Data & Analytics

Every year, it seems, summer and the “back to school” shopping season go by in a flash. Suddenly, as the leaves change color, retailers find themselves looking ahead to what they hope will be a successful holiday shopping season.

By now, you’ve probably heard that Facebook will be testing a “dislike” button. Unconfirmed reports say the button will be designed to let users express empathy for posts about negative events, such as the death of a loved one.

Assuming Facebook does introduce a dislike button, retailers will need to decide whether to enable it on their Facebook pages. Here are two pros and one con a dislike button would pose to retailers.

Pro #1: Instant Sentiment

Amazon.com is the No. 1 website for online shoppers in the United States, according to a new survey.

A Survata study commissioned by BloomReach reports that in a survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers, 44% bypass the entire Internet and go directly to Amazon.com first to search for products, compared to 34% who use top search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo!.

Nearly a year after a massive data breach, the Home Depot is looking to a cybersecurity veteran to add expertise to its board directors.

The world's largest home improvement retailer said it has appointed Linda R. Gooden to the company's board of directors. Gooden will serve on the company's Audit and Leadership Development and Compensation Committees. Her appointment gives the company 12 directors, 11 of whom are independent.

The National Retail Federation has formed a new entity to enhance the strategic value of NRF and the e-commerce, mobile and innovative initiatives that exist within the retail industry.

The members-only Digital Council, powered by NRF’s Shop.org digital division, will support and promote collaboration on digital retail trends and strategies, the development of original research, and educational events and advocacy opportunities in Washington, D.C.

A new survey has revealed some more glum news about shrink in the U.S. retail industry.

The 2015 U.S. Retail Fraud Survey by Retail Knowledge and Volumatic has estimated that U.S. retailers are losing $60 billion a year to shrink -- up from $57 billion last year. And employee theft is the single biggest cause of loss to retailers.

Welcome to Connected Retail a new newsletter from Chain Store Age covering the intersection of customer and channel connectivity.

“There are two kinds of big companies in the United States. There are those who’ve been hacked…and those who don’t know they’ve been hacked.”

Several years before FBI Director James Comey made that bold, now infamous proclamation on CBS’s 60 Minutes, the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) partnered with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to initiate a federal strategic plan for cybersecurity research and development.

Sam’s Club made some expansive personnel and strategy changes focused on merchandising on the same day that Walmart announced job cuts at its home office in Bentonville, Arkansas.

In a memo sent to Sam’s Club employees on Friday, Sam’s Club CEO Rosalind Brewer said the company “has been conducting an in-depth analysis of its business to map out a winning path for the future of Sam’s Club.”

The four key elements to the new strategy include:

Whatever your opinion of fraudsters who steal and resell consumer credit card data, you can’t deny they are highly innovative.

This was the key message of a presentation security blogger Brian Krebs gave at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo 2015 in Orlando, Florida, on Oct. 4.