Business Analytics

New Albany, Ohio – The cool kid might still be cool, after all. Abercrombie & Fitch reported net income of $18.2 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2014, compared to a net loss of $15.6 million in the same period the prior year and beating Wall Street forecasts.

San Jose, Calif. –  Brick-and-mortar sales and traffic patterns during the five-day Thanksgiving weekend may have benefited customers who hate crowds, but were not good news for retailers. According to data from in-store analytics provider RetailNext, sales during the period fell 10.7% compared to the same five days in 2013, while traffic dropped 12.4%.

Chicago – Claire’s Stores Inc. had a disappointing third quarter, slightly increasing its net loss to $26.82 million from $25.47 million. A variety of expenses continued to outweigh Claire’s gross profit.

Footwear is one of the hottest segments of retail these days and Boot Barn is ready to capitalize on the growing market.

The company reported a 7.3 percent increase in same store sales and reversed a prior year loss during its second quarter ended September 27, its first financial report since completing an initial public stock offering on Nov. 4.

Morrisville. N.C. – Online sales for the total “Cyber Five” five-day period from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday rose 20.6% from the same period in 2013. According to analysis from ChannelAdvisor, the biggest increase occurred Cyber Saturday (27%) and smallest occurred on Cyber Monday (16.7%).

Irvine, CA – Food producer Systopia International has recently upgraded its payment technology within the dining area of its new Green Bay, Wis. facility. Working closely with in-house caterer Aramark, Systopia designed a cashless payment solution based upon using staff security RFID badges as the cashless credentials.  

Houston - Mattress Firm Holdings met Wall Street expectations with its financial performance in the third quarter of fiscal 2014. In addition, the company increased its guidance for store growth in the fiscal year 2014, and now plans to have opened a total of 200-220 new stores and acquire 665 stores by the end of the fiscal year.

The new store total includes 163 stores opened and 619 acquired so far this year.

Evansville, Ind. – Net income dipped to $10.8 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2014 from $10.9 million the same period the prior fiscal year. Net sales fared better, climbing 7% to $254.69 million from $235.77 million, ahead of previously issued guidance.

Cyber Monday online sales were up 8.7% as of 3 p.m. EST over the same period on Cyber Monday 2013, according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, with mobile traffic accounting for 38.6%  of all online traffic, up 28.8% over last year.   Mobile sales accounted for 21.3% of all online sales on Cyber Monday, an increase of 29.3% year over year.    Here are the key drivers behind the Cyber Monday trends, according to IBM:   

Pittsburgh - Just more one-third of all Black Friday online revenue came from shoppers on mobile devices, up 48 percent from 2013. According to Branding Brand's sample of 35 North American retailers running on its commerce platform, 90% of these consumers were on Apple devices.   Mobile devices (smartphone and tablets combined) produced a total of almost 2.2 million visits, 48,000 orders, and $5. 54 million in revenue on Black Friday. In addition, mobile devices generated: