Data & Analytics

Knot Standard is trying on brick-and-mortar.    The online seller of custom menswear will open its first store-in-store concept on Nov. 3, at Bloomingdale's Manhattan flagship on 59th Street.    Knot Standard, which promises customers 100% creative control, uses 3D technology to allow customers to digitally design and visualize hundreds of fabric options to create their own unique custom garments on a large in-store touch-screen or on any iPad, prior to purchase.    

After U.S. payment networks implemented a liability shift in October 2015, merchants that did not support EMV became liable for chargebacks from credit card fraud. Many merchants have evaluated their risk based on chargeback history, and some were surprised by their post-shift fraud volume. This gave rise in the industry to various rumors, misinformation and theories about the cause of this change in fraud volume.   

Walmart’s $3.3 billion purchase of e-commerce startup jet.com has spurred a shakeup across the retail giant’s digital operations.      Exiting the chain are Fernando Madeira, president and CEO of Walmart.com, and Dianne Mills, senior VP of global e-commerce human resources. (As previously announced, Neil Ashe, president and CEO of global e-commerce, is also leaving).   

Most retailers today understand that the customer experience they offer is just as important to their success as the tried-and-true fundamentals of product selection and price competition. In order to enhance those customer experiences, keep shoppers coming in the door, and bring new efficiencies to their business practices, retailers have adopted a growing army of in-store technologies that rely on online connectivity to function.   

Two of the nation’s largest retailers shared the No. 1 position in a ranking of the top U.S. retailers.    Walmart and Kroger Co. tied for first place (in the overall composite score) in Kantar Retail’s 2016 Retailer PoweRanking. The ranking is designed to identify the retailers currently setting the highest standards of performance as viewed by their trading partners, and to gain insight into what makes these retailers "best in class."  

As the centerpiece of today’s omnichannel world, customers expect a seamless experience no matter when, where or how they chose to shop. However, this explosion of multiple shopper scenarios is a significant challenge for retail operations.   Brands not only depend upon a seamless integration between online and in-store point-of-sale (POS) systems, but also contend with a paradigm shift of selling merchandise from a database rather than a physical store.    

Year-round e-commerce sales and discounting have dulled the impact of traditional Black Friday sales for many consumers.   These shoppers are so desensitized to “Black Friday hype” that nearly three in four respondents (73%) said they prefer to do their holiday shopping outside of the holiday season, during e-commerce sales, such as Amazon Prime Day. These preferences have influenced 47% of shoppers to skip Black Friday or Cyber Monday altogether this year, according to the second annual “JDA Consumer Survey.”

Online growth — and along with it, online market share — continues to accelerate.   The trajectory is so strong that sales are on pace to hit $440 billion in 2017, a leap from $395 billion expected in 2016, according to “U.S. Online Sales Forecast: Omni-Channel Retailing Challenged by Its Success,” a report from FTI Consulting.   

With Halloween now behind us, the unofficial start of the 2016 retail holiday season is upon us. Amid intensifying competition, where are retailers placing their bets?     Here are observations and expectations from Profitero for the critical fourth quarter seasonal period:   

Kona Grill is looking to minimize energy consumption and cut down on waste.    The restaurant company selected Ecova to provide waste expense management strategy and utility expense data management for the American grill and sushi bar chain’s more than 43 restaurants in the United States and Puerto Rico.