- Mark Levin Signs Multi-year Deal with ABC, Expands Show to 3 Hours
- Consumerist.com Adopted by Old-School Consumers Union, Stops Selling Ads
- For Auto Industry, 2009 Holds Even Tighter Ad Budgets
- User-Generated Magazine Publisher 8020 Media Shuts Doors
- Out-of-Home, Fueled by Digital, to Weather Recession Well
- Clear Channel Swaps Cincy Stations for Five in Green Bay
- Consumers Swarm to Discounters for Grocery Items, Don’t Switch Back
- Wikimedia Raises $6.2M to Keep Wikipedia Afloat
- Conde Nast’s Jan. Ad Pages Slip More than Most
- Aegis Faces Possible Sale or Spin-off of Non-core Businesses
- Top US Cities for Charitable Givers, by Category
- Online Fitness, Video Game Spending Outperforms Brick-And-Mortar
- RIM Must Fix Glitches, Boost Satisfaction To Hold Off iPhone
- LCD TV Revenue to Fall YoY for First Time Ever
- Top 10 Broadcast Media Websites - November 2008
- Top 10 Entertainment Online Advertisers by Image-Based Impressions - November 2008
- Top 10 Sports Websites - November 2008
- Eight in 10 Online Holiday Shoppers Read Web Reviews
- Top 40 Online Retail Satisfaction Index: Merry Outlook for Some, but Not Others
- Firefox Share Tops 20% in November
Best Buy
Retailers’ Balance Sheets Tell All
As holiday season sales results come rolling in, analysts stipulate that the downturn in sales may push even more retailers into bankruptcy court. But sales trends are not the only measure of a retailer’s health, Barron’s writes.
To distinguish the companies with promise from those that are truly in danger of going under, it examined other factors on the corporate balance sheet, like ratios of...
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Wal-Mart Only Retail Winner in Bleak Christmas Shopping Season
Wal-Mart is the only real retail winner during the 2008 holiday shopping season, which is presaging more retail bankruptcies in the year ahead, according to C. Britt Beemer, CEO of America’s Research Group (ARG), who issued his 2008 “Winners and Losers” list of retailers.
The “Winners and Losers” (complete list below) are determined by how well they did in retaining Christmas customers from...
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Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy Have ‘Best’ Holiday Ads; Emotional Ads Resonate
Asked which retailer has the best holiday TV commercial, consumers ranked Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Macy’s, and Kohl’s as favorites, according to a survey conducted for the NRF’s Retail Advertising and Marketing Association by BIGresearch.
Other retailers on the top 10 list include Sears, Kmart, JCPenney, Old Navy, and Toys “R” Us.
Well-known celebrities, “True Story” campaigns, children’s...
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Best Buy Profit Falls; to Offer Buyouts, Cut Capital Spending
Best Buy Co. earned $52 million, or 13 cents a share, in the third quarter, compared with $228 million, or 53 cents, in the year-earlier quarter, the No. 1 consumer-electronics retailer in the US reported.
To prepare for a tough economic environment, Best Buy will (1) cut capital spending some 50% next year; (2) offer buyout packages to nearly all its corporate employees in order to cut costs;...
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Target, Best Buy, Get in on the Mobile App Craze
Since the introduction of Apple’s App Store this summer, mobile apps have become a hot item—and some retailers are capitalizing on their popularity to drive sales and increase customer satisfaction.
Target, for example, launched the Target Gift Globe—built by AKQA—to help iPhone-toting shoppers pick gifts for friends and family, writes Internet Retailer.
After opening the app, they select age,...
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Consumers Spend Less for Xmas, Shop at Fewer Retailers; Wal-Mart an Exception
The number of consumers saying they will spend less for Christmas gifts is at an all time high this year, at 40.1%, nearly double last year’s (23.0%)—and approaching triple the proportion of those saying so in the previous three years, according to the America’s Research Group/UBS Christmas 2008 Survey.
Of those spending less, job fears motivate 63.6% this year, vs. 0% last year. The big...
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State of U.S. Same Store Sales - November 2008 Data Update
RetailerDaily has compiled comparable store sale data from the SEC filings of ten major U.S. retailers spanning 2007 and 2008 up to the most recently released November numbers. The data excludes fuel sales (which would have distorted numbers because of high gas inflation in 2008) and is available in Excel format from the link below:
Among the highlights this year, Wal-Mart shows more...
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Wal-Mart to Sell iPhones in December
Two Apple iPhone models will be sold at Wal-Mart stores in December, and employees are now being trained to sell the device, according to sources in various California Wal-Mart stores, Bloomberg reports.
Wal-Mart would become the second retail chain to carry iPhones, after Best Buy became the first in September.
Wal-Mart may have the phones in stock the day before Christmas, according to one...
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iPod Shortage on Reseller Channels
Apple’s iPod touch and iPod nano are proving to be too popular for Apple to handle, as many of its distribution channels have backlogs of customers requests, writes CNET.
The shortage was first noted on Amazon.com, where the iPod touch was out of stock soon after Black Friday, with lead times of 11 days for the 8 GB model and 3-5 weeks for the 16GB.
Other third-party sellers, including...
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Black Friday vs. Cyber Monday: Shoppers Searching for Best Holiday Deals
Cyber Monday seems to be gaining steam, with 26% of respondents intending to shop on the Monday after Thanksgiving, up from 20% saying so in 2007, according to a Maritz Poll.
However, 41% of respondents say they will shop on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, slightly more than the 37% who said so in 2007, Maritz found.
Gen Y* (53%) and Gen X (46%) are more likely to shop Black Friday...
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