Blue Christmas for Retailers?

With the U.S. economy struggling to stay afloat, retailers are weathering a rough holiday shopping season this year. When the dust clears after the New Year, how bad will the damage be?

In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Dr. Jie Zhangdiscusses the retail outlook for an economy in turmoil.

Dr. Zhang is assistant professor of marketing and the Harvey Sanders Fellow of Retail Management at the Smith School. Her general research interest is to apply econometric and statistical models to study consumers’ purchase behavior and response to various promotion programs, and then to design innovative decision support tools for marketers based on these models. She is particularly interested in their applications in the Internet shopping environment. Her recent research projects focus on online promotion customizations and shopping behavior, and various topics that aim at improving decision making for retail management in general.

Smith Business Close-Up can be seen bi-weekly on Maryland Public Television’s “Your Money and Business.” Watch Jie Zhang on Thursday, Dec. 11 at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 14 at 7:30 a.m.; and Monday, Dec. 15 at 4:30 a.m. on public television stations throughout Maryland and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region, including: