Consumer Analytics

LOS GATOS, Calif. — Wanderful Media, an online local discovery shopping company, has revamped its existing collection of digital circulars and re-launched it as an online community that drives shoppers to local retailers. 

Called Find&Save, the online community gives shoppers access to all the latest sales in their areas and gives them the tools they need to connect with other shoppers and help them keep track of what they need. Shoppers can access Find&Save remotely via tablet, mobile or web. 

The torrent of customer feedback unleashed by e-commerce and social media is a good thing, as long as companies are able to mine the data to identify problems and improve operations.

To help retailers and consumer packaged goods companies address that challenge Empathica, a customer experience management solutions provider, and Semantria, a provider of multi-lingual text analytics, have joined forces to offer new natural language processing capabilities.

New York -- A report released Friday found that confidence among American consumers declined in April to a nine-month low. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment declined to 72.3 in April from 78.6 a month earlier, lower than Bloomberg’s earlier estimates that called for a flat reading.

The decline reflects consumer pessimism about the economy and continuing effects from the increased payroll tax.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Tempur-Pedic has partnered with HGTV to feature a wide range of sleep products in the first-ever HGTV Smart Home, which showcases the latest products in home technology, coupled with eco-friendly features. 

Built by HGTV in the community of Paradise Key South Beach in Jacksonville Beach, Fla., the high-tech home will be awarded to a winner on June 13, as part of an HGTV Smart Home Giveaway.

AUSTIN, Texas — Digital coupon site, RetailMeNot.com, is launching an updated version of its free RetailMeNot Coupons app for iPhone that includes the ability for consumers to search for and find digital coupons for nearby retailers located in 500 shopping malls. The app also enables users to request that additional shopping areas be geo-fenced by RetailMeNot.

SAN FRANCISCO — Alliance Data Retail Services recently collaborated with Locaid, the world's largest LaaS (Location-as-a-Service) company, to run an opt-in geofence pilot program between Black Friday and New Year's Eve in 2012.

Timothy Breene, former chief strategy and corporate development officer and founder and CEO of Accenture Interactive – the fast growing digital media and marketing analytics business – has joined Orchestro’s board of directors to help enable brands worldwide to act with the speed and agility needed to win every inch in today’s tightly matched market.

MATTHEWS, N.C. — Family Dollar Stores reported a net sales increase of 17.7% to $2.89 billion for its second quarter. Net income per diluted share for the quarter increased 5.2% to $1.21.

Dallas -- Tuesday Morning Corp. said total sales for the third quarter ended March 31 increased 3.1% to $178.1 million, from $172.7 million in the year-ago period.

Same-store sales rose 2.8%, boosted by increases in average transaction value and customer traffic.
 
For the nine-month period ended March 31, revenue at stores open at least a year increased 3.7% and total sales rose 3.2% to $636.2 million, from $616.4 million.

The company plans to release its full third-quarter results on April 25.

DALLAS — AT&T has partnered with mobile engagement solutions provider, Scanbuy to help businesses launch more engaging QR code campaigns. 

Working with Scanbuy, a global provider of mobile engagement solutions, the enhanced features include the ability to:

• Execute creative campaigns with codes that can help trigger actions such as link to a video, prompt a phone call, or generate an email.