Research Topic

When Lumber Liquidators executives talked about earnings in a conference call last week, they alluded to an upcoming "60 Minutes" investigation of the company's business practices. Turns out, the CBS report was a lot more damning than some analysts expected.

The company's shares tumbled drastically on Monday, with the stock price falling more than 24%.

Palo Alto, Calif. - Global information company The NPD Group has partnered with Slice Intelligence to provide comprehensive, retailer-independent e-commerce data available. For the first time, NPD will offer comprehensive, cross-retailer e-commerce data that is directly measured from e-receipts from Slice’s panel of two million consumers.

The data will be classified using NPD’s industry-standard product dictionaries, and validated by NPD’s benchmark databases.

Austin, Texas - The credit card industry is lagging behind its own deadline to get more secure microchip-enabled credit cards into consumers’ wallets by October 2015. According to a new survey from CredtCards.com, just three out of every 10 U.S. credit cardholders have a chip card.

The adoption rate is significantly higher among high net worth cardholders, but at 49%, it still means more than half of the richest Americans ($100,000 or more in investable assets) lack chip-based card security.

Menomonee Falls, Wis. -- Kohl's Corp. reported better-than-expected profit for its fourth-quarter profit, helped by strong holiday sales.
 
The retailer earned $369 million for the quarter ended Jan. 31, up from $334 million a year ago.

Total sales were up 3.9% to $6.34 billion from $6.1 billion in the year-ago period, also better than expected. Same-store sales increased 3.7%, a significant improvement after five straight quarters of decline.

The Center for Retailing Excellence just scored another coup with the addition of Walmart COO Judith McKenna to the agenda for an upcoming conference that already included Walmart CEO Doug McMillon.

The Center, part of the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, is scheduled to hold its annual Emerging Trends in Retail conference on June 11 at the Northwest Arkansas Convention Center in Springdale near Walmart’s headquarters in Bentonville headquarters.

Off-price department store operator Steinmart is looking to capitalize on favorable business trends this year with an aggressive expansion plan that will see the company add 11 new stores.

The Jacksonville, Fl.,-based operator of 270 stores had indicated last fall it would open 10 new stores this year, but after reporting better than expected sales results the growth target was increased by one location. Steinmart opened nine new stores last year as part of a renewed commitment to physical expansion.

New York – Retail CEOs have a lot of worries on their minds. According to a new survey of CEOs from PwC, 74% of retail CEOs are nervous about shifting consumer spending patterns, and 59% are nervous about the disruptive potential of new distribution channels. Nearly half (47%) are nervous about the pace at which technology is evolving.

Walmart is all about leveraging its scale to drive performance, but the application of that mindset can play out in many different ways, as Kathleen McLaughlin, president of the Walmart Foundation, will explain on March 3.