Research Topic

Back to school sales appear to be rebounding this year after experiencing sluggish growth over the past three years (2013-2015).   That’s according to First Data’s Back-to-school SpendTrend report, which is based on aggregate same store sales activity in the First Data point-of-sale network.   Some of the most significant findings include:  

Citing costs due to strategic rebuilding initiatives, Tuesday Morning Corp. reported a loss of $3.9 million in the fourth quarter ended June 30; however, revenue edged up to $222.8 million and same-store sales increased 6%.   According to CEO Steve Becker, pre-announced priorities – including real estate, merchandising, marketing, infrastructure and talent – continue to stay at the forefront of the chain’s activities and have positively impacted top-line performance.    

Hibbett Sports reported fiscal second-quarter net income of $6.5 million, beating Wall Street expectations.   The sporting goods retailer posted revenue of $206.9 million in the period, a 3.9% increase but falling short of Street forecasts. Analysts expected $210.1 million.   Same-store sales inched up 0.8%.  

Back in January, Dick’s Sporting Goods launched Team Sports HQ in an effort to capture the nation’s lucrative youth sports league business. Today the company announced the purchase of the tech to get it there.  

Three-quarters of Hispanic shoppers in the U.S. will make back-to-school purchase in stores, but which ones will be strongly influenced by their mobile marketing offers.   A survey of 500 Hispanic consumers conducted by mobile ad platform Retale found nine out of 10 saying they’d be using their smartphones to shop and that their dollars would be put toward the best deals.  

If online retail didn’t exist, 1.2 million more people would be working in the retail industry.   Online productivity is that much higher, according to J.P. Morgan Chief U.S. Economist Michael Feroli. He told MarketWatch that revenue per online employee is four times greater than the brick-and-mortar variety: $1,267,000 to $279,000.

The big get bigger.   The Home Depot reported record sales and net income as it revised upward its expectations for the full year.   The world’s largest home improvement retailer Tuesday morning posted second quarter sales of $26.5 billion, up 6.6% from the second quarter a year ago. Comparable store sales were up 4.7%, and up 5.4% in the U.S.   Net earnings were $2.4 billion, up from $2.2 billion.  

Groupon, One Kings Lane and ModCloth have the top-rated mobile apps in the retail industry.   That’s according to a study conducted by Application Resource Center, which analyzed data taken from 1.2 million user reviews posted on the Apple and Google Play app stores for 50 retailers. (The retailers were reviewed represented the retailers with the most mobile app sales in 2015.)