Business Intelligence (BI)

Sam’s Club is launching Sam’s Club Travel, a savings-centered online booking service for business and leisure travel needs of Sam’s Club members.

The new digital service is a collaboration with wholesale travel services provider Tourico Holidays.

McCormick & Co is vowing to accelerate innovation, increase marketing support and be a more effective category leader with trading partners after sales declined 5% in the spice and flavoring company’s America’s region.

Portland, Ore. - U.S. retail firms are confident in their ability to detect data breaches. According to a recent survey of 154 retailers by security solutions provider Tripwire, when asked how quickly their organizations would detect a breach, 42% of respondents said it would take 48 hours, 18% said it would take 72 hours, and 11% said it would take a week.  

New York - Barnes & Noble Inc. plans to spin off its Nook e-reader unit as a separately traded public company from its retail operation by the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2016. The retailer made this decision as its consolidated net loss for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014 shrank from $114.8 million to $36.7 million, missing Wall Street estimates.

Smashburger is getting on the right track when it comes to reducing its energy use. The fast-casual, fast-growing better-burger eatery has deployed a Web-based energy management system that helps it identify energy cost-savings while also providing a consistent level of comfort.

It’s a common retail scenario: Last year, several sites deployed consistent schedules and set-points and also staged energy-consuming assets into groups that engaged at different times of the day. These executed measures led to significant kWh savings.

Believe it or not (and I can barely believe it myself), the critical back-to-school period at the end of summer is right around the corner. While back-to-school is always big for retailers, this year’s period could be an especially important one, as 2014 has been underwhelming so far.

▲ Customer experience: Poorly maintained stores cost sales and dilute the brand and customer experience. Not giving facilities the funding required to keep stores clean and in good condition will impact the bottom line in that customers will shop elsewhere. Today, more than ever, shoppers have high expectations regarding the look and feel of a store, and they also have many more options from which to choose.

▲ Cloud computing, the remote hosting of applications on virtual platforms for on-demand, Web-based delivery, is on the fast track. Analysts estimate that during the next six years, 90% of new spending on Internet and communications technologies will be on cloud-based technologies.

Cloud computing (which at its simplest means storing and accessing data and programs on the Internet — the cloud — instead of a personal computer) is profoundly impacting how IT professionals implement, deploy and manage technology solutions.

More strategic. That’s how Greg Esgar, CFO of Massage Envy Spa, the nation’s largest therapeutic massage chain, sums up the evolving role of today’s CFO. Esgar joined the Scottsdale, Arizona-based business as financial chief in 2004, two years after it was founded. As part of the executive team, he helped spur the company’s growth from 17 locations to its present total of nearly 1,000 sites in 49 states. With its membership-based, monthly-fee business model, Massage Envy Spa eschews the luxury amenities and high prices of traditional day spas.