The National Retail Federation scheduled a free, three-day online event to help retail e-commerce and digital marketing professionals navigate COVID-19. The July 20-22 event will include marketing strategies for reaching Generation Zers, said the association Tuesday. “Consumer expectations have never been higher,” said NRF. “It’s about building personalized omnichannel experiences, cultivating brand loyalty and much more.”

With tech industry eyes trained on the fate of the Jan. 6-9 CES 2021 in Las Vegas amid COVID-19, CTA with little fanfare announced Monday it was canceling all CES Asia shows. The pandemic forced the mid-March cancellation of the 2020 CES Asia that was set for June 10-12 in Shanghai (see 2003110036). “We evaluate our events in light of the changing needs of our industry and the priorities of our members and exhibitors,” said CTA. “Given the pandemic, the economy, and our visible role as an American trade association, we have decided to focus on other CES related programs.” The State Department issued a "China -- Level 4: Do Not Travel" advisory June 4 for U.S. nationals. The Shanghai government mandates a 14-day quarantine for foreign visitors.

Advertisers that remained on TV during COVID-19 had 23% more website engagement in subsequent weeks, Comcast’s Effectv and TVSquared reported. Brands with direct-to-consumer offerings had the highest rates of TV-attributed response, including e-commerce retail (+100%), online food delivery (+84%) and education (+41%). Automotive and insurance showed signs of recovery, but travel was still experiencing weakened traffic, said Monday's report. In March-April, brands that ran COVID-19-related creatives had an average lift of 37%, vs. 13% for those that didn’t. TV ads drive "consumer action online and also provide insights into how data-driven strategies can maximize engagement,” said James Rooke, Effectv general manager.

FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly will give a virtual Media Institute luncheon address at 1 p.m. July 29, the institute said Monday. It was earlier to be determined if it would be in person or webcast, and the date had previously moved amid COVID-19.

After “extensive consideration and mindful planning,” CEDIA is resuming in-person training beginning next month at its Fishers, Indiana, headquarters, it said Monday. The organization will host courses with “safety-focused measures,” it said. Before arriving on-site for the program, learners will need to complete a questionnaire detailing any COVID-19 exposure or symptoms. While on-site, COVID-19 safety measures will include: required mask-wearing by learners and instructors at all times in the building, daily temperature checks before entering the building and reduced class sizes allowing for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-recommended social distancing. The first training, covering cabling and infrastructure, is a hybrid course being offered for the first time with a self-paced online learning course that will complement hands-on learning at the CEDIA training facility Aug. 17-19. Other courses will include Home Theater Boot Camp and Advanced Networking Boot Camp, CEDIA said.

Nine in 10 respondents in a June Mojo Vision survey say their use and reliance on technology increased or remained the same during sheltering-in-place restrictions. Half the 2,000 U.S. consumer respondents said the onset of COVID-19 caused them to use and depend on technology more. Maintaining communication and improving quality of life were the top factors, said the research company. Some 60% of early adopters and 40% of later adopters bought and tried new and different devices, apps or tech-driven services. Some 44% of early adopters and 59% of later adopters said they started using virtual communications tools and services. Forty-one percent of first adopters and 44% of later adopters said they started using grocery delivery options. About 30% of first adopters and 32% of later adopters were most interested in trying or continuing to use online delivery services in a post-COVID-19 era. Early adopters see themselves continuing to adopt new technology at a pace that’s almost 30% faster than before the pandemic, Mojo Vision said.

Global information technology spending will decline 7.3% this year to $3.5 trillion but recover “in a faster and smoother manner than the economy,” reported Gartner Monday. Devices will be the hardest hit segment because “cost containment will continue to reduce spending significantly through 2020,” it said. It’s forecasting a 16.1% decline in spending on IT devices this year. “Working from home caused a temporary spike in device buying as businesses implemented business continuity plans for COVID-19 response.” Increased device spending won’t be sustained for the rest of 2020 and “is not expected to return to 2019 levels soon,” said Gartner.

COVID-19 cut Voxx sales in fiscal Q1 ended May 31, said CEO Pat Lavelle on an investor call Monday. The results came at 5:30 p.m. EDT Friday. Monday, the stock closed down 6.6% at $5.28. Revenue in the automotive segment declined $12.4 million from Q1 a year earlier, said Lavelle. Consumer electronics sales were down $9.1 million, he said. Voxx reported its net loss nearly tripled to $9.1 million. The closure of virtually all automotive OEM production idled Voxx factories in Orlando that make rear-seat entertainment systems, said Lavelle. The shutdown of most new car dealers doubly hurt, he said. “April was reported to be the worst month for car sales in over 30 years.” Retail lockdowns harmed the Voxx consumer business, and the shutdown of movie theaters halted sales of Klipsch commercial speakers targeted to “large venues,” said Lavelle. “The only bright spot was some of the large brick-and-mortar retailers that sold food and remained open” as essential businesses, he said. “We saw increases at retailers such as Walmart, Costco and others.” Voxx e-commerce sales activity “picked up as well,” he said. “But this was mostly offset by Amazon focusing on essentials for a large part of the quarter.” The pandemic’s economic impact is “far from over, but we remain cautiously optimistic” about the rest of calendar 2020, said Lavelle. In June, the first month of Voxx’s fiscal Q2, “we saw a rebound, with sales up 30%,” he said. The company bought Directed Electronics' automotive aftermarket business this month (see 2007060044).

COVID-19 stay-at-home mandates didn’t have the same invigorating effect on May smartphone imports to the U.S. as on connectivity tools like laptops and tablets (see 2007100025), show Census Bureau data we accessed Saturday through the International Trade Commission. U.S. importers sourced 12.5 million smartphones from all countries in May. That's up 8.9% from April, down 23% from May 2019. May smartphone imports had $3.01 billion in customs value, down 1.9% from April and 25% from the same year-earlier month. The average May smartphone import was worth $240.56. China generated 79% of May smartphone imports to the U.S., up a few points from April and May 2019. Vietnam, the world’s largest country of origin for smartphones worth less than $200, ceded share to China in May, falling a few points to 14.5%.

The FCC Wireless Bureau approved emergency authorization Friday for AT&T and FirstNet to deploy wireless facilities in seven tribal areas. Governors selected the projects in their respective states “as high-priority public safety locations for FirstNet to deploy,” AT&T told the commission: “AT&T plans to deploy these high-priority sites as soon as possible ... and these sites will be operational to provide communications to first responders from that date forward, both during and after” the pandemic.