Data & Analytics

Washington, D.C. – Summertime is almost here, and consumers are planning to give the easy and convenient present of a gift card. More than 70% of shoppers will be giving gift cards this spring and summer during the assortment of gift-giving holidays that are approaching, including graduations, Father’s Day, and weddings.

New research from the Retail Gift Card Association (RGCA) also confirms that the gifts remain popular with recipients as well, with 95% of consumers hoping to receive gift cards this spring and summer season.

Columbus, Ohio - The Limited is launching a new program called Reserve Online, Ready In-Store, that allows customers to shop TheLimited.com and place items on hold for purchase and pick-up at their local store. Reserve Online, Ready In-Store is available at The Limited's nearly 225 full-line retail store locations across the U.S.

This full-scale launch follows a successful pilot in select stores in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio, markets.  

Pittsburgh - American Eagle Outfitters Inc. continues its global expansion with new license agreements in South Korea with SK Networks Co. Ltd.; in Singapore with Trendz 360 Pte. Ltd.; and in Greece with Notos Com Holdings S.A. Stores will begin opening in mid-2015, and American Eagle currently expects to open approximately 40 licensed stores in fiscal 2015

Atlanta – The Home Depot Inc. benefited from improvements in the housing market and the weather in the first quarter of fiscal 2015. Net earnings increased to $1.58 billion, up 14% from $1.38 billion in the first quarter a year ago.

The Home Depot reported sales of $20.9 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2015, a 6.1% increase from the first quarter of fiscal 2014.

Lawrenceville, N.J.  – A new GS1 US standard offers a common approach for listing and classifying products across all e-commerce platforms. Developed in collaboration with 18 companies, including Best Buy, Bing, CNET, eBay, Google, and Wal-Mart, the GS1 US Simple Product Listing helps ensure that products are accurately represented across all sales channels and are more easily discoverable by search engines and consumers.

Durham, N.C. – Consumers are increasingly taking an omnichannel approach to their online shopping carts. According to the research presented in Bronto Software and Deamdware’s recent “Consumers Tell All” study, 40% of online shoppers leave items in a shopping cart to view later, on a different device, or in a brick-and-mortar shop.

San Jose, Calif. – PayPal may have to fork over $25 million in a proposed settlement for allegedly deceiving consumers with the PayPal Credit service, formerly known as BillMeLater. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants PayPal to refund $15 million to consumers and pay an additional $10 million in fines for signing up consumers who did not want to participate, not honoring promotional offers, unfairly leading PayPal customers to use PayPal Credit, and charging consumers fees during periods of time disputes were improperly handled.

Armonk, N.Y. – IBM Inc. is making new investments in Sellpoints and WayBlazer to advance online shopping and travel apps powered by Watson. The investments are part of IBM's $100 million commitment to drive new innovations and business solutions that build on Watson.