Data & Analytics

A major omnichannel advancement is coming soon to Petco’s more than 1,400 stores as the retailer works with Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions on a wide ranging initiative to integrate physical and digital operations.

Petco selected Toshiba’s omnichannel solution branded as TCxGravity to create a seamless commerce offering and improve the overall shopper experience, according to the companies.

Purchases from mobile devices continue to rise and upping ad spend is driving results for retailers.

According to data from Rakuten Marketing., purchases from smartphones that originated from a display ad on a computer increased by 52% between the third and fourth quarter of 2015. During that time tablet purchases that resulted from a display ad on a computer grew by 125%.

Tops Friendly Markets, a Williamsville, New York-based supermarket chain with more than 170 stores in New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont, is making sure the last step in the path to purchase goes smoothly.

Tops is leveraging the Toshiba SurePOS ACE POS application to provide store shoppers with a convenient and integrated customer experience. During a nine-month chainwide rollout, the retailer replaced 20-plus-year-old POS terminals with the new Toshiba solution.

Retailers’ margins could be under pressure during the first quarter as a new index tracking promotional selling shows full price sales have declined and promotional activity has increased.

Retailers are relying heavily on discounts and promotions so for this year, continuing the trend from the 2015 holiday season of pulling the promotional lever far too often, according an analysis of $5 billion in consumer transactions from January through March conducted by DynamicAction.

The newest concept in beauty retail is called The Glossary and it is arriving on more college campuses courtesy of Barnes & Noble College.

The Glossary concept was piloted at the Barnes & Noble Emory University and Southern Methodist University bookstores and more recently expanded to the campuses of Tulane University and the College of William & Mary. The newest location set to open in August will be on the campus of the University of California at Riverside.

While you wouldn’t know it from first-quarter slump among department stores, total retail sales posted their biggest increase in April in a year, allaying fears of a consumer falloff.

J.C. Penney continued a pattern set by Macy’s, Kohl’s and Nordstrom and reported dismal first quarter sales as traffic declined. Penney’s sales for the quarter fell to 1.6% to $2.81 billion, below analysts’ forecasts of $2.92 billion, from $2.86 billion in the year-ago quarter, as traffic declined and cool weather dampened demand for apparel. Same-store sales slipped 0.4%.

American Girl, an early pioneer of experiential retailing, is set to shake things up again, this time with a digital twist. The company, a division of Mattel, will move its Manhattan flagship from Fifth Avenue to Rockefeller Center, where it will open a totally revamped store concept, reported Racked New York. Created by FRCH Design Worldwide and digital agency MJD Interactive, the store will emphasize customization and personalization.

J.C. Penney’s corporate headquarters in Plano, Texas, saved more than $100,000 in 2015 by using an ice-based energy storage. The system, IceBank from Calmac, is one of the largest in the world, producing and storing nearly 4MW of cooling or 2.4 million pounds of ice each night. The technology has been in place at the retailer’s 1.8 million sq.-ft. headquarters for 25 years. Due to its design, it is still as efficient now as the first day it was incorporated.

The ubiquity of consumer smartphones offers retailers a new purchase channel, as well as a new tool for customer outreach. According to the fourth quarter 2015 Mobile Wallet Report from Nielsen, 37% of more than 3,700 U.S. adult smartphone and tablet users said their purchases start with mobile shopping more than one-quarter to half of the time.