U.S. retailers are projected to hire more than 800,000 temporary employees for this year’s holiday season, the most since 1999, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Retailers are expecting American spending to be at its highest in three years this holiday season, according to a report published this week by the National Retail Federation.

The much-hyped “showrooming” phenomenon was supposed to take down retail giants. Long-standing stores would be shuttered as consumers used them only to touch, try and compare products – but turned to online and mobile retailers to make their actual purchases.

With the announcement that earlier this month that ASDA is doubling the number of ‘click and collect’ lockers available at tube stations in London, is this a sign of the next big change in shopping patterns in the UK?

A swell in clothing and footwear consumption during August led the UK to a 2.7 percent gain in retail performance compared to August of last year, according to the British Retail Consortium.

More than 70 percent of U.S. retail executives say they are adopting omnichannel strategies to link shoppers’ in-store experience with websites, mobile apps, and social media platforms, according to the KPMG 2014 Retail Outlook Survey. 

Some discount superstores in Gloucester may have begun to notice less footfall traffic, as shoppers in the area have begun turning to independent and smaller retailers.

Two-thirds of the UK’s top retailers predict their businesses will grow this year, and many of them believe retail technology is a key strategy in achieving that growth, according to “The Retail Growth Strategies Survey 2014,” commissioned by law firm TLT.

Some consumers did not react well to Amazon’s announcement that the cost of its annual Amazon Prime membership fee would jump from $79 to $99 this spring. The New York Times reports some shoppers don’t think the perks of the program – including streaming video content, e-books, and two-day shipping (that some say takes longer than two days) – are justified by a higher price.

The National Retail Federation projects U.S. retail industry sales will increase 4.1 percent in 2014.  That growth – higher than last year’s 3.7 percent – presents a timely opportunity retailers can seize to grow and, more importantly, sustain a wider base of loyal customers.