Business Analytics

New York -- The average vacancy rate at strip malls across the United States edged down for the first time in nearly seven years in the first quarter, falling to 10.9% from 11% in the prior quarter, according to preliminary data by real-estate research company Reis Inc., Reuters reported. It was the first decline in nearly seven years.

But the firm warned consumer spending is still not strong enough to lift retail real estate out of its slump.

Redwood Shores, Calif. -- Oracle announced that it has taken another step toward helping companies handle peak online volumes of traffic and transactions with the news that its ATG Web Commerce platform has improved performance by 300% on Oracle Exalogic and the Oracle Exadata database machine when compared with systems similar in size and configuration.

The performance gains were achieved during multiple benchmarking tests.

Fort Worth, Texas -- Rug Doctor said that it has chosen customer analytics firm Buxton to assist with the company’s customer relationship management strategy.

Chelmsford, Mass. -- The Retail Labor Index released Thursday by Kronos Inc. indicated that applications for retail jobs are waning.

The April Index, which characterizes the March 2012 state of the demand and supply sides of the labor market within the U.S. retail sector, prepared by Macroeconomic Advisers, was down slightly in March to a still solid 4.3%. (The index is defined as the ratio of hires to applications within a given month, expressed as a percentage. A level of 3% means that for every 100 applications received, three hires occurred).

For the second month in a row Target’s same-store sales were nearly double the expected amount and the company increased its first quarter guidance as a result.

Same-store sales increased 7.3%, with half of the increase driven by growth in average transaction size combined with an increase in comparable-store transactions. Overall comparable-store sales in March 2011 decreased 5.5%.

New York -- Target Corp., The TJX Cos., and Ross Stores reported stronger-than-expected March sales as warm weather put consumers in a spending mood. Both retailers also revised their first-quarter outlooks upward on the results.

Target said its same-stores sales rose 7.3% in March, helped by warm weather. Analysts had predicted a 5.4% increase.

Deerfield, Ill. — Walgreens posted March sales of $6 billion, a decrease of 4.3%, compared with the same month in fiscal year 2011.

PHILADELPHIA — Pep Boys sales were up in the fourth quarter, but were earnings were down on merger costs and other expenses. The company reported that sales for the thirteen weeks ended Jan. 28 increased by $27.9 million, or 5.9%, to $505.3 million from $477.4 million for the thirteen weeks ended Jan. 29, 2011. Comparable sales increased slightly (0.8%) and consisted of a decrease of 0.1% in comparable service revenue and an increase of 1% in comparable merchandise sales.

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — TJX's board of directors has raised the company's quarterly dividend by 21% from the last dividend paid. The board declared a regular quarterly dividend in the amount of 11.5 cents per share, payable May 31 to shareholders of record on May 10.

Seattle -- ExtraHop Networks, a provider of network-based application performance management (APM) solutions, announced that it has won four new customers in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region, including Axstores, a retail group in the Nordic region with more than 390 beauty, fashion, home furnishing, and department stores.