Consumer Analytics

Seattle – Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Holding Group Ltd. has disclosed it holds a 9.3% stake in online retailer Zulily. Alibaba has purchased about 4.8 million class A shares for $56 million. This represents about 17% of Zulily’s Class A stock.

Boston – With engaging the customer and managing the customer experience as top priorities for retailers, Boston Retail Partners’ 2015 CRM/Unified Commerce Survey indicates that 87% of retailers plan to use gamification to engage the customer within five years.

Both first-time and repeat customers were on the rise for Wayfair in the first quarter, suggesting the company is doing what it takes to grow into a powerful player in e-commerce.

Alibaba Holding Group Ltd. went on a buying spree at Zulily this month, but the Chinese Internet retailer wasn't buying baby shoes.

Alibaba purchased about 4.8 million class A shares in Zulily, about 17% of Zulily’s Class A stock. The stake, valued at more than $150 million, was disclosed in a securities filing that showed Alibaba this month spent $56 million buying Zulily stock as the U.S. company’s shares plunged following a disappointing earnings report.

Orlando, Fla. – Customer needs and expectations are rapidly changing, and woe to the retailer who does not keep up. This was the key message delivered by participants in a panel discussion, “Engage Customers Through Omnichannel Opportunities,” at SAP’s annual Sapphire conference.

Steve Fournier, executive VP and chief customer officer of Discount Tire Co., said his company realizes it cannot afford to lag behind customer demand.

San Francisco – Retail sales in several top retail verticals fell despite increased shopper traffic in April 2015. According to a report from Wi-Fi location analytics provider Euclid, early Easter did not cause a drop-off in visits to the store, but consumer caution around spending tax refunds prevented a commensurate sales boost.

Euclid estimates sales growth in the following retail verticals of:

• 1.1% decline year-over-year in general merchandise, apparel, furniture and other (GAFO) retail sales.

New York - Human error was the number one cause of data security incidents in 2014. According to a new report released by the Privacy and Data Protection Team at BakerHostetler, in the incidents that the firm worked on in 2014, employee negligence was responsible 36% of the time.

That was followed by theft by outsiders (22%), theft by insiders (16%), malware (16%) and phishing attacks (14%).Incidents were self-detected 64% of the time. Of the incidents reported by a third party, 27 % were due to theft.

The EMV liability shift occurs Oct 2015 and the United States expects six million to eight million EMV cards to be deployed by the end of the year. Payment solutions giant Ingenico Group believes many merchants will not be ready. (Ingenico Group is an active member of both the Smart Card Alliance and the EMV Migration Forum, which are cross industry organizations focused on easing the U.S. EMV implementation.)

Based on his expertise in EMV transitions, Ingenico Group North America president Thierry Denis offers the following observations and advice:

Tyler, Texas – Millennials are gaining buying power, and a substantial shift to Millennials in the retail marketplace will occur by 2020. For 152-store supermarket retailer Brookshire Grocery Co., the time to start reacting to this developing change is now.

“We needed to figure out how to market to this customer base and make it relevant to them,” said John D’Anna, senior VP and CIO of Brookshire Grocery.

Kay Jewelers is leveraging the visual power of Pinterest and Instagram by running an innovative social media promotion for Mother’s Day.

The retailer said that visitors to its Instagram and Pinterest accounts will have an opportunity to interact with the brand through eye-catching visuals that showcase the company's jewelry in unique and creative ways, as well as win huge prizes.