Consumer Analytics

Jacksonville, Fla. - A lack of robust reporting tools that can give a 360-degree view to all aspects of a customer purchase and profile can seriously hinder e-commerce growth and optimization. A new study of 4,346 e-commerce marketers conducted by MarketingSherpa and sponsored by EBay Enterprise company Magneto shows that companies with a testing and optimization strategy based on extensive historical data saw higher median conversion rates than those that test based on intuition, best practices or don't test at all.

San Jose, Calif. - EBay Inc. is asking EBay users to change their passwords because of a cyberattack that compromised a database containing encrypted passwords and other non-financial data. After conducting extensive tests on its networks, the company said it has no evidence of the compromise resulting in unauthorized activity for EBay users, and no evidence of any unauthorized access to financial or credit card information, which is stored separately in encrypted formats.

eBay will be asking its users to change their passwords thanks to a cyberattack that compromised a database containing encrypted passwords and other non-financial data.

New York – Macy’s Inc. is testing the effectiveness of mobile video ads on Facebook. On May 16, the retailer began running video ads using Facebook’s auto-play feature on the mobile newsfeed in its iPhone app.

The ads appear at the top of the newsfeed and start playing when the user scrolls down. If clicked, they become full-screen size and audio turns on. Users are allowed to like, share and/or comment on the ads.

Stockholm, Sweden - The Analysis Division of Tobii Technology is launching Tobii Glasses 2, a wearable eye-tracking research system in the world. Based on a new, proprietary, wearable eye-tracking platform from Tobii that will support research and consumer applications, Tobii Glasses 2 offers wireless live viewing.
Key new features of Tobii Glasses 2 include:

San Francisco - Swift Communications, a multi-platform publisher based in Carson City, Nevada, is making a strategic investment in Engage3, a retail intelligence and digital marketing solution provider. The two companies are also working together to identify retailer and supplier partners in the markets Swift serves to drive additional consumer value.

The amount of the investment, which closed earlier this month and will be used to expand the features of Engage3’s solutions, was not released.

By Kellie Peterson, Director of Marketing at iinside

The supermarket business has never been more competitive than it is today. In any given geographic location, supermarkets compete with traditional rivals including local, regional, national and international stores, as well as farm shares, farmer’s markets, and specialty retailers. Big-box retailers are, of course, also getting into grocery, and then there’s the increasing threat of online retailers.

Montreal - LightSpeed, has unveiled its new LightSpeed Cloud for iPad POS solution. The patent-pending app lets retailers use product photos, logos and other imagery to design a custom, fully branded POS and interactive selling tool that offers personalized product look-ups and recommendations.
 

Troy, Mich. - PayAnywhere, the professional grade mobile point-of-sale solution from North American Bancard, has released PayAnywhere Storefront, its free touch-screen tablet and stand with built-in credit card reader. PayAnywhere Storefront provides new simple pricing, security protection and advanced business analytics.

Hhgregg president and CEO Dennis May said severe weather was one of the main factors that hampered the company’s results in the fourth quarter.

The company, which pre-released its fourth-quarter results a little more than a month ago, reported a net loss of $7.2 billion in the quarter, compared to net income of $9.9 million in the same period the prior fiscal year. Net sales dropped 10% to $538.3 million, from $597.6 million.