November Retail Grows: The National Retail Federation reported that US retail sales in November climbed 0.9% over October's figures on a seasonally adjusted basis. Online and other sales occurring outside of stores grew by 10.5% year over year, underscoring ecommerce's unyielding march for retail dominance. Economists with the organization said the holiday shopping season had seen an impressive start.
Instagram Rose: Econsultancy took a look at the top trends in social media for 2017, noting that Facebook-owned visual-focused platform Instagram had something of a banner year. The firm also noted that brands took to articulating their social values, and that demands for less opacity regarding Facebook's advertising were growing.
Messenger Pros: Sean Kelly, product management director for Facebook Messenger, reported that the service doubled its volume of real-time video chats to 17 billion worldwide this year. In addition, Messenger users shared more than 500 billion emojis with each other this past year, with GIFs shared about 18 billion times.
"Must-Have" Shows: A survey from Altman Vilandrie & Co. found that millennials had a significantly higher average of "must-have" shows on their list—33—compared with just 13 for those ages 55 and older. The poll also revealed that three-quarters of millennials watched TV programming on some type of paid video-on-demand service, such as Netflix.