While overall social media use clearly remains high among consumers, concerns related to security, privacy, and legitimacy are sabotaging social commerce, reveals a new study from digital commerce consulting firm SUMO Heavy exploring the impact of social media on consumer behavior and how emerging social features like messaging chatbots can better serve brands and retailers.

C+R Research analyzed Google search volume from major college towns and determined that Target is Gen Z’s favorite brand. What about the retailer resonates?

Inadequate search tools frustrate online shoppers. Unless the catalog has just a few dozen products, search and browse tools should accommodate today’s savvy shoppers. For some stores, filters are sufficient. For others, faceted navigation and search is a must.

ShopRunner, the two-day shipping service founded by the billionaire entrepreneur and sports team owner Michael Rubin, plans to acquire the five-year-old e-commerce startup Spring.

New York City-based eMarketer’s “Holiday Shopping 2018: A Strong Economy Sets the Stage for a Spending Surge” report predicts total U.S. retail sales will rise 4.1% in the November-December period over the same months in 2017 to $986.8 billion. Brick-and-mortar sales will continue to dominate, claiming 87.5% of the total pie at $863.4 billion, but growing only 2.6% year-over-year.

The National Retail Federation on Wednesday released its projections for 2018 holiday sales, the organization forecasting total sales of between $717.5 billion to $720.9 billion. That represents a 4.3% to 4.8% increase over last year’s sales of $687.9 billion, which were a 5.3% increase over 2016.

Coming in at roughly 85,000 pieces, the build took designer Spencer_R a little over two years to complete, with many of those hours spent poring over drone footage of the campus’ construction. At 6.8 x 4.5 feet, it’s bigger than most kitchen tables. Spencer says it weighs around 78 pounds.