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Mid-day Update

Mid-day Extra: Cyber Monday goes mobile

Jeremy Hobson Nov 28, 2011

It is Cyber Monday today — and it seems like this year’s holiday shopping is a whole lot more “cyber” than it used to be — even mobile.

We’ve heard about “shopping walls,” comparison shopping on smartphones — and this latest thing in retail tracking where a few malls across the country will be using cell phone signals to gauge foot traffic in stores during the holiday season.

In today’s Mid-day Extra, we ask: Are smartphones a blessing or a curse for holiday shopping?

For answers we went to retail analyst Sucharita Mulpuru at Forrester Research. She says that, at least for now, the trade-off customers might make in getting tracked is still well worth the holiday deals. A good Black Friday sales weekend doesn’t always mean a good sign for the rest of the holiday retail season. And we might just have a “Mobile Tuesday,” in the near (retail) future.

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