Data & Analytics

Survey: Shoplifters, dishonest employees continue to plague retail industry
With all the attention placed on cybercrime, it is easy to overlook the threat posed by old fashioned shoplifters and dishonest employees.
Las Vegas OK’s master plan for old Downtown
The Las Vegas City Council has approved a new master plan for the gambling mecca’s Downtown district, focusing on both historic attractions and new development to drive more traffic there. The plan was developed under the direction of RTKL, an architecture and urban design firm whose completed projects include Mirdif City Centre in Dubai and L.A. Live.

Exclusive: Online home improvement retailer expands shipping infrastructure

Without a store base to support any fulfillment, pure-play home improvement retailer Build.com lives and dies by efficient product shipping. Further complicating the retailer’s efforts to provide quality shipping while maintaining reasonable internal costs is the nature of its product assortment.
Circuit City charging up for store reboot

Circuit City is reportedly getting closer to a relaunch.
Longtime Kroger exec retires

After 44 years of service, Donna Giordano, president of the Ralphs division of The Kroger Co., is retiring. Giordano’s retirement from the company will be effective July 23. She joined the company's King Soopers banner as a courtesy clerk in 1972, while still in college, and was named store manager at King Soopers in 1982. Giordano later held various director-level positions in key areas, including advertising, bakery, general merchandise, grocery, and pharmacy.
Discount retailer in expansion mode

Meijer is on the move again. The company on Tuesday opened a 192,000-sq-.ft. supercenters in Flossmoor and Round Lake Beach, Illinois. The two new stores are part of an investment of more than $400 million in new and remodeled stores that Meijer is making this year, which is creating 3,000 new jobs across the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based retailer's six-state foot print.
Drug Store News, Mack Elevation co-host new 10x Thought Leadership Forum

The roster of speakers for the Aug.
Study points up importance of the human touch in shopping journey

A traditional, low-tech customer service feature can help prompt shoppers to follow the path to purchase. According to a new study from technology services company Mindtree, “Mindtree Shopper Survey 2016,” good old-fashioned human sales associates have a big impact on consumers moving from thinking about a purchase to actually making one.
Lands’ End names new marketing chief in leadership shakeup

Specialty apparel retailer Lands' End is making a number of new executive appointments in the marketing and merchandising areas of the company.
Study: Millennial shoppers can be selfish, too

Despite their reputation as a generation dedicated to the greater good, millennial consumers are in some ways more narrowly focused than their Gen X elders. According to a new study of more than 7,000 global consumers conducted online in April age 18-55 conducted by sales and marketing firm Daymon Worldwide, 35% of both millennial and Gen X consumers prefer buying sustainable products.
How a Boston start-up is transforming alcohol sales for the digital age

Launched in 2013, Drizly facilitates the sale and delivery of alcoholic beverages online. Chain Store Age recently visited the company’s Boston-based headquarters and spoke with Nick Rellas, co-founder and CEO, about Drizly’s business model and the evolution of e-commerce. What made you decide to enable the online sale and delivery of liquor?
Grocery giant invests in exit signs that put high-tech spin on glow in the dark

The Kroger Co. is installing cutting-edge exit signs as part of a $4 billion store- investment program. The chain is deploying photoluminescent exit signs developed by Cincinnati start-up MN8 at all new and renovated stores nationwide. The LumAware signs differ from standard glow-in-the-dark products in that they also emanate light. The signs, which consumer no energy, eliminate the need for batteries, light bulbs, electricity or maintenance.