Data & Analytics

As more millennials enter the real estate market and a rising number of homeowners invest in updating their homes, J.C. Penney is re-entering the appliance business.

The retailer announced that it will introduce a leading assortment of major appliances in 22 pilot stores beginning Feb. 1. Backed by customer research that reinforces the company’s decision to enter the appliance market, the pilot is one of several strategic initiatives aimed at improving its home department sales productivity, the company said.

Tiffany & Co. says weak tourist spending and a strong dollar hurt its sales results for the two-month holiday period.

The retailer said worldwide net sales declined 3% (due to declines in the Americas and Asia-Pacific offsetting growth in Japan and Europe) and same store sales declined 5%. There were no noteworthy differences in performance among jewelry categories, the company said. Reported in U.S. dollars, worldwide net sales of $961 million were 6% lower than the prior year.

Sam’s Club has entered into an agreement with Visa to begin accepting Visa credit cards starting Feb. 1.

“Everything we do is in an effort to better serve our members and extend the value of membership. By accepting Visa credit cards, we are giving our members more ways to shop that are convenient for them,” says Tracey Brown, chief member officer at Sam’s Club.

Ten years after first entering the market, Toys "R" Us has opened its 100th store in China. The retailer has opened a total of 27 new locations across China within the past year.

National Retail Federation president and CEO Matt Shay shared a message of inspiration and transformation to mark the beginning of the trade group’s annual Big Show, which again drew a record number of attendees to New York.

Wal-Mart Stores’ online push continues.

The retailer will merge its Bentonville-based information systems division with its Silicon Valley-based technology unit, zWalmartLabs, next month, Reuters reported.

The merger will create a new group called Walmart Technology.

The chain’s CIO, Karenann Terrell, and chief technical officer, Jeremy King, will continue to lead the information systems group and zWalmartLabs, respectively. Both will report to Neil Ashe, head of the chain e-commerce division, the report said.

Even in today’s expanding market of digital payment options, cash remains a leading payment form.

That’s according to a survey of over 1,000 consumers by Cardtronics. It shows that in spite of people having access to and using a greater variety of payment methods, cash remains widely used and frequently selected for making all sorts of payments.

The NFC/contactless ecosystem will grow in 2016, with an increasingly number of third-party wallets coming from the likes of Samsung and Google.

That’s just one of seven payment predictions contained in a new infographic from the Ingenico Group.

To see the infographic, click here.

When providing the BDO retail IPO outlook for 2015 at the beginning of this year, we asked: Will consumer businesses face a potential Alibaba hangover in 2015?
 

The National Retail Federation confirmed what many retailers already knew and made a downward revision to a holiday forecast that initially called for 3.7% growth.
 
Citing what it called “unforeseen events,” the National Retail Federation (NRF) said sales during November and December increased 3% to $626 billion, down from an earlier forecast which envisioned growth of 3.7%.