Consumer Analytics

Online warehouse club operator Green Polka Dot Box has a quirky name, but shoppers don’t seem to mind as the natural foods retailer’s December sales increased 65 percent.

"Based on early sales results, we anticipate that customer growth in this first month of the year will increase from the current level of approximately 4,200 to more than 6,000," said Rod Smith, CEO of the company. "And that we will see corresponding increases in monthly sales in January.”

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).

San Francisco, Calif. - Apple accounted for 51% of the new device activations worldwide during the week leading up to and including Christmas Day (Dec. 19 - 25). According to data from mobile analytics provider Flurry, Christmas Day typically sees the highest number of new device activations and app installs each year, with 2014 following the trend.

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.

Camp Hill, Pa. -- Rite Aid said that its same store sales for the week ended December 27, 2014, increased 5.3% over the prior-year period.

The drugstore chain’s pharmacy same store sales, which included an approximate 123 basis points negative impact from new generic introductions, increased 7.3%. Prescription count at comparable stores increased 5.1% over the prior-year period. Front-end sales were up 1.7%

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.

Atlanta -- The new year has brought news of a possible new data breach. Chick-fil-A acknowledged on Friday that it has received reports of potential “unusual activity” involving payment cards used at a few of its restaurants and that it was investigating whether a data breach had taken place.

“We take our obligation to protect customer information seriously, and we are working with leading IT security firms, law enforcement and our payment industry contacts to determine all of the facts,” the company said in a statement.  

The new year has brought new news of another data breach, this time involving fast food chicken giant Chick-fil-A.

Chick-fil-A Inc. confirmed it is investigating reports of potential unusual activity involving payment cards used at its restaurants. The Atlanta-based chicken chain said it received the initial report from its payment industry contacts late on Dec. 19.

Retailers are always looking for ways to operate more efficiently and it appears a similar philosophy is being employed by cyber thieves who covet their massive trove of personal information.