Data & Analytics

Atlanta -- The Home Depot reportedly expects a continuing recovery in the U.S. housing market to improve its sales later this year. In an interview with Bloomberg, Frank Blake, CEO of Home Depot, Inc., said steady improvement in the housing market should lead to private equity firms and investors renovating properties for rental.

As a discount department store retailer, Kohl’s is targeting a middle-class consumer looking for decent quality merchandise at a fair price. Kohl’s array of in-store IT solutions reflects this “Middle America” marketing and merchandising approach by focusing on self-service technology that makes finding products and determining prices as quick and convenient as possible, rather than leading-edge solutions that might appeal to higher-income, connected shoppers.

Digital price display

New York -- Accenture and SAP AG are jointly releasing a new application called the Marketing Performance Solution by Accenture and SAP. Sold by Accenture, the solution enables retail chief marketing officers (CMOs) view and act on centralized key marketing performance data such as sales figures, media spend and social reach in near real-time.

Woonsocket, R.I. – CVS/pharmacy is offering members of its ExtraCare loyalty program double their ExtraBucks quarterly reward earnings between Sept. 16 and Dec. 15. Members can sign up for double earnings in-store or online and receive 4% instead of the usual 2% back on all eligible front-store purchases in the form of “ExtraBucks” that can be spent like cash in the store.

Washington, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation calculated retail industry job gains at 43,600 in August, with marked increases in clothing, general merchandise and electronics stores.
 

Camp Hill, Pa. -- Rite Aid Corp. saw same-store sales edge up 1.1% in August, hurt by a 1.7% front-end same-store sales drop. Pharmacy comps rose 2.5%.

For the quarter, total sales edged up 0.7% to $6.25 billion, and same-store sales rose 1%.

Hampstead, Md. -- JoS. A. Bank Clothiers reported that net income for the second quarter dropped 38% to $14.2 million, compared with $23.2 million in the same period last year, amid weaker sales.

Total sales fell 10.7% to $232.5 million. Same-store sales plummeted 15.9%; direct marketing sales decreased 1.9%.

New York -- Although back-to-school sales were unexpectedly sluggish, retail sales for the month of August benefited from a late boost in store traffic.

Of the retailers still reporting monthly sales – most so far are reporting slight increases in August same-store sales. Retail Metrics forecast an overall August gain of 3.2% year-over-year; retail sales advanced 3.3% during the same period last year.

Costco Wholesale Corp. reported a same-store sales rise of 4% in August, surpassing a forecast 3.8% gain.