Research Topic

Retailer assumptions that displaying faces, large text and the word “free” on their websites will draw customer attention may not be correct. Recent analysis from an eye-tracking study by neuroscience artificial intelligence technology provider EyeQuant shows all three of these assumptions are less true than many retailers think.

New York -- The Deloitte Consumer Spending Index, which tracks consumer cash flow as an indicator of future consumer spending, rose in December 2013. The Index, which comprises four components, tax burden, initial unemployment claims, real wages and real home prices, increased to 4.3 in December from 3.9 the prior month.

Although Starbucks’ profit in the first quarter rose a better-than-expected 25% to $540.7 million from $432 million in the year-ago period, same-store sales missed Wall Street expectations.

Same-store sales rose 5%, beneath Wall Street expectations of 5.9%. Revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 29, 2013 rose 12% to $4.24 billion from $3.79 billion.

Same-store sales in the Americas region also rose 5%, while analysts had expected a 6.4% increase.

The Michigan Retailers Association (MRA) said that Michigan's retail industry had a poor holiday shopping season thanks to damaging winter storms and “outdated government policies that favor out-of-state online companies.”

Retailers posted only a 0.1% average increase over last holiday season, according to the Michigan Retail Index, a joint project of MRA and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Following its fourth-quarter results, Kimberly-Clark plans to pursue targeted growth initiatives and support growth opportunities with increased advertising and research spending.

The company’s net sales of $5.3 billion were even with the year-ago period. Organic sales, which exclude the impact of changes in foreign currency exchange rates and lost sales as a result of European strategic changes and pulp and tissue restructuring actions, rose 5%, including an 11% increase in K-C International.  

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- The U.S. convenience store count increased to 151,282 stores as of December 31, 2013, a 1.4% increase (2,062 stores) from the year prior, according to the 2014 NACS/Nielsen Convenience Industry Store Count. Convenience stores account for 34.3% of all retail outlets in the United States, according to Nielsen, which is significantly higher than the U.S. total of other retail channels including drug stores (41,378 stores), supermarket/supercenter (37,459 stores) and dollar stores (24,853 stores).

Madison, Wis. – Target Corp.’s data security breach has already cost all credit unions between $25 million to $30 million. Those numbers are expected to rise in coming weeks as more of the cooperative financial institutions report their costs and as fraud losses are incurred down the road, according to preliminary results of a survey of credit unions by the Credit Union National Association (CUNA).

Washington, D.C. - Integrating store and online operations is a key focus for retailers as e-commerce capable solutions increasingly supplant traditional POS and mobile technologies. According to a new study conducted by the NRF, Demandware and the University of Arizona that polled more than 200 U.S. and European retail business technology executives, more than one-third (35.8%) of retailers surveyed are considering a single platform to manage interactions and transactions across all channels.

San Francisco -- Shoppers will continue to be cautious in their spending in 2014, and they expect to make more money, save more money and afford the things they need. According to a forecast from digital coupon and discount site AnyCodes.com, this is because of a combination of three factors: consumer confidence in the future is climbing, they are focused on investing in themselves and paying off debt, and they are much confident about their job prospects.

Claudine McKenzie has been working in the retail industry with Walmart for more than 17 years. Her career path has given her the opportunity to grow from a part-time sales clerk to a store manager all while obtaining her bachelor’s degree and working on a master’s degree.

In this latest installment of “This Is Retail,” an initiative of the National Retail Federation designed to showcase the industry’s diverse career opportunities, McKenzie shares her story.