Data & Analytics

Boulder, Colo. -- In survey results released Wednesday by Market Force Information, DSW was named America’s No. 1 shoe retailer by more than 4,000 consumers polled.

Nordstrom, Nike, Shoe Carnival and Famous Footwear rounded out the top five.

Burlington, Mass. -- Demandware said Wednesday that Avenue Stores has selected the Demandware Commerce platform to support its omni-channel vision.  

Avenue Stores signed with Demandware in first quarter 2013.

Avenue needed a scalable and comprehensive digital commerce platform to realize its omni-channel vision, and will also utilize Demandware’s web design capabilities to optimize its sites for mobile and tablet commerce, as well as explore opportunities to integrate digital into its brick-and-mortar stores.  

New York -- Staples named former Walmart.com CEO Raul Vazquez to serve on its the board of directors.

Vazquez currently serves as CEO and a director of Progreso Financiero, financial services firm focused on serving the needs of "under-banked" Hispanic customers. The election of directors at Staples will take place at the company’s annual meeting on June 3.

Hampstead, Md. -- Jos. A. Bank Clothiers reported Wednesday that net income for the fiscal year ended Feb. 2 slid to $79.7 million, from $97.5 million in the prior year.

Annual sales rose 7.1% to a record $1.05 billion, from $979.9 million. Same-store sales decreased 0.5%.

Jos. A. Bank had warned that net income for fiscal year 2012 was expected to be approximately 20% lower than net income for fiscal year 2011.

Beaverton, Ore. -- Digimarc Corp. announced that Costco Wholesale Corp. is using the Digimarch Discover Intuitive Computing Platform (ICP) to embed transparent digital watermarks in editorial and advertising content connected with The Costco Connection starting with the April issue.

New York -- Ahold USA, a division of Netherlands-based Royal Ahold, said six newly built stores had received LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The locations include four stores in the Stop & Shop New England and New York Metro divisions, one in the Giant-Landover division and one in the Giant-Carlisle division.

New York -- Polaroid has thrown its hat in the retail ring, opening its first-ever retail store, in Delray Beach, Fla. Nine additional locations in select U.S. cities are scheduled to open by the end of the year. For photos click here.

Cambridge, Mass. -- Destination XL Group, the largest multichannel specialty retailer of big and tall men’s apparel, will leverage CQuotient’s advanced machine learning and predictive algorithms to create email campaigns tailored to individual shoppers at its Destination XL (“DXL”) stores and e-commerce sites.