Data & Analytics

Academy Sports + Outdoors named Thomas "Tom" Lamb executive VP, chief marketing officer, effective May 23.

Tom, 50, joins Academy after 17 years with Lowe's Companies, where he most recently served as chief marketing officer. At Lowe's he led the marketing, advertising, brand management, private brand development, customer relationship management, and digital communication activities for the $59 billion retailer.

Publix Super Markets on Monday turned in another winning revenue performance, reporting $8.7 billion in sales for its first quarter, up 4.5% from $8.3 billion in the year ago period. Same-store sales rose 3.3%.

Net earnings were up to $581.9 million, up 6% over the same period last year.

It was the first quarterly report issued under new CEO Todd Jones. Former chief executive Ed Crenshaw retired Friday after 42 years with the company and nearly eight as CEO.

When it comes to providing digital consumers with a quality online shopping environment, one well-known discount club chain comes out on top.

According to the “2016 Digital Experience Report” from application performance company Dynatrace, Costco led all online retailers in both performance and reliability. Apple followed in a close second place.

Competition in providing the most innovative, unique, and up-to-date services and features to consumers is escalating with the rise and expansion of omnicommerce, a strategy that delivers a seamless customer experience through all available shopping channels. Brands are building in-house development teams or partnering with start-ups and other companies to extend their reach while catering to their customers’ demands of convenience, personalization, and on-trend technology.

Target Corp. is testing a robot to track inventory on store shelves, Fortune reported. The one-week trial is being conducted a Target store in San Francisco.

Silicon Valley startup Robotics built the robot, called Tally, that can roll around the store, scanning products to determine if they have been misplaced, mispriced, or are low in stock, according to the report.

Click here for more, including a video of the robot in action.

Wine aficionados have a new, expanded digital resource to shop for their favorite vintage.

eBay has introduced eBay Wine, a new section of its e-commerce site that features the ability to browse collectible, rare and everyday wines.

Consumers can search eBay’s assortment of more than 10,000 wines using attributes including varietal, region, price point, and price format (“buy it now” or auctions for rare bottles). Shoppers will be able to purchase wine and ship to almost anywhere in the U.S.

About two-thirds (64%) of the United States is covered by prescriptive lighting rebates, according to BriteSwitch, a rebate fulfillment company. These rebates can significantly reduce the installed cost of new lighting in existing buildings and improve payback by 20%-25%, which would reduce a two-year payback to about 1.5 years.

Despite the proliferation of the LED source, traditional lighting product rebates remain available.

The retail industry has reached a point of progress with robotics where it is not enough to look at how robots will drive business transformation, but at how they are already doing so.
 
Following are three key retail areas where robots have already begun to make their presence felt:
 
Fulfillment and Distribution

The North Face has unveiled a new store pilot — complete with a Redwood tree — at Stanford Shopping Center, Palo Alto, California.

The 6,500-sq.-ft. store, which is located just across the street from the retailer’s previous location of 24 years, combines the best of digital in-store technology, including virtual reality, with features that speak to the locale and the brand’s DNA.

April marked the six-month anniversary of the EMV liability shift. After years of discussion and anticipation, that changeover has technically “happened,” but unfortunately, not much good has happened as a result. Even with all the preparation and hype, the payments industry is still playing catch up. Why? Well, it’s a complex picture that requires a bit of history.