Predictive Analytics

Francesca's saw improvement in sales trends for its apparel, accessories and gift categories in the second quarter of 2014. But these were offset by weak jewelry sales, which took a bite out of the retailer’s gross profit.

Houston -- Francesca's Holdings Corp. on Tuesday reported second quarter net income of $10.3 million, down from $14.6 million in the year-earlier period. Earnings and sales both fell short of estimates. The retailer also lowered its earnings outlook for the year.

Net sales rose 9% to $97.3 million, driven largely by new openings. Total apparel sales increased 14%, accessories sales increased 14%, and gift sales increased 25%. The gains were offset by a 12% decrease in jewelry sales,

Same-store sales fell 7%.

Dallas - Epsilon has signed a multi-year agreement with Bulldog Solutions to integrate its marketing technology with Bulldog Gameplan software. Gameplan is a SaaS-based marketing application that delivers optimized marketing plans through full-funnel demand modeling, collaborative calendaring, marketing-mix optimization, and dynamic reporting of marketing’s impact on business results.  

By Andrea Morgan-Vandome, Oracle Retail

Ottawa, Canada - The retailers who “won” during the holiday season in 2013 were those that offered meaningful discounts on a sizable number of products on Black Friday instead of discounting a small number of door crashers. According to analysis from 360pi and Retail Systems Research, poor financial performance followed those retailers who discounted during the week leading into Black Friday, and those who kept discounts in place following Cyber Monday generally fared better than those who raised prices.

Berwyn, Pa. - 4R Systems, Inc, a provider of inventory and supply chain services, and Impact Analytics & Services, a solutions and services provider to convenience store retailers, have launched a strategic partnership. The alliance was created to deliver more powerful supply chain analytics to convenience retailers, and beyond analytics, to increase profit from inventory across all items in all stores.

Sterling, Va. - Neustar Inc., a provider of real-time information services and analytics, has entered a partnership with comScore Inc. that will give marketers a unified marketing solution incorporating comScore’s validated Campaign Essentials (vCE) ad validation metrics in its offering. The partnership builds on Neustar PlatformOne’s capabilities and partner ecosystem and enhances its ability to provide marketers with the visibility needed to measure and optimize digital campaigns.

Filip Technologies, developer of FiLIP, a wearable phone and locator for kids, has appointed former MapQuest executive Patrick McDevitt as SVP of engineering.

McDevitt will be in charge of the overall direction and growth of the company’s software engineering team as the company develops the next generation of wearable products for kids. He will report directly to Jonathan Peachey, CEO of Filip Technologies.