Column: Retail-tainment may save malls in future

Preliminary sales trends from Small Business Saturday show a continuing increase in smartphone purchases even among shoppers patronizing local merchants.

According to the Associated Press (AP), Adobe Analytics said smartphone income made up over 40 percent of all e-commerce revenue on Nov. 30. That is up 22 percent from a year ago. Shoppers spent $3.6 billion buying online from small businesses that day.

Small Business Saturday was started in 2010 by American Express to encourage people to shop at small retailers’ stores. It was purposefully sandwiched between Black Friday and Cyber Monday--th...