LiveScience put together the following infographic looking at “the price of love”. It combines data from the National Retail Federation, ItsJustLunch.com, Sears, OpenTable, Motley Fool and Gannett.

Source:LiveScience

If you’ve made it this far down the page, you deserve this accompanying treat:

Oh, why not take this one in as well:

The test program is part of a broader plan to bring a variety of specialty boutiques into Target stores. This program, “The Shops at Target” is meant to bolster the retailer’s flagging sales and mimic similar specialty shops found within other retailers like Kohl’s.

Best Buy’s version of this program has been relatively successful, however Best Buy is specifically an electronics company. It will be interesting to see how these mini Apple Stores fare in a department store like Target.

[Source: Reuters]

Now, British news site ChannelWeb is reporting that eBizcuss is not the only European APR to have problems with Apple’s business practices. After the story broke in Europe, two other APRs – one continental and one in Britain – approached ChannelWeb to offer their agreement with eBizcuss’s accusations. The continental retailer even sent ChannelWeb a 4,400 word letter enumerating its concerns with Apple’s business practices.

The letter listed a number of ways in which Apple has treated its APRs unfairly. The letter says that APRs have often received major Apple products later and in fewer numbers than Apple’s own stores, that many have not been allowed to sell the iPhone at all, that Apple has cut some APRs’ credit lines, leading to cash flow problems, and that Apple’s requirement for in-store reorganization reduces the number of third party accessories APRs can sell, stifling a lucrative aspect of their business.

These two retailers’ support for eBizcuss stopped does not appear to go further than their communication with ChannelWeb, however. Both spoke on condition of anonymity, out of fear that Apple could retaliate if their support of eBizcuss were known.

It will be interesting to watch how this case pans out. If eBizcuss gains even a small measure of victory now, it could have significant repercussions for Apple’s dealings with its retail partners later, especially if other retailers are emboldened to take similar action in other countries.

[Source: ChannelWeb]

View more video round-ups here.

Alfred: The app that Groupon is rumored to be in talks to acquire:

Will Ferrell is helping Old Milwaukee with advertising apparently:

Native client: behind the scenes:

Google Apps retail webinar:

View more infographic round-ups here.

The Importance of Social Networks in Retail:

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Will Apple Release a NFC-Enabled iPhone 5 or iPad 3?

via

According to BGR, the new app will bring easy in-store pickup of items ordered online as well as enable customers to purchase smaller Apple Store items without ever having to talk to an Apple Store employee.

First, the in-store pickups. We’ve already seen a little bit of this in select stores in California and New York. It allows customers to make Apple purchases online, and pick up their merchandise the same day in the Apple store of their choice (considering it’s in stock, of course).

The new retail app for iOS will aid in this process, as it opens up to more stores on Thursday.

If a customer orders a product online or from the retail app, they will be able to pick it up in 12 minutes. Yes, apparently there will be a 12 minutes guarantee. Why 12 minutes? Well, 3 minutes for the order to go through + 2 minutes for the back room guys to grab the merchandise + 7 minutes for everyone to get everything perfect.

If an item is not immediately available in the store, a pick-up date will be given to the customer immediately following their purchase. Anything shipped to the Apple Store for pickup will have free shipping.

Customers who use the in-store pickup option on online purchased items will be given full priority inside the store – that means they skips lines and just grab their stuff and go. Apple looks to make this service as smooth and painless as possible.

You will also be able to return products shipped to you via online purchase to Apple stores.

As far as part two of the new retail experience goes, customers will be able to make their own purchases inside the store. Say you want to buy a new case for your iPhone 4S; you’ll be able to load up the new retail app, snap a photo of the case with your camera, and it will charge the purchase to whatever credit card is linked to your Apple account.

Then you just walk out of the store, no questions asked. Will this lead to an easier shopping experience? Or widespread theft? This sounds like an awesome new initiative for Apple, but there is definitely some room for abuse.

What do you think about Apple’s upcoming retail offerings? Let us know in the comments.

U.S. and European online retail will grow at a 10 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2010 to 2015, reaching $279 billion and €134 billion, respectively, in 2015. The forecasts include business-to-consumer sales excluding travel and financial services.

“The online retail market in both the US and Western Europe remains strong, despite the challenging economy,” said Forrester Vice President and Research Director Patti Freeman Evans.

“In fact, with consumer purchasing behavior returning to normal, US web sales in 2010 actually accelerated over 2009 compared with the prior year, growing 12.6 percent. In Europe, very strong growth in 2010 was fueled by new online buyers and higher spend per capita on the demand side, as well as the launch of transactional websites by established offline players.”

Retailers are supporting consumers’ increasing use of the Web in the US, helping to drive growth with new business models, such as flash sales and group buying, as well as improved merchandising to provide a broad selection of products available online.

In Western Europe, the online retail market grew 18 percent from 2009 to 2010 and is projected to grow 13 percent from 2010 to 2011, but growth rates will then slow as the market matures and buyer penetration begins to level off. By 2015, 68 percent of online adults will have made a purchase online; however, northern European countries will see 80 percent or more of their online population buying on the web, versus less than 50 percent in southern countries.

 Do you find email to be more effective than social media? Let us know in the comments.

The report found that social media interactions are a main influence for only 5 percent of visitors to retail websites.

The research found that more traditional marketing tactics like promotional emails (19%), search engine results (8%), and Internet advertising (7%), influence more visits to retail websites.

Other highlights from the report include:

*Traditional marketing techniques like promotional emails influence not only more traffic; they deliver better-quality traffic. Some of the most satisfied site visitors arrived at the site because of previous familiarity with a brand, promotional emails, word-of-mouth, and product review websites.

*Most people want to engage with retailers, but but prefer to do so via email or on retail websites, rather than on social sites.  In fact, only 8% of online shoppers said that’s social media was their preferred way to interact with a retailer.

*People are more satisfied with retailers’ presence on Facebook than they are with Facebook itself.

“Every retailer should know how many customers are influenced by promotional emails, advertising on Facebook or word-of-mouth recommendations, and furthermore, they should know which group is most likely to buy,” said Larry Freed, President and CEO of ForeSee Results and author of today’s report.

“They should also know how people want to hear from them and how well they’re doing when it comes to communicating through those channels.  Serious thought needs to be given to finding out whether social media is worth the investment for their business, and then if the answer is yes, they need to make the most of it by making sure that interactions on social media meet the needs and expectations of customers.”

Do you use email marketing and social media? Let us know in the comments.

This growth rate is the fifth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth and second quarter of double-digit growth rates in the past year.

“Retail e-commerce had a strong fourth quarter, growing 11 percent versus last year as holiday season spending was bolstered by an improving sentiment among some consumer segments and by retailers’ discounting and promotions,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.

“The 2010 holiday season saw the first billion-dollar day on record and several more surpassing $900 million to help propel Q4 to record spending levels. We anticipate that the progress we’ve seen in the past year as we climbed out of the recession will continue with sustained double-digit growth rates in 2011.”

Other highlights from the report include:

*The top 25 online retailers accounted for 68.4 percent of dollars spent online, up 5.6 percentage points vs. year ago. However, this percentage represented a decline from Q3 2010, during which the top 25 retailers accounted for 69.9 percent of dollars, an indication that small and mid-sized retailers are also rebounding from the recession.

*84 percent of U.S. Internet users conducted an online transaction in Q4 2010, up from 78 percent last year. The average buyer spent about the same amount online during the most recent quarter as they did last year.

“It looks like more than half of all shoppers will soon be using their mobile phones for retail purposes,” said Kevin Ertell, vice president of Retail Strategy at ForeSee Results and author of today’s report.

“Any retailer not actively working to develop, measure, and refine its mobile experience is leaving money on the table for competitors.”

Shoppers who are highly satisfied with a mobile experience say they are 30% more likely to buy from that retailer online and 30% more likely to buy offline, as well as being far more likely to return to the main website, recommend it, and be loyal to the brand.

“It’s another reminder and a nice way to quantify that every customer touch point matters to overall loyalty and sales,” added Ertell. “Retailers cannot afford to ignore or even neglect the mobile experience and assume it won’t hurt their traditional online or in-store business.”

In general, shoppers rate their satisfaction with retail websites significantly higher (78 on the study’s 100-point scale) than their satisfaction with mobile experiences (apps and sites) (75).

“It’s true that mobile sites have far less maturity than traditional e-retail websites,” said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results.

“But I’m not sure that matters to consumers. Their expectations are being set by the best websites and the best mobile experiences. They aren’t going to have a lot of patience for excuses about the challenges that mobile shopping presents when it comes to design and usability. Retailers need to step up their game in this area.”

Other highlights of the report include:

* A total of 11% of web shoppers reported having made a purchase from their phones this holiday season, compared to only 2% at this time last year.

*The majority of shoppers who used their phones did so to compare price information (56%). Shoppers also used their phones to compare different products (46%), to look up product specifications (35%), and to view product reviews (27%).

*While in physical stores, more than two-thirds of mobile shoppers (69%) used their phones to visit the store’s own website, but nearly half (46%) also used their phones to access a competitor’s website.