Consumer Analytics

St. Petersburg, Fla. -- HSN has recognized the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud from Salesforce.com as its “Strategic Digital Alliance” partner for the year for transforming the company’s digital marketing program. HSN awards its Strategic Digital Alliance award to one company annually that delivers innovative business ideas and strategies with the HSN digital team.

Samsung Electronics America has appointed Rajiv Mehta as SVP of its customer service division.

Since joining the company in 2011, Mehta has been responsible for all customer operations in the United States including its call center, field and depot operations and warranty administration. Mehta also oversees the company’s Quality Assurance Lab.

To help customers save water and grow its sales in the process Home Depot will execute a massive customer education initiative later this month.

Home Depot regularly holds in store clinics to arm customers with knowledge to tackle home improvement project and its newest initiative applies that thought process to a less familiar merchandise classification. On Saturday, April 26, every one of Home Depot’s 1,977 U.S. stores will host an hour and a half long “Water Conservation Workshop,” in which 10 home improvement projects will be covered.

HSN recognized the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud from salesforce.com (CRM) as its “Strategic Digital Alliance” partner for the year for transforming the company’s digital marketing program. The company was honored at HSN’s 4th annual awards gala in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Time Warner Cable’s flagship in Manhattan offers shoppers a customer-centric, digitally savvy experience, complete with a large video wall, interactive product demos, a digital fireplace, and several large 21" tablets that combine product learning with internet browsing.

New York – Total U.S. retail sales during 2013 reportedly reached $4.53 trillion, a 4.2% increase from$4.35 billion in 2012. According to new data from EMarketer, e-commerce sales of $263.3 billion, up 16.9% from $225.3 billion the prior year, helped drive overall retail sales growth.

Non-e-commerce sales totaled about $4.27 billion, a 3.5% increase from $4.12 billion in 2012. In 2014, EMarketer predicts that e-commerce sales in rhe U.S. will grow 15.5% to total $304.1 billion, or 6.4% of total retail sales of $4.73 billion.

New York – Retail marketers say social media and digital, customer data and brand awareness are their top three marketing challenges. Findings from a retail marketing survey SAP conducted with University of Arizona students also showed that survey participants said 100% of respondents cited digital advertising among the most important marketing tools for their organization.

San Mateo, Calif. -- Sony Network Entertainment International LLC and Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC have unveiled a new feature that enables users of participating mobile networks in Canada to top up their account wallet to purchase content from the PlayStation Store and across Sony Entertainment Network using a mobile phone account.

Armonk, N.Y. -- IBM Corp. announced it will acquire digital marketing technology provider Silverpop. The Atlanta-based Silverpop allows marketers to target highly personalized offers and promotions. IBM said the technology will enhance its enterprise marketing capabilities.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Atlanta -- Dollar year-over-year volume growth during the month of March 2014 remained positive at 2.1%, but slipped from February’s growth of 2.4%, according to the First Data Corp. SpendTrend report. The report, which analyzes same-store point-of-sale data by credit, signature debit, PIN debit, EBT, closed-loop prepaid cards and checks from nearly four million U.S.