Target, Inc.

There were several big shifts, but Walmart maintains its No. 1 position on Interbrand's U.S. Most Valuable Retail Brands list for 2012 by a huge margin. Meanwhile, Amazon.com, which increased its brand value by 32 percent, is the largest riser on this year's list.

Sales results for Black Friday and Cyber Monday are in, and aside from signaling growing consumer confidence with record breaking totals, the statistics point to another key consumer trend: Mobile shopping is on the up and up.

In 2010, a breakthrough new report proved that downstream data is a key initiative for consumer goods companies and retailers alike. This year, CGT is polling both trading partners again to determine how much headway has been made in data sharing strategies.

The first 10 spots on the annual Top 100 retailer list from STORES magazine hold the same names as last year, but pressures from the uncertain economy and the impact of online retail are forcing them to make changes to stay ahead.

Shiloh DSR is focused on cross retailer analytics, as well as best practices for major retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, and 65 others.

Welchs will start its project at Meijer and Target, focusing on monitoring new product introductions, improving the planning and execution of its promotions and reducing exit inventories at the end of events.

In the United States, the compaction of carton powder laundry detergents could save up to 2.9 billion liters of water, 4 million GJs of energy and 225,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalents each year.

News of store closings and bankruptcies has seemed to permeate this industry over the last few years. Check out which companies have weathered the storm.