Information Technology

The Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS), the National Retail Federation’s technology standards division, today announced the release of three diverse standards for the retail technology community, all of which will be available for review in the ARTS Pavilion, booth 2253, at Retail’s BIG Show.

As shoppers become increasingly connected, online retailers in 2013 will get back to basics, focusing on strategies and tactics to improve the customer experience and increase web conversion and loyalty across all devices

Bringing together the world’s leading retailers and their business partners, Retail’s BIG Show is set to commence next week, offering a speaker lineup never seen before. The four-day convention, held January 13-16, 2013 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, will feature topics ranging from digital and mobile retailing to corporate and social responsibility to economic and consumer trends in the new year.

The Dream BIG scholarship will award 10 current retail employees with full tuition at any University of Phoenix program, providing them the opportunity to pair education with work experience and ambitions to pursue a wide-array of career opportunities within the retail industry.

The NRF Foundation and American Express today announced the winners of their annual Aspire2Retail Intercollegiate Challenge, which is designed to increase understanding of diverse career paths in retail by engaging university students in a competitive, collaborative role play that involves implementing a multi-tiered business strategy.

The National Retail Federation announced today that Kofi Annan, formerly Secretary-General of the United Nations will keynote Retail’s BIG Show, January 13-16, 2013 at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City. Annan’s keynote, “Building Strong Nations: The Three Pillars to a Prosperous Society,” is scheduled for Monday, January 14, 2013 at 8:45 a.m.

Though millions of holiday packages are crossing the country right now en route to their intended doorsteps, many Americans may choose to wait until the last minute to finish their holiday shopping. In 2010 and 2011 the average person still had half of their shopping lists to complete as of mid-December.

Christmas came early for 24 college students when they learned they were recipients of a $5,000 scholarship through the NRF Foundation’s Ray M. Greenly Scholarship fund. Each student, nominated by educators at their schools based on their high scholastic achievements and passion for retail, will receive a $5,000 scholarship to cover educational costs and a stipend to attend Retail’s BIG Show in January.

Despite record levels of online spending over the Black Friday weekend, savvy shoppers still have plenty of appetite for one-day only deals that retailers have lined up for Cyber Monday, as 129.2 million shoppers say they’ll head to retailers’ websites on Cyber Monday.

Children’s wish lists this holiday season are full of the latest gadgets such as Apple iPads and the Nintendo Wii U, but there’s still demand for some classic gifts like LEGOs, dolls and toy cars according to NRF’s 2012 Top Toys survey conducted by BIGinsight.

With retailers providing increasingly creative ways for gift cards to be personalized and delivered, NRF’s 2012 holiday consumer spending survey conducted by BIGinsight shows that 81.1 percent of shoppers will purchase at least one gift card and will spend an average of $156.86 on gift cards, the highest amount in the survey’s 10-year history.

According to the National Retail Federation’s holiday consumer spending survey conducted by BIGinsight, 52.8 percent of Americans have already started their holiday shopping, up from 51.4 percent last year.

The Retail Advertising and Marketing Association (RAMA), a division of The National Retail Federation, announced today Kevin Brown, group vice president, and chief marketing officer at Meijer Inc. will serve as the Chairman of its Board of Directors. . In addition to electing a new Chairman, RAMA also welcomes five new members to its Board of Directors.

More than two dozen colleges and universities have joined the NRF Foundation as partners through a program that provides educators and students exclusive access to retail industry research, educational events and other industry networking opportunities.

Consumers are prepared for a holly, jolly holiday season, though it’s evident most will take a conservative approach with their gift-giving budgets. According to NRF’s holiday consumer spending survey conducted by BIGinsight, the average holiday shopper will spend $749.51 on gifts, décor, greeting cards and more, up slightly from the $740.57 they actually spent last year.

Tempered by political and fiscal uncertainties but supported by signs of improvement in consumer confidence, holiday sales this year will increase 4.1 percent to $586.1 billion. NRF’s 2012 holiday forecast is higher than the 10-year average holiday sales increase of 3.5 percent. Actual holiday sales in 2011 grew 5.6 percent.

This Halloween, trick-or-treaters, party-goers and pampered pets will be dressing up in traditional spooky style with pumpkin, princess, witch and vampire costumes taking the top spots in NRF’s 2012 Top Costumes survey conducted by BIGinsight.

A record 170 million people plan to celebrate Halloween this year, according to NRF’s 2012 Halloween consumer spending survey conducted by BIGinsight. Seven in 10 Americans (71.5%) will get into the haunting Halloween mood, up from 68.6 percent last year and the most in NRF’s 10-year survey history. Consumers are expecting to spend more too; the average person will spend $79.82 on decorations, costumes and candy, up from $72.31 last year, with total Halloween spending expected to reach $8.0 billion.*