Business Intelligence (BI)

E-commerce sales at HHgregg surged during what was an otherwise unhappy holiday season that saw sales fall 6 percent and the company's share price tumble after it withdrew a 2015 profit forecast.

For the third quarter, the company estimated net sales of $666 million, a decrease of approximately 6% as compared to the prior year quarter. Same store sales for the third quarter decreased approximately 6%, with the appliance category relatively flat. However, the company estimated that its e-commerce sales were up approximately 59% for the third quarter.

Western grocer Save Mart Supermarkets plans to increase its shopper relevance by implementing new technology that ensures the operator of 221 stores prices more strategically, consistently and competitively.

New York -- Closing out the 2014 holiday shopping season, Internet retail traffic soared to new heights during the first weekend in January, according to Verizon Enterprise Solutions’ Retail Index.

The Index measures average daily traffic and peak volumes, with both variables used an index with a baseline value of 100. The Index was 130 on Friday (Jan. 2), 134 on Saturday (Jan. 3) and 137 points on Sunday (Jan 4).

Washington, D.C. – Restaurant operators continued to hold a sunny outlook even as the weather turned gray in November. The Restaurant Performance Index (RPI) – a monthly composite index that tracks the health of and outlook for the U.S. restaurant industry – stood at 102.1 in November, down slightly from its October level of 102.8.

Armonk, N.Y. – It was a very happy holiday for online and mobile retailers in 2014. According to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark data for the 2014 holiday period (Nov. 1 - Dec. 31), online sales surged, as did mobile sales and traffic.

Online sales were up 13.9% from the same period in 2013. Mobile traffic accounted for 45% of all online traffic for the 2014 holiday season, an increase of 25.5% year-over-year. Mobile sales accounted for 22.6% of all online sales for the 2014 holiday season, an increase of 27.2% year-over-year.

By Greg Van den Heuvel, Pitney Bowes Software

Black Friday traditionally marks the first day of the holiday shopping season. During the most recent holiday season, millions of Americans have participated in the shopping frenzy, which according to CMO.com, accounts for nearly 40% of all annual sales. Black Friday weekend alone accounted for 133 million American shoppers, diving deep into discounts, hoping to land the best deal and get a head start on their holiday shopping.

Pataskala, Ohio – Specialty apparel retailer Avenue Stores is turning its online customers into brand advocates by using ShopSocially’s referral marketing solution to generate referrals from its website users.    By encouraging users to connect with the Avenue brand on Facebook and share their purchases on social media, Avenue is driving word-of-mouth promotions resulting in a referral traffic that is converting at a rate as high as 28.48%.   

Washington, D.C. – Consumers research a purchase heavily online prior to making a purchase. According to a new study from business mentoring firm Score, almost all (97%) consumers search online for products and services.  

Ann Arbor, Mich. – Gas prices may be falling, but the price of recovering from a data breach is steadily climbing. According to a new study from authentication technology provider Duo Security, the average cost of data breach recovery reached $12.7 million in 2014, compared to $11.6 million in 2013 and $9 million in 2012.  

 

DO embrace technology: It can show you what you need BEFORE you set your feet on the ground. Google Earth/Street view can give you a sense of the macro-features, but remember that these online technologies can be six to 12 months out of date.

DO get a solid read on pedestrian traffic counts: Retailers thrive on quantity and quality of traffic. Technology exists to place traffic counters (passive devices) on properties to get not only the body count but also to identify the busiest hours, busiest days of the week and more.