Major retailer Target is taking action against an increasing trend occurring in its outlets that is troubling store operations: "showrooming."

Showrooming occurs when shoppers go to brick-and-mortar retailers to research, try out or see a product in person, but then buy it online from a rival, often at a discounted price, the Wall Street Journal reports.

In an effort to combat this shopping tactic, Target sent a letter to suppliers encouraging them to create products that would differentiate them from their competitors as well as joining with Target to match other retailers' prices.

"Target has a long tradition of getting suppliers to provide exclusive products," the source explains. "It has teamed up for years with fashion designers to offer time-limited discount clothing collections, and it recently announced it will open a series of temporary boutiques featuring clothes, food and home furnishings from popular regional stores."

Many retailers are opting for multichannel shopping as well as introducing new technologies and deals to encourage consumers to shop in-store rather than online.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, January 26th, 2012 at 1:14 am .

For some retailers, 2011 ended on an auspicious note – while sales were up through the end of the final two months of the year, many struggled to profit due to rampant discounting and had to adjust their financial projections as a result.

Still, 2012 is expected to be a booming year for those in the sector. According to a new report from the National Retail Foundation, while high unemployment rates and the uncertain economic environment will continue to impact sales, the industry is expected to grow a marginal 3.4 percent throughout the 12-month period.

This year, retailers are forecasted to generate $2.53 trillion. While that's slightly lower than the 4.7 percent recovery observed in 2011, it is still an improvement, which is crucial considering the economic climate. At the same time, economists estimate that real U.S. GDP will grow approximately 2.1 to 2.4 percent.

As NRF president and CEO Matthew Shay notes, the retail sector has been on the forefront of the economic recovery for the past 18 months. The sector has created hundreds of thousands of jobs, encouraged further consumer spending and provided a variety of investor opportunities during this timeframe.

"Our 2012 forecast is a vote of confidence in the retail industry and our ability to succeed even in a challenging economy. Retailers have played a key role in driving growth, but to continue this momentum we need Washington to act on proposals that will spur job creation and unleash the power of the private sector," Shay explains.

Several factors are contributing to the recovery of the booming retail sector. Unemployment reached a three-year low at the close of the 2011 calendar year, the annual income of many Americans is on the rise thanks to Congressional cuts in payroll taxes and the easing of lending standards is encouraging many consumers to spend more money.

According to a separate NRF report, the retail sector is expected to come into full bloom in spring. Container traffic, which shows how much inventory companies are stocking, was observed to be flat in January compared to last year. However, in March, this figure is expected to jump 10 percent year-over-year.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 at 2:07 am .

While retailers may still have room for improvement with their mobile apps and websites, they are doing better as a whole than other sectors, according to a new customer satisfaction survey conducted by ForeSee Results.

Apple and Amazon had the top-rated apps of the retail sector, achieving ratings of 85 and 84 points out of 100, respectively. While Amazon's desktop site was still perceived as being better, the difference was only marginal – 88 points compared to 84. The average customer satisfaction rate for retailers analyzed is 76, significantly higher than the overall average score of 67.

"The largest gaps between web satisfaction and mobile satisfaction are for Avon, with a gap of eight points, and Walmart.com, with a gap of seven points," InternetRetailer notes, citing the report. "A large gap indicates that customer needs are not being met nearly as well in the mobile experience as they are online."

The number of Americans owning smartphones is growing quickly, with the devices currently in the hands of 91.6 million consumers.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Sunday, January 22nd, 2012 at 3:21 am .

Imported retail container traffic is anticipated to be flat this winter compared to the same time last year, suggesting many retailers aren't expecting big sales through the first few months of the year.

According to a new report released Thursday by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates, U.S. ports are expected to handle approximately 1.21 million 20-foot Equivalent Units, up by 0.1 percent. February is expected to be the slowest month of the year at 1.06 million TEU.

However, this spring is projected to see significant year-over-year improvements, with double-digit improvements beginning in March.

"We're headed into the slow season for cargo shipments, but forecasts indicate that retailers will be stocking up this spring in anticipation of a moderate recovery as the year progresses," NRF vice president for supply chain and customs policy Jonathan Gold said.

It's important to note that while cargo imports don't translate directly into sales, when retail merchants expect surges of activity, they tend to order more product to take advantage of the situation.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Friday, January 20th, 2012 at 3:11 am .

In preparing for the new year, store operations will want to take stock of their consumer bases. Who are their key demographics? What are the needs, and what are the best ways to reach them?

A recent study from the University of Georgia's Selig Center for Economic Growth may prove insightful to retailers. The research predicts that Latino, black and Asian American shoppers will spend $3.5 trillion on goods and services in 2015, representing their growing purchasing power as a consumer segment.

The San Francisco Chronicle notes that retailers such as Macy's are taking the news in stride by working with goods suppliers who specialize in these markets. Macy's cosmetics, homes goods and clothes departments will all receive makeovers to better appeal to these groups.

Furthermore, the growth in buying power also signifies a growth in the power of minority-owned businesses. The source added that Macy's predicts its sales of products manufactured by minority- and women-owned businesses will surpass $1 billion in the next two years.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Wednesday, January 18th, 2012 at 2:40 am .

For many marketing experts, social media, especially networking giant Facebook, has been essential in store operations and the formulation of effective advertising campaigns.

However, a recent survey from Baynote reveals that Facebook may not be as influential as previously thought. It found that only one in five consumers made a purchasing decision based on information they received on the social network.

The survey, which questioned 1,032 U.S. shoppers, reported that online sources such as search engines and email were found to be more influential than social media or commerce websites.

Part of the reason email may have been reported as a more important factor in decision-making could be the growing popularity of coupons, which whether delivered via email, direct mail or search engines were found to be more popular than daily deal websites or social networks.

Accordingly, a recent survey from Responsys reported that retailer promotional email campaigns to subscribers reached an all-time high in 2011.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Wednesday, January 18th, 2012 at 2:39 am .

In 2012, store operations may be making big changes to retail point of sale software, as concerns about identity theft and fraud rise.

According to a survey by Digital Persona, nearly 70 percent of the more than 1,100 participants surveyed said they were considering switching their retail POS systems from password-based technology to biometric authentication.

The rising interest in biometrics has come as fraud has taken a greater toll on consumers and retailers. The study cited figures from The Centre for Retail Research's Global Theft Barometer that revealed approximately $40.7 billion going missing each year as a result of fraudulent employees.

"Despite the overwhelming indication that fraud and theft are major business concerns for POS security, it's surprising that over half of businesses still use the least secure method of user authentication," said Jim Fulton, vice president at DigitalPersona.

"The retail industry continues to be a victim of their own inaction – they know the use of passwords is a threat to their business, and yet will accept this situation despite the availability of cost-effective and proven alternatives," Fulton added.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Wednesday, January 18th, 2012 at 2:37 am .

According to a new survey released by ShopperTrak on Monday, overall sales during the November-December holiday period were up. Interestingly enough, however, in-store foot traffic was down during the same time frame, which could suggest a number of different things to retailers.

Holiday sales were up 3.5 percent compared to the two-month period in 2010, with Americans spending upward of $250 billion. While this fell short of ShopperTrak's projected 3.7 percent increase, it still bodes well for the retail industry, which had observed relaxed sales leading into November.

Thanksgiving weekend saw the biggest lift in sales – year-over-year sell-through figures were observed at a 4.4 percent increase. However, this may have negatively impacted sales through the remainder of December – many consumers had to reassess their shopping budgets.

Additionally, the fact that Hanukkah didn't fall until later in the month also hindered sales in the early part of December. Sales did make a dramatic comeback leading up to Christmas, however, and the week before the holiday, a 14.4 percent lift in spending was observed.

Conversely, in-store traffic was down 3.1 percent year-over-year. There are a number of ways retailers could choose to interpret this. For one, it could suggest more Americans are forgoing crowded shopping malls in favor of online shopping. If this is true, it highlights the importance of offering an online retail platform to consumers.

ShopperTrak offers another possible explanation for the decline in foot traffic.

"We know stores saw less foot-traffic and increases in sales during the holiday season, indicating consumers were focused and took fewer trips," Bill Martin, ShopperTrak founder, told RetailingToday. "Retailers who tracked their foot-traffic daily better understood and predicted shopper trends and made the most of every opportunity that walked through their doors with appropriate inventory and staffing adjustments."

Separate data from comScore does suggest online shopping reached new highs this holiday season. Ecommerce spending topped $35 billion for the two-month period, marking a dramatic 15 percent improvement over the same time frame last year. Black Friday marked the greatest year-over-year improvement, with spending surging 26 percent on the day.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 at 1:23 pm .

Tablet devices can be used for a variety of retail purposes. Sales associates can use them to help answer customer questions or check inventory, while companies could also set them up as demo stations. In 2012, a greater number of retailers are expected to make use of these devices to better serve customers, according to new data from RISNews.

The intended implementations of these devices vary: 51.9 percent will be used for sales floor support, 48.1 percent want to utilize tablets to refresh the store experience, 46.3 percent plan to increase comp-store sales and 42.6 percent intend to connect them to enterprise apps.

"Our research reveals that tablet adoption is no longer a question for retailers," commented Joe Skorupa, editor-in-chief at RIS News. "They know they are going to deploy tablets in the near-term, it’s just a matter of what types of tablets and how they’ll integrate them into the store experience."

Fortunately, tablet prices are dropping as well, making the barrier to entry that much lower for progressive retail brands.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 at 1:20 pm .

A new report released by the Commerce Department suggests consumer spending may not be as rosy as many analysts projected. While personal spending did grow over the course of the month, it was less than many economists forecasted.

Consumer spending edged up by a narrow 0.1 percent, a slim number that many retailers may find disappointing considering the season and after a 0.4 percent increase in October. As Bloomberg notes, a panel of economists predicted at least a 0.3 percent rise over the course of the 30-day period.

"In the absence of a significant pickup in income, we won't see a big boost in spending," Yelena Shulyatyeva, an economist at BNP Paribas in New York, told the news source. "The momentum will slow in the fourth quarter, but the economy is still growing."

The average projection ranged from increases as slim as 0.2 percent to growth as big as 0.6 percent, with none of the analysts forecasting a 0.1 percent increase.

Still, it's hard to be upset over any improvements. Retailers looking to bolster sales further may want to consider offering discounts and other incentives.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Monday, January 16th, 2012 at 12:59 pm .