Consumer Analytics

Menlo Park, Calif. – Facebook will reportedly soon begin testing a new feature called “Trending Topics” with some U.S. mobile users. As reported by All Things D, Trending Topics will display a banner highlighting a specific topic. If the user clicks the banner, they will see related comments and posts from friends and other Facebook users they don’t know.

San Francisco - Customer satisfaction is on the rise globally after more than a year in decline, with the average global customer satisfaction rating reaching 81% in the second quarter of this year. According to the new quarterly Zendesk Benchmark report, this about a 4% increase from an average rating of 78% in the previous quarter and the highest average rating since the first quarter of last year.

New York -- A group of 11 large U.S. retailers that report same-store sales results each month had a generally strong showing in July. However, Thomson Reuters analysis indicates significant discounting helped drive an overall 4.4% increase, more than double the 1.4% same-store sales rise recorded in July of last year.

Fort Worth, Texas — Buxton has announced the roll out of a full suite of retail market analyses in the Canadian marketplace. The company noted that the Canadian retail market has become extremely competitive and will likely see massive retail growth over the next few years. As a new concentration for Buxton, the effort will focus on both U.S. retailers expanding into Canada, and Canadian organizations looking to maximize their footprint in the market.

Los Angeles – Total spending on at-home entertainment in the U.S. declined 1.4% in the second quarter of this year compared to the same time period last year, according to research by Digital Entertainment Group. Consumers spent $3.94 billion on at-home entertainment in second quarter 2013, compared to $4 billion in second quarter 2012.

Rockville, Md. -- Goodwill Industries International teamed with AT&T to launch a free “Goodwill Locations/Locator” mobile app, currently available on iOS and Android mobile operating systems.

The mobile application provides users with a tool that currently has information about more than 4,800 Goodwill donation centers and stores across the United States and Canada.

The custom app was built by AT&T's Mobility Solutions Services, using the AT&T Mobile Application Development platform.

By John Rossman, a managing director with Alvarez & Marsal

Los Angeles – Fandango and Rue La La have both begun offering customers the option of using the V.me digital wallet service from Visa to pay at online checkout. V.me eliminates the need to enter billing, shipping and account information, and instead allows consumers to pay for a purchase by entering their user name and password.

Other e-commerce merchants that have recently started accepting V.me payments include Crutchfield, Modnique, and Sonic Electronix.

Mississauga, Ontario – Rexall is launching MyRexall, a new service providing its customers with the ability to view and print their personal medication records online. In addition to viewing their medication record, MyRexall will allow customers the ability to request a refill at their local Rexall, print their medication record for review with a physician or other health care professional and easily transfer prescriptions to their local Rexall pharmacy.

Waban, Mass. – Amazon.com was the top-ranked company across 19 industries in the 2013 Web Experience Ratings from Temkin Group. Amazon.com had a score of 77%, almost 21 percentage points higher than the retail industry average.

Other retailers in the top 10 included eBay, tied for fifth place at 70%, and QVC, tied for eighth place at 69%. Taco Bell and Kmart earned ratings that were at least 15 points below the retail industry average. Old Navy was the only retailer to have a double-digit score increase from last year.