Business Intelligence (BI)

DSW credits inventory management and more focused campaigns for its profit growth during the fourth quarter.   For the period ended January 28, 2017, the chain’s sales increased 0.4% to $674.6 million, including $27.9 million in revenues from Ebuys. This profit of 20 cents per share was four cents better than analysts were expecting for the quarter, however sales missed their estimates of $695.5 million.    Adjusted net income was $16.5 million, an increase of 43% over last year.

Data and analytics is more than a business foundation — it is a key differentiator in an increasingly competitive marketplace, according to Target’s senior VP Paritosh Desai.   As a result, Target is making a big push to add top tech talent, from software engineers to data scientists — a move that pushed the chain to “acquihire” tech companies. In this practice, larger companies acquire smaller ones to obtain their technology and, essentially, hire their leadership and teams.  

A new partnership will help retailers make smarter business decisions faster.   Based on a new alliance between IBM Watson and Salesforce, the companies will seamlessly connect their solutions — a move that will enable a new level of intelligent customer engagement across sales, service, marketing, and commerce, among other operations.     

It’s hard to drive camaraderie among a highly dispersed workforce — but HSN has found a way.   The entertainment and lifestyle retailer reaches 94 million households through 1,700 sales and service agents —most of which remotely work from home. Such a widely dispersed workforce makes it difficult to use conventional tactics to build healthy competitive spirit and camaraderie in group settings. This challenge forced the company to step up its employee engagement game.  

Coop Denmark has deployed a new solution to help it reduce energy consumption by 20% by 2020.   The retailer, which has some 1,200 stores, will deploy Honeywell’s software-based energy management solution, Enacto, and up to 20,000 wireless Enacto submeters throughout its stores, providing the retailer with a unified view of energy use across all of its locations.  

A new innovation lab is primed to benefit one of the top players in China’s e-commerce marketplace.   Zebra Technologies, Digital China and Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, which Walmart owns a 12% stake in, have joined forces to develop a state-of-the art facility entitled the "IoT + E-commerce Logistics Lab.”   

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store’s mission is to “keep things simple and please people.” The same holds true when it comes to helping customers place orders.   Responding to its visitors’ demand for more convenience and flexibility when placing to-go orders, the chain now features a platform that allows customers to order meals through their smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers.   

The DNA of Altar’d State is based on delivering a distinctive store experience and merchandise offerings, while always “standing out for good” in the world.  

Hefner Ace Hardware knows the only way to expand its breadth is to have data integrity and inventory accuracy.   This was not an easy task for the family-owned, independent operator. When the retailer become an official Ace Hardware dealer in 2015, the retailer tripled its inventory, “and now we maintain 30,000 SKUs,” said Jason Hefner, owner, Hefner Ace Hardware. “Because of that jump in our inventory levels, we needed a system that was better equipped for inventory management and analysis.”  

The newest robots like the way their controllers think.   Rather than relying on touch screens and artificial intelligence, a new “droid” is controlled by a user’s brain responses, according to ReCode.