Business Intelligence (BI)

Phoenix -- PetSmart has named Michael Goodwin to the position of senior VP and CIO, effective June 2.

Goodwin brings more than 20 years of information technology experience to PetSmart, most recently serving as senior VP and CIO of technology and business enablement at Hallmark, a $4 billion global enterprise with more than 2,600 stores and an extensive online presence.

Longtime Hallmark executive Michael Goodwin was named chief information officer at the nation’s largest pet specialty retailer.

Goodwin will become SVP and CIO at PetSmart effective June 2, after previously serving as SVP and CIO of technology and business enablement at Hallmark, a $4 billion company with more than 2,600 stores and an extensive online presence. PetSmart operates 1,333 stores.

San Jose, Calif. – A $3 billion tax charge on foreign profits resulted in EBay Inc. reporting a net loss of $2.33 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2013, compared to net earnings of $677 million in the first quarter of the previous fiscal year. Analysts had expected EBay to report net earnings for the quarter, although EBay paid the tax charge in the process of making about $6 billion in offshore cash available.

New York – Analytics solutions provider Ugam is enhancing its pricing intelligence solution with a new pricing engine that delivers real-time, on-demand pricing data for millions of products. The pricing engine monitors online retail prices and consumer signals, and combines that information with proprietary and third-party data to enable retailers to dynamically price items.

Washington, D.C. -- Driven by stronger same-store sales and customer traffic and a more optimistic outlook among restaurant operators, the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index 's rose to a 10-month high in March. The RPI – a monthly composite index that tracks the health of and outlook for the U.S. restaurant industry – stood at 101.4 in March, up 0.9 percent from February's level of 100.5.  

Ottawa, Canada - 360pi has unveiled the latest generation of its 360comparables solution targeted to address private label brands. This release augments 360pi’s attribute-based matching algorithm with the option for customer-controlled product matching.

Menomonee Falls, Wis. -- Kohl’s Department Stores has been awarded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2014 Energy Star Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence Award for the company’s continued leadership in protecting the environment through superior energy efficiency initiatives. The retailer currently has more than 860 Energy Star-certified locations, more than 70% of its stores nationwide and more than any other U.S. retailer to date.

Amazon has launched a Wearable Technology store, which it describes as a one-stop shop where customers can discover the latest in wearable technology and research wearable devices including activity trackers, smart watches and wearable cameras.

In addition to the large selection of items from brands including Samsung, Jawbone and GoPro, the store features products from emerging brands such as Basis and Misfit as well as devices coming soon from brands such as Narrative and Bionym.