NRF 2010, “Retail’s Big Show,” officially kicks off on Sunday, Jan.10 – but the hottest ticket at the show is a one-of-a-kind retail

Click here to download your FREE NRF Expo Pass.

research event scheduled for the day before, free to all retailers. Click here to register.

RetailROI Super Saturday is a research and networking event taking place at NRF2010, benefiting the Retail Orphan Initiative (Retail ROI), a charitable foundation established to help the 400 million orphaned and vulnerable children worldwide.

As the closely-watched Black Friday weekend winds down, a National Retail Federation survey conducted over the weekend confirms the expected: more people spent less. According to NRF’s Black Friday shopping survey, conducted by BIG research, 195 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend*, up from 172 million last year. However, the average spending over the weekend dropped to $343.31 per person from $372.57 a year ago.

Cyber Monday could prove to be a different story. According to a survey conducted for Shop.org by BIGresearch, 96.5 million Americans plan to shop on Cyber Monday this year, up from 85 million in 2008.

When “green” initiatives first started to pop up in retail, they were generally perceived as “feel good” initiatives driven by marketing executives looking to differentiate their brand. However, with store operations teams now trying to squeeze every cent of efficiency out of their stores, green initiatives are now seen as a competitive necessity to lower energy costs.

With this in mind, eco-friendly point-of-sale systems are now becoming more attractive to retail IT executives. According to a July 2009 study from Retail Systems Research (RSR), “greening up” is seen as a strategic initiative by 48% of retailers, up from 44% the year prior.

The National Retail Federation welcomed a report issued today by the General Accountability Office on the $48 billion in “swipe” fees that credit card companies collect from merchants and their customers each year.

“This report shines a spotlight on credit card fees and their cost to consumers,” NRF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mallory Duncan said. “In the past two weeks we’ve seen the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City hold a major conference on credit cards, a study from the Hispanic Institute on how card companies take from the poor and give to the rich, and now this document. Clearly, there is a growing focus on this issue and it’s time for action. With this information in hand, we hope Congress will move quickly to pass legislation to bring these fees and practices under control.”