Business Analytics

Oak Brook, Ill. - The Inland Real Estate Group Inc. is naming Prashant Bodhanwala, 48, as chief accounting officer, overseeing accounting, financial strategic planning and financial analyses for Inland. Bodhanwala most recently served as VP of accounting for CA Ventures LLC, a real estate development firm, where he was responsible for all accounting, tax, accounts payable, accounts receivable and payroll.

Dodgeville, Wis. – Profit plummeted in a difficult first quarter of fiscal 2015 for Lands’ End Inc. that also saw sales decline. Cost of sales and other expenses declined at a smaller rate than revenues, leading to net income of $1.72 million, down 84% from $10.86 million the same quarter a year earlier.

Net merchandise sales and services declined 9% to $299.39 million from $330.48 million. Same-store sales dropped 12.1%.

Bellevue, Wash. – American Greetings is the most trusted online retailer. According to the 2015 E-Commerce Online Trust Audit and Honor Roll from The Online Trust Alliance (OTA), 2015’s top 10 most trustworthy online retailers (11 due to a scoring tie) are American Greetings, Cabela's, Drs. Foster & Smith, Fanatics, GameStop, The Honest Company, Jomashop, Kate Spade New York, LivingSocial, Netflix, and SparkFun Electronics.

Costco reported a bump in U.S. same store sales for the month of May, but international comps declined.

Fred's Super Dollar increased sales in May, one month after joining forces with specialty pharmacy operator EntrustRx.

New York – Guess Inc. beat Wall Street expectations with net earnings of $3.3 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2016, compared to a net loss of $2.1 million the same period a year earlier. Reductions in pretax expenses pushed Guess out of the red into the black.

Total net revenue decreased 8% to $478.8 million, from $522.5 million. Foreign currency fluctuations drove the decline. Same-store sales, including e-commerce, dropped 5.9%.

Oak Brook, Ill. – Ace Hardware Corp. has promoted senior director of IT business systems Rick Williams to the position of VP of information technology (IT). Reporting to Ace’s CFO, Williams, 49, will play an integral role in further driving strategic technology and systems management for Ace to shape business functions and deliver significant return on investments.

King of Prussia, Pa. – eBay Enterprise has helped its clients reduce average handle time and save money by using the NICE Interaction Analytics solution. eBay Enterprise processes roughly 17 million contacts per year on behalf of its retailers, across a full range of channels including phone, chat, email and social media. Its key focus is on lowering average handle time (AHT), delivering consistent, high quality service, and enhancing the consumer experience.

Montreal - Luxury jewelry retailer Riddle’s Group Inc. has selected the ChainDrive Fully-Integrated Retail Management platform from Multidev Technologies Inc. to improve store operations and to automate processes throughout.
         
Riddle’s Group sought out an end-to-end solution, and selected ChainDrive because of its extensive Jewelry Module which provides jewelry retailers with system features and functions that are tailored exclusively for the jewelry business.

Ace Hardware Corp. has promoted a 25-year employee to the position of vice president of information technology.