Toy catalog and Internet retailers are scrambling to meet deadlines for new regulations from the Consumer Product Safety Commission regarding the banning of lead and phthalates in toys, as well as how they inform consumers about toy safety warnings.

Earlier this month, Mom Central Consulting, an agency that targets moth­ers, released a 55-page trend report, Illu­minating the Power of Mom Bloggers.

More retailers are embracing social media for their marketing efforts. Accord­ing to a study by interactive marketing agency Rosetta, which was formerly known as Brulant, 59% of the top 100 USonline retailers currently have a page on Facebook, up from 30% in April.

Last week, the e-mail list industry saw the biggest decline it had seen in 20 years, according to Worldata's Fall 2008 List Price Index. Permission-based e-mail business-to-business lists, the highest-priced category with an October 2008 straight average price of $293/M, took the biggest hit, with a decrease of $12/M from last year.

As a category, gift cards have tradition­ally kept giving — their sales have posted regular gains over the past few holiday seasons.

During a conference call this week with reporters, the National Retail Federation and Bigresearch said that many of the same factors that have hurt retail sales much of this year will continue to have a negative impact during the upcoming holiday season.

Fifteen do-not-mail bills have been introduced in state legislatures over the past year, according to the Direct Market­ing Association. Of those bills, four are still under review; however, few if any seem likely to be passed.

If passed, the Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008 (HR.5546), introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), could affect both online and bricks-and-mortar retailers that accept credit or debit card payments.

During a time when airlines are charg­ing for bags, pillows and water, Azores Express, the US arm of Portugal's second largest airline, SATA, has launched its first major ad campaign in the US.

Industry experts cite several reasons for a recent slowdown in the retail insert marketplace, among them declining news­paper circulations, rising paper and ship­ping costs, as well as advertisers' desire to reach younger, text-savvy consumers. Several printers and at least one media company, however, have introduced data-intensive programs designed to convince retailers of the power of print.