Business Analytics

Few retailers make as big an impact on the environment as Kroger, but the high performing supermarket chain has made huge progress against sustainability priorities during the past decade and now is ready to take on a new set of goals.

The company released its 2015 Sustainability Report on July 17, which chronicles progress made during the past nine years and establishes new directional priorities.

San Jose, Calif. -- eBay is selling its enterprise business as it continues streamline operations in anticipation of its separation from PayPal Holdings Inc. on Friday.

In announcing its second quarter results, eBay said it was selling its eBay Enterprise division, which helps retailers enhance their online presence and e-commerce capabilities, to a consortium led by private equity firm Permira for $925 million.

Istanbul, Turkey – Mudo, a Turkish retailer for clothing, accessories, furniture and home decorations, operates more than 120 stores across the country and has a strong online presence. To obtain better insight into enterprise-wide transactional data, Mudo uses the SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW) application, based on the SAP HANA business intelligence platform.

Chicago -- Specialty retailer Lids has selected ShopperTrak to measure in-store traffic and provide customer behavior insights for Lids and Locker Room by Lids stores.

With Amazon.com’s share price approaching $500 on the heels of a highly publicized 20th anniversary promotional event, the struggling Books-A-Million chain announced a deal to go private for a paltry sum.

The Books-A-Million chain was always a distant competitor to the likes of Barnes & Noble and even the now defunct Borders chain. Then along came Amazon.com and Books-A-Million grew more irrelevant. As its sales and profits declined so did its growth prospects in the eyes of investors and its stock price.

Pittsburgh – Retailers wondering which smartphone operating systems they should support with their mobile and omnichannel programs can reach more than half of all users with a single OS.

In the second quarter of 2015, 52% of all smartphone shoppers used iOS 8, according to the Branding Brand Mobile Commerce Index. iOS 8 also generated 56% of all smartphone revenue in second quarter 2015.

Mahwah, N.J. - Ascena Retail Group Inc. has downgraded several aspects of its outlook for fiscal 2015, which ends July 25. Ascena now expects full-year adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations in the range of $365 million to $375 million, and full-year adjusted earnings per diluted share from continuing operations in the range of $0.57 to $0.60, as compared to its prior expectation of $0.70 to $0.75 per share

San Jose, Calif. – An analysis of June sales by store analytics provider RetailNext served up mixed results.

Although overall sales suffered a year-over-year decline in June 2015, retailers can take solace in the fact the consumers who were shopping spent more money. According to RetailNext’s Retail Performance Pulse report, June experienced a 3.3% year-over-year increase in sales per shopper, one of the strongest performances in any month of 2015 so far.
 

San Diego – Net income at warehouse club retailer PriceSmart Inc. stayed essentially flat at $21.2 million during the third quarter of fiscal 2015, compared to $21.3 million in the prior year period. Meanwhile, total revenues rose 13% to $697.1 million, from to $615 million.

Higher income taxes kept PriceSmart’s profits flat even as rising export sales and membership income boosted total revenues. Same-store sales increased 4% during June 2015, compared to the same month in the previous year.
 

New York -- Every retailer needs a good CFO and that’s especially true at Conn’s where the company’s business model requires balancing the need to grow sales against the charge off risk associated with extending credit to subprime customers.

Conn’s, the 90-store retailer of furniture, bedding, appliances and consumer electronics, named Thomas Moran CFO on July 9. He replaces Mark Haley, Conn’s chief accounting officer, who had filled the position on an interim basis since last December.