Nearly half of online retailers are "very" or "extremely" confident that holiday sales this season will outperform last year, according to a new survey by Bigcommerce.
Sixty percent of Americans created or used an online account with a retailer in the last 12 months, which suggests convenience ranks top-of-mind for U.S. shoppers, according to Worldpay, a global payments company. In fact, 47 percent said they create online accounts because it is quicker and easier to shop.
In its continual effort to make shopping convenient and easy, Kohl's has partnered with Deliv, a crowdsourced, last-mile delivery company to make same-day delivery in nine markets.
The growth of e-commerce increases consumer choice and flexibility, but it also challenges distribution centers to keep pace with consumers' higher expectations for faster and more accurate delivery. Nearly nine in 10 distribution center operators expect to adopt new mobile devices and voice-direction technology in the next five years to meet that need, according to a survey by Honeywell and YouGov.
The National Retail Federation expects sales in November and December (excluding autos, gas and restaurant sales) to increase a solid 3.7 percent to $630.5bn - significantly higher than the 10-year average of 2.5 percent. Holiday sales in 2015 are expected to represent approximately 19 percent of the retail industry’s annual sales of $3.2 tr. Additionally, NRF is forecasting online sales to increase between 6 and 8 percent to as much as $105bn.
While e-commerce sales have been growing, year-to-year declines in conversion and add-to-cart rates are continuing. Retailers need to pay greater attention to personalization and relevant product recommendations to combat these declines and ensure that they remain successful.
Target's supply chain woes are coming to a boil. Out-of-stocks and sometimes entirely empty shelves have become all too common, and have come to the attention of the national media.
While cash remains king at the point-of-sale, a variety of other digital payment methods are preferred by consumers, with 25 percent of all smartphone owners now using mobile wallets.
