Consumer Analytics

ST. LOUIS — Anheuser-Busch is launching a new advertising campaign that lets Budweiser drinkers track where their beer comes from and how it's made.

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. — Global appliance leader Whirlpool Corporation has launched a line of smart appliances with 6th Sense Live technology. 

The company’s flagship Whirlpool brand is making smart home management a reality in the Chicagoland area with the release of a suite of smart appliances along with a free mysmartappliances app, which is already available in the iTunes app store.

New York -- Consumer confidence dropped in April to a three-month low amid discouraging economic indicators, according to the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers.  

The index fell 2.8% in April to 76.4 from 78.6 a month earlier. The median projection in a Bloomberg survey was 73.5 after a preliminary April reading of 72.3.

The Michigan survey’s current conditions index, which measures Americans’ view of their personal finances, fell to 89.9 in April from 90.7 last month.

PORTLAND, Ore. — ShopIgniter, a company that enables digital marketers to connect brands with social and mobile consumers, is bolstering its executive team, on the heels of updating its platform.

Armond, N.Y. -- First quarter online shopping in 2013 grew more than 20% over the same period last year, and more than five times in-store sales growth, helping drive up department store and home goods purchases, according to the IBM Online Retail Index.  
 
The IBM Index comes on the heels of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Census Bureau report which announced in-store sales for the January through March 2013 period were up 3.7%.

The IBM Online Retail Index also found:

By Brian Gillespie, Continuum

Whiting, Ind. -- Survey results released Wednesday by CouponCabin.com found that one in five smartphone owners have visited a store after receiving notification that specials, coupons or deals were available nearby.

The survey – conducted by Harris Interactive – also found that 70% of smartphone owners would be at least somewhat influenced to make an unplanned purchase at a store after receiving this type of alert.

It is with great pleasure that I introduce myself to you as the new senior editor of Chain Store Age, focused on covering all the news, trends and happenings in the constantly changing world of retail IT. Technology is evolving at a breakneck pace with major implications for retail. Emerging technology areas such as mobile, social and cloud are changing the very nature of customer experience, while the explosion of Big Data offers both a major challenge and opportunity for retailers that can successfully harness the immense of volume of information that is now available.

MATTHEWS, N.C. — Family Dollar is utilizing TAS Unity, a browser-based enterprise market knowledge system designed to aid retail real estate management from Trade Area Systems.

By Leslie Hand, research director, IDC Retail Insights

Ron Johnson's highly publicized short tenure at J.C. Penney, or JCP, as it was rebranded, will certainly make it into the textbooks and graduate theses on what to do and what not to do when undertaking a significant retail business transformation. The primary failure was not putting customer needs first in what promised to be an excellent long term strategy. Oops — forget the customer in an omni-channel customer strategy?

What a colossal mistake!