Consumer Analytics

Walmart is touting another e-commerce win by the smart people working at its Silicon Valley research and technology hub known as @WalmartLabs.

CINCINNATI— Kroger is extending its summer fuel savings program through the fall and holiday seasons. Customers can now earn and redeem fuel points to save up to $2.00 off per gallon at Kroger Family of Stores Fuel Centers through Dec. 31.

"At our customers' request we are pleased to extend our special offer doubling potential fuel savings up to $2.00 per gallon through the busy fall and holiday shopping seasons," said Michael Donnelly, Kroger's SVP of merchandising.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Walmart announced a new search engine for Walmart.com. The new engine, named Polaris, was developed by a small team within @Wamart Labs,  the research and technology hub for innovation at Walmart. It uses semantic search technology to anticipate the intent of a shopper's search to deliver highly relevant results for them.  

NEW YORK — Macy's, Limited Brands and Gap Inc. all posted August same-store sales that topped analysts' estimates as retailers across the board generally posted strong sales, boosted by back-to-school shopping and aggressive promotions. The strong showing comes shortly after the news that consumer confidence for August slumped to its lowest level of the year.

Schaumburg, Ill. -- Consumers focus on savings when they log in to their digital devices to shop for groceries, according to a new study from Nielsen. The top weekly U.S. activities related to grocery shopping on a connected device, ranging from a mobile phone to  tablet, included reading online grocery circulars (62%), looking for coupons online (55%) and browsing a manufacturer’s website for a grocery category (55%).
 

July may not be a big month for online shopping, but traffic numbers at Target.com are heading in the wrong direction.

The online audience measurement firm comScore Media Metrix reported that Target.com had approximately 25.8 million unique visitors during July 2012 compared to roughly 26.5 million during July 2011. Despite the decline, on a positive note, Target was ranked 46^{th on the firm’s monthly Top 50 Web Properties report, making it the only traditional retailer beside Walmart to appear on the top 50 list.}

Toronto -- LoyaltyOne announced that Supervalu has agreed to use its Precima customer-centric analytics solution to develop a multi-dimensional customer segmentation. The U.S. grocer expects the solution will strengthen and expand its customer-driven marketing, merchandising and operations strategies.

San Francisco -- Premier Retail Networks LLC and Digital Display Networks Inc., creator and operator of 7-Eleven TV, announced a multi-year agreement under which PRN will be the exclusive advertising representative for 7-Eleven® TV. The agreement is effective immediately.
 
Under the new agreement, PRN will offer brands the opportunity to reach 100 million viewers monthly on 7-Eleven TV, America's largest single chain digital out-of-home network installed in approximately 4,400 locations.