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Online retail sales rose nearly 8% in August over last year

Sep 18, 2024
Analysts say there's still room for growth in the category, though most purchases are still made in person.
Tools that help shoppers visualize the fit of clothing or how furniture might look in their homes is helping fuel online retail sales.
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Stealth shopping — hiding purchases from spouses — is on the rise

Aug 6, 2024
As online shopping has become the norm, some people's spending habits have become stealth missions to keep from their partners.
More people are shopping from home, but larger spending habits have become secrets to be kept from significant others.
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Inside a UPS warehouse that prioritizes super-fast shipping

Jul 15, 2024
UPS' Velocity in Louisville, Kentucky, has more robots than workers.
At Velocity, robots are constantly moving through the facility, reprioritizing items that are trending.
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Online retailers lean into secondhand shopping surge

Jun 17, 2024
As consumers become more thoughtful about spending, many are turning to used goods when they need to shop.
"eBay was the OG of all of this," said retail analyst Sucharita Kodali at Forrester. "They're trying to introduce themselves to this new generation."
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Department stores like Macy's rely on an old shopping model. Can they change?

Feb 27, 2024
In the age of globalism and online shopping, the department store’s strength — as a place for everything — has became its weakness.
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Freight railroads want to let companies track shipments to compete with trucking

Feb 15, 2024
But so far they've only added GPS tracking to less than 1% of the nation's railcars.
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It's returns season, and retailers are feeling it

Dec 27, 2023
The National Retail Federation says Americans returned $743 billion in merchandise so far this year.
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For public good, not for profit.

As Christmas looms, the shipping wars accelerate

Dec 21, 2023
UPS and FedEx, not to mention Target and Walmart, are all racing to keep up with Amazon's same- or next- day shipping options because shoppers have become used to faster delivery times.
Amazon says more than half of Prime orders arrived same day or next day during the first half of this year in the 60 biggest U.S. metro areas.
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Non-store retail sales grew more than 10% since last November

Dec 14, 2023
$1.2 trillion was spent outside of brick-and-mortar stores this year — much of it online. Here's some of the trends shaping e-commerce spending.
Non-retail sales — mostly online shopping — grew by more than 10% year-over-year, according to the Commerce Department.
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In retail, it's all about "omnichannel" selling

Nov 23, 2023
It’s not in-store versus online — it’s in-store and online, and something in between.
"[Walmart's] in-store experience is really consistent. They have a lot of doors throughout the U.S. But they're also putting a lot of efforts into online Black Friday deals," said Brittany Steiger at Mintel.
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