is how much,” said Nate Herman, vice president of international trade for the American Apparel & Footwear Association. “It won’t be the full amount of the additional costs people are paying in the supply chain.”

Retail prices for apparel are likely to register increases in the low- to midsingle digits next summer or fall given the production schedule of apparel, Herman said. Pushing costs back up the supply chain is trickier now because of a consolidation of the sourcing base following the economic crisis, when many factories were forced to close.

Cotton prices were driven higher this year by a supply-and-demand ratio that is wildly out of whack, experts said. A surprise increase in demand for cotton followed the steep drop-off precipitated by the global economic crisis. Combining that with already high demand from China helped create a cotton shortfall. The supply side outlook was further impacted by inclement weather in some of the major cotton-producing countries such as China and Pakistan and export policies in India limiting cotton exports earlier this year. In addition, high prices of other commodities like corn and soybeans have stolen acreage from cotton in recent years as farmers shifted to other crops.

“The world supply-and-demand situation remains the tightest in the modern globalized era,” Cotton Incorporated said in its Monthly Economic Letter for December. “Much of the tightness at the world level can be attributed to China.”

India’s export policies were also under scrutiny this year. The country imposed a ban on raw cotton exports last spring in response to pressure from domestic manufacturers, who said they needed relief from high prices. While the outright ban was lifted several weeks later, India continues to eye its export levels.

“This year every bale counts,” said Jon Devine, an economist with Cotton Inc.

Despite high prices, demand for cotton remains so high that four months into the crop year for 2010-2011 almost 100 percent of the projected U.S. crop is already sold, he said.

World cotton production in 2010-2011 is forecast to be 115.5 million bales, a 14.5 percent increase over the prior year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a December report. The U.S. crop is predicted to be 18.3 million bales.

The USDA predicted that cotton usage worldwide will decline slightly in crop year 2010-2011 as cotton prices continue at “unprecedented levels amid tight supplies.” The drop is predicted to be only 2 percent, signaling it could be some time before a market correction in cotton prices takes hold.

The continued high prices could drive manufacturers to substitute other fibers, Raines said. While shipments of cotton apparel to the U.S. rose in October compared with a year earlier, its share of total textile and apparel imports sank to 38.3 percent, the second-lowest in more than two decades, according to a research note from FCStone.

Wool prices are also elevated more than they have been in years. Some of the price increase could be attributed to a slight rise in demand, but for the most part sources said the prices were driven by a production decline.

Wool production worldwide peaked around 1990, but it has been on the decline since then due to a range of factors, including profitability, and land and labor issues for sheep farmers, said Rita Kourlis Samuelson, wool marketing director for the American Sheep Industry Association, based in Englewood, Colo. Wool prices have fluctuated, but they have been trending up, especially recently, she said.

Worldwide, wool production and demand are roughly the same now following previous overproduction that had driven prices down. That ratio has evened out, Samuelson said. Depending on the indicator used, prices in October were close to a 10-year high, she said.

Synthetic prices are also up, a natural function of higher demand for the product driven by staggeringly high cotton prices and elevated oil prices, Raines said. But prices for polyester and other synthetics have not seen the steep increases that natural fibers have.

For more information, visit: http://www.wwd.com/business-news/raw-material-costs-taking-a-toll-3409343?module=recent_home

Retailers face big challenges after robust Holiday sales

December 28, 2010

American shoppers expanded their year-end purchases this holiday season by the biggest margin since the boom year of 2005, but retailers still face daunting challenges in the new year, from rising gasoline and cotton prices to an overabundance of stores.

U.S. retail sales, excluding automobiles, rose 5.5% between Nov. 5 and Dec. 24 compared with a year ago, according to MasterCard SpendingPulse, a unit of MasterCard Advisors that tracks sales by all types of payment.

Last year, sales rose 4.1% during the 50 day period, but those results were easy comparisons against the recession in 2008, when sales fell 6.1%.

“To sum up, the holiday season is a joyous one,” said Sherif Mityas, a partner in the retail practice of A.T. Kearney, a global management consulting firm. “Consumers are looking to spend again. They are more confident than they had been.”

The numbers were not reflective of a late December storm, which did not hit most of the East Coast until Christmas Day or later. The day after Christmas is traditionally one of the season’s biggest shopping days but retailers are expecting that shoppers will simply delay their purchases, not abandon them.

Just how long retailers’ confidence will last for shoppers and stores alike is the big question.

A consumer sentiment index released Thursday showed consumer moods were at their highest level in December since June. Recent surveys of chief executives and chief financial officers likewise show a growing number of companies expecting to increase hiring and spending over the next year.

This year’s improved job and stock markets, and the two percentage-point cut in employees’ payroll taxes that’s coming in January should make people a little freer with their money, according to J.P. Morgan Chase economist Michael Feroli. He forecasts U.S. consumer spending will rise 3.5% next year, the fastest pace since 2004.

During the holiday season, clothing posted the strongest gain, up 11.2% over the same period last year when apparel sales were roughly flat. Electronics sales rose only 1.2% this year, as a glut of televisions drove prices down and shoppers shied away from innovations such as 3D TVs. After several years of lackluster sales, jewelry was a standout category notching an 8.4% sales gain.

The day after Christmas, Kim Beaver, a 51-year-old housewife and mother of four from San Jose, Calif., was at NorthPark Center in Dallas shopping with family and sporting a white gold and diamond key necklace her husband had put under the tree for her.

“We definitely spent more this Christmas, because we had more to spend,” said Mrs. Beaver. “My husband got a new job as the chief financial officer at a solar energy company.”

But risks to consumer spending loom. Strained state and local governments may be forced to lay off more workers than previously expected, said UBS economist Maury Harris.

And rising energy prices could pinch spending on other items in the months ahead. This month, the average price for a gallon of gasoline has topped $3 a gallon for the first time in two years.

Rising oil prices hasn’t damped consumer spending yet, said Kip Tindell, chief executive of the closely held Container Store, a 49-store chain of home storage and organizing merchandise based in Coppell, Texas. But if oil prices rise significantly in 2011 “it will definitely affect retailers,” he said.

Another potential hurdle: The housing market. If slipping prices set off a new round of foreclosures, banks may rein in lending again. The saving rate has recently slipped—in November, consumers saved 5.3% of their after tax income, compared with 6.3% in June. Any fresh shocks to confidence could prompt them to start saving more, and spending less, said economists.

Oslyn James, a Brooklyn elementary school teacher, represents the shopper zeitgeist, a desire to spend tinged by caution. Ms. James arrived at Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City, N.Y., ahead of the blizzard the day after Christmas to avail herself of the steep store discounts of between 60% and 70%.

Ms. James said she spent more on Christmas gifts this year, but plans to pare back her spending after the holidays. “I don’t know what the New Year will bring,” she said.

Over the past four quarters, consumer spending accounted for 68.6% of demand in the economy, up from 66.5% in 2007. The reason: With housing contributing less to the economy than at any time since World War II, and with businesses spending also down sharply, consumer spending is taking a larger piece of the overall pie.

Even if shoppers continue to loosen purse strings in the year ahead, the retail landscape is still littered with too many stores for all to prosper. The U.S. now has some 40 square feet of retail space for each person—the most per person in the world.

With the growing momentum of Internet sales—Web sales grew 15.5% during the holiday season—competition is going to get even more fierce, he said.

Meanwhile, retailers that specialize in creating inexpensive fashionable clothing such as Uniqlo, Zara and H&M have big expansion plans in the U.S. “Get ready for a whole new battle for market share amidst a stable consumer pie,” said A.T. Kearney’s Mr. Mityas.

Retailers have learned to better align inventory with the rate of sales to avoid panic discounting that erodes profits. Saks Inc. has been working to wean customers off of the hefty discounting that began in the throes of the recession two years ago, but has done so at a cost.

Offering fewer promotions, “clearly does affect growth,” Saks Chief Executive Steve Sadove said in an investor conference call earlier this month.

Saks forecast a “mid-single digit” sales growth for the second half of the year. But Mr. Sadove said growth would have been in the double-digit range had the company offered more discounts.

A major concern for apparel and home goods makers in 2011 is the impact of rising cotton costs on the price of products. Andrew Tananbaum, chief executive of Capital Business Credit, which finances small and medium-sized manufacturers, predicts that the wholesale price of items with “high cotton content” will likely rise at least 10% for goods that consumers will start to see in the summer of 2011.

The increase marks the first time apparel will be inflationary in at least 20 years. Retailers will likely take a between 3% and 5% hit on margins for cotton-heavy products to avoid raising prices too drastically, he said.

Rising cotton prices “is a real issue,” said Pete Nordstrom, president of merchandising at Nordstrom Inc. If prices go up by 10% or more, as predicted, retailers will have no choice but to pass along price increases to consumers, he said.

For more information, visit: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203731004576045742629998416.html?mod=WSJ_business_whatsNews

Retail sales rebound, beating forecasts

December 28, 2010

Americans are splurging as though it’s 2007 again.

Shoppers spent more money this holiday season than even before the recession, according to preliminary retail data released on Monday. After a 6 percent free fall in 2008 and a 4 percent uptick last year, retail spending rose 5.5 percent in the 50 days before Christmas, exceeding even the more optimistic forecasts, according to MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, which tracks retail spending.

The rise was seen in just about every retail category. Apparel led the way, with an increase of 11.2 percent. Jewelry was up 8.4 percent, and luxury goods like handbags and expensive department-store clothes increased 6.7 percent. There was even a slight increase in purchases of home furniture, which had four consecutive years of declining sales. The figures include in-store and online sales, and exclude autos.

“For the past year or two, when I’ve seen growth in one area, it seems to come at the expense of another,” said Michael McNamara, vice president for research and analysis at SpendingPulse. “Here, things are actually all moving in the right direction.”

Of course, the broad increase was driven in part by higher spending on necessities like gas and food. And even with the across-the-board gains, some categories, like furniture and electronics, have still not climbed back to their prerecession levels.

Several retailers will report December sales in January, and they are trying to finish the month strong. A blizzard on the East Coast may have kept away shoppers on Dec. 26, when stores typically try to capitalize on store traffic for exchanges, returns and gift cards. But analysts said that the stores would not lose those sales — they would just be pushed later in the month, or into January.

The MasterCard data suggests that the pre-Christmas sales increase was the biggest in five years. Spending reached about $584.3 billion, compared with $566.3 billion in that period in 2007.

The 5.5 percent rise beat even the retail industry’s projections. The National Retail Federation was expecting a 3.3 percent improvement, and the ShopperTrak research service anticipated a 4 percent increase (both excluded automobiles, gas and restaurants).

“In the face of 10 percent unemployment and persistent housing woes, the American consumer has single-handedly picked himself off the mat, brushed his troubles off and strapped the U.S. economy on his back,” Craig R. Johnson, the president of the consulting firm Customer Growth Partners, wrote in an e-mail.

Analysts offered several theories for the rebound in spending while the unemployment rate remained stubbornly high.

Stocks have soared to their highest levels in more than two years, giving those with higher incomes greater freedom to spend. Luxury stores like Tiffany and Saks Fifth Avenue, for example, have been posting big sales increases.

Pent-up demand is also showing up among middle-income shoppers: in government surveys, consumers have been expressing rising confidence for the last five months.

The luxury segment started heating up in late summer, said Joel Bines, a director in the global retail practice at AlixPartners.

“That trickled down to the upper- to midtier consumer, and then the midtier consumer,” he said. Once the luxury market stabilized, confidence seems to have spread, “in the media, at work, with your friends,” he said.

The sales figures were bolstered by improved inventory controls among many retailers. After two years of heavy discounting, retailers cut the number of products they held in stock rooms, in an attempt to train shoppers to buy items at full price rather than wait for sales. The strategy seems to have worked.

Shoppers browsing through after-Christmas sales said in interviews that they were still hunting for deals, but they were also feeling that the economy was stabilizing after three years of merciless uncertainty.

In Pontiac, Ill., Gwen Hilsabeck rose at 4 a.m. Sunday for a 90-minute drive through snow flurries from her house to the upstate Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, northwest of Chicago.

“I bought two dresses on sale at Ann Taylor, and I bought four dresses on the clearance rack at Nordstrom,” said Ms. Hilsabeck, a manager at a hospice company who said she had spent $800 to $900 so far.

“I’m spending more on myself because I’m starting to feel a little more at ease,” she said, “and my 401(k) has stopped going down.”

Where the snowstorms were not a factor, stores prepared for a wave of shoppers using gift cards. At J. C. Penney, Dec. 26 is usually the second-biggest day of the year in volume of transactions, including returns, exchanges and new purchases, said Myron E. Ullman III, the company’s chairman and chief executive.

J. C. Penney tries to attract teenagers, who are frequent recipients of gift cards, on Dec. 26 by bringing in new merchandise. People “have got money in their hand if they’ve got a gift card,” Mr. Ullman said.

Indeed, gift cards continued to be popular this year, and some shoppers said they were trying to maximize their value by using them during after-Christmas sales.

“It lets you shop the day after Christmas, so you can save a lot of money,” Shelly Lara, 42, an in-home nurse from Ashtabula, Ohio, said on Sunday.

She said that even though her family was doing fine financially, the Cleveland Clinic, which owned her company, had announced some layoffs, and her husband’s company had stopped contributing to his 401(k) for six months.

“There were some scares,” Ms. Lara said. “We wanted to make sure we got the most for our money.”

Stores seemed to have planned for the holiday season appropriately, with few resorting to the huge price slashing of the last couple of years.

“There was a good match between inventory and demand,” Mr. McNamara of SpendingPulse said. “I didn’t see any evidence of unusual discounting.”

For shoppers, that meant that the hunt for deals was a bit harder after Christmas this year.

“I remember a few years ago when you could double your money if you went shopping the day after Christmas,” said Kim Rayburn, 40, a hairdresser who was looking at costume jewelry at Forever 21 at Polaris Fashion Place in Columbus, Ohio, with her daughter Samantha, 12. “It’s not like that anymore. Now it seems just like a regular shopping day.”

For more information, visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/business/28shop.html?src=busln&scp=4&sq=retail&st=cse

What’s going on with the Shared Services concept?

December 27, 2010

The recent global economic downturn has left its mark on the retail industry and marketplace. As global companies emerge from the recession, CXOs of various Fortune 1000 companies across the globe representing the consumer-packaged goods, retail, quick service restaurants and other sectors have passionately articulated a common set of needs: to leverage their scale, to be truly global and to use their information as an asset. These needs have led to an increased interest in a global shared services model. CXOs want to use this recovery phase to drive global shared services to consolidate, define and possibly centralize key functions and services in the company to help leverage efficiencies of scale globally, reduce costs and deliver competitive advantage.

Shared services is an innovative service delivery model to provide administrative, support and maintenance services of enterprise applications to multiple customers delivered by a common pool of resources around-the-clock that could include employees, consultants, infrastructure, technology, reports, transaction and processing services,etc. The interest is there, but the concept can sound complex. The understanding, or lack of understanding, of the shared services concept often impede companies selling shared services internally, although the model has been employed successfully and has benefitted many companies.

Once you have decided that the shared services model is a good course for your company to take, the biggest challenge is gaining support from management. Convincing the boardroom to sell the shared services concept internally can be intimidating and most often, unsuccessful. Advocates that take up the shared services mandate are faced with skeptics that have a counter-argument ready. Most of these companies are grappling with three key questions: What does it mean to be a truly global company with global shared services? How do they convince their board on the vision, scope, nature and benefits of this strategy? How can they begin?

When they think of shared services, they often think of the potential challenges – external perception from customers that support is not exclusive or unique, change management, the cost to implement such strategy and whether or not this model would achieve immediate benefits, unique local practices in different regions and countries and how they would change in a global shared services model, local staff and their continuity, etc. Every cost saving business case is met with an alternative that ultimately puts the initiative on the back burner. For instance, one country head of a global beverage company explained that while his board loved the business case of immediate cost savings, once the topic of organizational change was brought up, the discussion was stopped short.

One approach that has worked for several companies is abandoning “shared services” all together. What they’ve done is deliver the concept by replacing the “shared services” label to “business enablement initiatives” or “platforms.” It may sound strange, but many advocates have succeeded in selling the idea to the company board by using this approach. For example, one CPG company we worked with looked at a completely non-traditional process – marketing – for which to create shared services. They set up a standardized technology platform for all their digital marketing needs and a “factory” of talented individuals who followed strong processes and methodologies that would help increase reuse and improve speed to market for their brand managers each time they wanted to launch an ad campaign. The creative ad agencies involved loved the model, and the metrics have helped this company demonstrate the power of shared services to the top line of the company. The critical win here is that the team never called this a “shared service,” but promoted it as a new “platform” that they wanted to adopt. Another company that set up a global shared service helping their front-line business development teams all over the world centralize administrative activities, called their initiative “Enabling the Sales Force.”

In summary, the recession and the recovery we are now experiencing has only strengthened the case for shared services to be an important initiative. There are numerous benefits to shared services. Those that have achieved some extent of truly global shared services are enjoying fantastic benefits of large cost savings, improved speed to market, better business user experiences of these services and more aggressive adoption of the model. In fact, the president of a highly successful CPG giant publicly explained that with shared services his company has saved more than $500 million, integrated acquired companies faster than usual, made their value chain more efficient, flatter and simpler, and now moving to digitize that value chain end-to-end.

Shared-services champions are creating momentum within their companies by using business-enabling initiatives to further prove that shared services have a strong business case across most company processes. For most companies, traditional approaches to internally sell shared services in the boardroom are difficult and they have to resort to new, innovative methods. That can be as simple as leaving out the “shared services” in your shared services initiative.

For more information, visit: http://www.retailingtoday.com/article/shared-services-boardroom-dilemma?ad=apparel-accessories

Need financing for your supply-chain?

December 27, 2010

No matter what the politicians in Washington are saying, the United States is married to China. And, this relationship has been nearly 40 years in the making. Ever since Nixon visited China, the United States has become more and more reliant upon low-cost Chinese goods. Indeed, according to The United States Trade Representative, the United States imported nearly $300 billion worth of goods from China in 2009 alone. To the extent an economic recovery in the United States depends on consumers spending at retail, the ability of U.S. importers and retailers to secure financing with respect to goods manufactured and exported from China is of critical importance.

While we all wear Chinese clothing, watch Chinese TV, and listen to Chinese manufactured mp3 players, the basic paradigm of financing imports from China has changed dramatically over the past two decades. What once was a transaction based upon letters of credit and payment upon shipment, is today a constant struggle between U.S. importers and their Chinese manufacturers/suppliers. Importers want to pay later in the process, sometimes as long as three months after the goods are shipped, while suppliers understandably want to be paid as soon as possible.

However, Chinese-based banks are hesitant to accept open account customer credit risk and in the current economic climate exporters are demanding payment as soon as possible after the goods are shipped to the United States. In some cases, due to slim margins and raw material price volatility, Chinese producers ask for deposits even before product leaves Chinese ports.

For retailers and importers, managing trade finance risk has never been more important due to persistent margin pressures and consumers unrelenting quest for value, a key component of which is price.

Historically the financing was assumed by large banks and factors such as CIT. Today these banks have either left the business, curtailed lending to only large, investment grade companies, restricted leverage, or have not changed fast enough to understand the new dynamic and offer the products that importers as well as exporters need to keep the retail supply chain functioning efficiently, effectively and without delay.

This new financial paradigm is only one side of the problem facing importers and exporters. On the other side of the equation is the consolidation in the American retail, apparel and furniture sectors. This consolidation has increased importers’ buying power, forcing Asian suppliers to use open account terms when financing trade with their U.S. clients. Because of this increased clout, importers not only are putting pressure on their suppliers to trade on open accounts, but also to pay as slowly as possible. Today, it is not uncommon for the order-to-cash cycle to be between 120 and 150 days from the date the purchase order is placed in China. This timeframe puts a significant financial strain on the supplier who typically desire payment when goods are shipped.

To help solve this tension between importers and suppliers, non-bank lenders have entered the marketplace. Non-bank lenders are not subject to the strict requirements that often limit the amount of unsecured credit banks will offer to many in the retail supply chain.

It’s why Capital Business Credit, a supply chain finance company historically focused on working with importers and their U.S.-based retail customers, decided to launch a new division called, CBC Trade Finance. Our objective was simple: to address the unmet needs of suppliers and importers in a complex and dynamic marketplace. The model is simple. CBC buys Chinese exporter’s receivables at the time of shipment, paying the supplier as soon as the goods leave for the U.S. The importer then negotiates with CBC a timeframe to pay the invoice – up to 120 days.

As the global economy improves, China and other manufacturing countries like Vietnam, Pakistan and Bangladesh will continue to produce the majority of goods sold in the United States. The ability for U.S. importers to secure incremental financing and to satisfy the demands of foreign exporters and manufacturers is critical not only to the success and working relationship between importers and supplier/manufacturers, but also to an eventual and sustainable economic recovery.

For more information, visit: http://www.retailingtoday.com/article/hidden-risk-imports

Blizzard may increase post-holiday sales online

December 27, 2010

New York City — Sunday’s east coast snowstorm disrupted sales throughout the entire area and disrupted one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

Sections of New York and New Jersey got as much as two feet of snow over the past few days, keeping many shoppers at home. Spending may shift into January, Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at Port Washington, N.Y.-based NPD Group, told Bloomberg on Monday.

“Look for sales to be repeated by retailers. They’re going to be more aggressive,” Cohen said.

The day after Christmas is one of the five busiest shopping days of the year, and it may take retailers two weeks to capture sales lost yesterday, Cohen told Bloomberg. At the same time, shoppers may lose their enthusiasm as the holiday season wanes, he said.

For some retailers, however, the storm brought benefits. Home Depot and Lowe’s Cos. sold out of snow blowers and shoppers bought more shovels and ice melt, Craig Johnson, president of New Canaan, Conn.-based Customer Growth Partners, told Bloomberg. The storm also likely will give online sales “a slight bump” on Sunday and Monday, he said.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Retailing Index dropped 3.16 points, or 0.6%, to 508.67 at 10:39 a.m. EST on Monday. The index had gained 25% this year before Monday, compared with a 13% increase for the S&P 500, according to the Bloomberg report.

Consumers may temper their spending if the storm’s aftermath stalls shopping for several days and the frugality of New Year’s resolutions kicks in, Michael Dart, the San Francisco-based head of private equity at the New York consulting firm Kurt Salmon Associates, told Bloomberg.

New York City had 18 inches to 20 inches of snow by 7:30 a.m. local time Monday as the storm’s center shifted north and east, commercial forecaster AccuWeather said. The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for Boston and into Maine.

For more information, visit: http://www.chainstoreage.com/article/blizzard-hurts-retailers-post-christmas-shoppers-stay-home

Online 2010 holiday winners emerge - Walmart, Target, Best Buy

December 22, 2010

Walmart, Target and Best Buy attracted record levels of customers to their websites during November, according to data released this week by the online measurement firm comScore. Retailers have come to expect a surge in traffic to their sites as the holiday approach and during November that proved to be the case and then some.

Walmart and Target both experienced a 44% increase in the number of unique visitors to their sites during November when compared with October. The surge pushed Walmart to the 20th spot on comScore’s ranking of the top 50 U.S. online properties with a total of nearly 52 million unique visitors, while Target landed in the 27th position with nearly 40 million unique visitors. The number of visitors to Best Buy’s website grew at an even faster 75% when comparing November to October, which gave the company 28 million unique visitors and a 41st ranking on the comScore top 50 list.

“As the holiday season kicked off in November, Americans were quick to take advantage of retailers’ early promotions and saving in crossing a few items off their shopping list,” said Jeff Hackett, EVP comScore Media Metrix. “Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, came in as the heaviest online spending day on record in the U.S. which contributed a strong portion of traffic growth at retail and coupon sites.”

While Walmart, Target and Best Buy advanced their position on comScore’s top 50 list dominated by the likes of Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and Facebook, Amazon.com remains king of the retail hill. It attracted roughly 84 million unique visitors during November, placing it 10th on the top properties list.

The November figures are impressive when compared with October, but less so when compared with November 2009. In fact, unique visitor growth on a year-over-year basis has moderated somewhat, with Walmart, Target and Best Buy posting increases of 5%, 2% and 7%, respectively. Amazon.com’s unique visitor growth increased 8% when compared with November 2009.

For more information, visit: http://www.retailingtoday.com/article/online-2010-holiday-winners-emerge?ad=apparel-accessories

Post-holiday promotional push begins

December 21, 2010

With only a few days to go until Christmas retailers are already positioning themselves for post holiday success by touting promotions to capitalize on gift card redemptions. Target and JCPenney this week announced special incentives that begin the day after Christmas when both plan to open at 7 a.m.

Target said it planned to offer free shipping on certain online purchases and would extend store hours until 11 p.m., while JCPenney said is employing a similar strategy, featuring more than 100 doorbusters in a 48-page sales circular. Those who can’t wait until the day after Christmas can visit jcpenney.com to begin shopping the post holiday specials on the retailer’s website where free shipping will be offered on various items.

“Target makes shopping fun, fast and festive for our guests throughout the holiday season,” said Target merchandising VP Nik Nayar. “Most holiday gift cards are redeemed in our electronics department so we are gearing up for great deals on some of our guests’ favorite products such as video games, TVs and cameras.”

According to JCPenney, the day after Christmas is quickly becoming the retailer’s second busiest sales day after Black Friday.

For further information, visit: http://www.retailingtoday.com/article/post-holiday-promotional-push-begins?ad=apparel-accessories