Wal-Mart

The advent of new technologies has forever changed the way consumers shop. Today, consumers routinely research, purchase, ship and return products across all 
channels. They're using mobile devices, phones, websites, email, stores and catalogs in whichever combination is the most convenient for them.

The year’s most popular discount shopping event, referring to the Friday after Thanksgiving, is arriving ahead of Halloween this year, with some promotions beginning this week and others throughout November.

In a post on its Facebook page, Wal-Mart launched the deals app Crowdsaver, which unlocks a discount once enough consumers opt in - much like the group deals phenomenon the start-up Groupon has made popular in recent months.

Target has reconfigured its smaller stores to fit its P-fresh format, introduced earlier in the year. The new stores will feature 90 percent of the categories found at a SuperTarget, but with much less of a selection.

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, is adding thousands of items to its shelves, including inexpensive ones, and is asking dollar-store suppliers to create small, under-a-dollar packages for its stores, too. In areas with high unemployment, Wal-Mart is grouping together its less than $1 items in a clear challenge to the dollar stores.

Wal-Mart is experimenting with allowing customers to buy merchandise online and have it delivered free to urban FedEx locations, a bid to boost sales in big cities where the retailer has little to no store presence.

Wal-Mart has been candid about its mistakes in the way it pared back assortment in recent months. In a presentation for investors, Bill Simon, CEO of its U.S. division, shed some light on how the retailer is hoping to win back the shoppers it sent away.

Most major American retailers plan to hire the same number of temporary holiday workers as last year, according to a survey by a top industry consultant, underscoring that store chains continue to view the coming season with caution. Still, the annual Hay Group survey found that more than one-fifth of respondents expected to hire more seasonal help than in 2009, a sign that store chains aren't expecting shoppers to hibernate this winter, even if they fail to fully resume free-spending ways.

Target has come up with a promising comeback plan. Two bold initiatives now under way — rolling out fresh groceries in more of its stores and, starting this fall, offering 5 percent discounts on nearly all purchases made with Target REDcards — should help a lot.

Just as recession battered consumers are trickling back to malls, clothes makers in the U.S. face a tough choice. Squeezed by ballooning raw material, labor and freight costs, manufacturers are fretting they might have to raise prices in fragile markets to maintain margins.