Have you gone shopping over the past few days? I did, and I certainly was not alone.

According to the National Retail Federation, nearly 190 million consumers shopped between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.

Of that, about two-thirds visited physical stores while three-quarters shopped online. On Cyber Monday alone, shoppers spent a record $9.4 billion online, according to data released by Adobe Analytics. That was a nearly 20% jump from last year and the biggest U.S. online shopping day of all-time.

Black Friday for its part had $7.4 billion in online sales, making it the third-largest online sales day ever, after the last two Cyber Mondays, according to Adobe data. 

What about you? Tell us about your recent shopping (online or otherwise) experiences by leaving a comment or two!

Since so many of us are doing more and more shopping online, now is a good time to review the best ways to report these purchases.

• Online purchases may come in one or multiple shipments and don’t always include a packing receipt. Consider printing out your email/order confirmation so you can refer back to it when reporting your purchase.
• If your items do come separately, please scan them as you receive them.
• If an item arrives with the UPC barcode covered by another label, try carefully peeling off that label and scanning the UPC barcode on the item (or manually enter the barcode number if the barcode is damaged).
• If you buy something from the website of a retailer that also has a storefront, make sure to report the trip as an online purchase. For example, if you order something from Walmart’s website, select “walmart.com” when you record the purchase (whether the item was shipped directly to you or picked up at the store).

Whether you buy something in a physical store or online, please remember to tell us about it.

Thanks, and have a great weekend!

Best Regards,
Taylor

Like many shoppers, I’m always looking for a good deal. And often private-label products (or store brands) are a very good deal. (Private-label products are those manufactured by one company for sale under another company’s brand, and are usually less expensive than a “name” brand.)

Private-label products have always been associated with physical retail stores; in fact, those products account for 17% of total “brick-and-mortar” consumer packaged goods sales.

But now, private-label products are growing in the online world, as sales of these products account for 3% of online dollar sales, up from 1.3% two years ago.

In particular, several private-label product categories, such as aluminum foil, baby wipes, trash bags, paper towels, bath tissues, facial tissues, and disposable diapers, have seen significant online sales growth.

Amazon for one, has many private-label products. My husband purchased Amazon-branded batteries not too long ago.

What about you? Do you purchase private-label products, in either physical retail stores or online? If so, how do you think they compare to name-brand products? Let us know in the comments section.

Thanks, and have a great weekend!

Best Regards,
Taylor