Business Analytics

Never mind going for the gold, REI has visions of platinum — LEED platinum, that is.    Outdoor retailer REI has designed its distribution center to be ‘Net Zero Energy.’ By creating a facility that produces enough renewable energy to meet its own annual energy consumption requirements, REI hopes earns LEED Platinum status — the highest level in the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) rating system.   

It’s not just how much traffic a store gets. It’s what the store does with the traffic that matters. Chain Store Age will present a webinar on how retailers can increase sales even when challenged with lower store traffic.   Store traffic analytics expert Mark Ryski will draw on real-world, data-rich examples as he provides critical information on how retailers can drive significantly better retail performance for the holiday season and beyond—despite persistent ‘traffic trouble’.  

Visa and Oracle are partnering to provide merchants with new insights regarding their digital ads.   Visa has introducted Visa Advertising Solutions, a new suite of products available to retailers through the Oracle Data Cloud. It is designed to help merchants understand whether their digital advertising efforts are influencing consumer purchase decisions online and in stores.  

The nation’s premier luxury department store retailer posted declines in profit and revenue for fiscal 2016.   For the full year, Neiman Marcus Group posted a $406.11 million loss, compared to an income of $14.95 million in 2015.   For the fourth quarter, the retailer posted a loss of  $407.25, compared to a loss of $32.88 million in the year-ago period.   

Accenture, a global professional services company, has entered into an agreement to acquire Kurt Salmon, a global strategy consulting firm focused on the retail industry.   The acquisition will expand Accenture Strategy’s capabilities in delivering strategy consulting services to retailers and private equity firms in a world disrupted by digital.
   

This year, Hanukkah and Christmas Eve both fall on the last Saturday before Christmas, dubbed Super Saturday, which is likely to have a dramatic impact on traffic on that day.   

Walmart hourly employees are being rewarded for helping to improve customers’ satisfaction with the discounter’s stores.   The world's largest retailer said Wednesday it awarded more than $200 million in second quarter cash bonuses to more than 900,000 hourly workers across the United States.  

North American real estate owners and developers ratcheted up their green profiles markedly this year, though they still lag global trendsetters, according to the latest results of an annual sustainability study.   In GRESB’s annual environmental assessment of real estate developers and investment trusts, North American companies averaged a score of 59 out of a possible hundred, a five-point rise from last year and just shy of the global average of 60.  

Retailers can learn how to develop a strategic process for reducing one of their major facility operating expenses — energy — at Chain Store Age’s upcoming webinar, Understanding and Controlling Energy Costs in Retail.   

Kroger Co. posted second quarter earnings that topped expectations but the chain cut its guidance for the year citing ongoing price deflation.

"If you look at the price of milk, eggs and commodities like that, they're historically low. Meat continues to be deflationary and produce is on a deflationary trend," Kroger CFO Michael Schlotman said on CNBC on Friday.