Data & Analytics

eBay’s newest furniture destination looks like a page right out of Architectural Digest.  

Political feelings aside, the fact remains: When Hillary Rodham Clinton was nominated as our nation’s first official female presidential candidate, history was made. It sets a tone for all going forward — women can achieve anything they have the determination to pursue, regardless of the industry.   

Everyone across retail industry is preparing for the holiday shopping season — especially the hackers.   Shoppers will continue to use more payment methods — from debit and credit to mobile wallets — during the hectic holiday shopping season, and hackers are standing at the ready. Whether infiltrating in-store peripherals, firewalls or databases, hackers are prepared to invade retail networks, disrupt systems and steal valuable information.   

Neil Saunders, CEO of Conlumino, a New York-based retail research agency and consulting firm, offers the following insights on September sales results.  

Sears Holdings announced that Jason Hollar has been promoted to CFO, effective immediately.     Hollar succeeds Robert A. Schriesheim, who the chain previously announced would be departing to focus on his other business interests and pursue other career opportunities.    Hollar, 43, joined Sears Holdings in October 2014 as senior VP, finance, overseeing the financial planning & analysis function, the business finance relationship with centralized finance, and procurement. 

First the good news: Retail sales rose 0.6% in September, after falling a revised 0.2% in August, according to figures by the Commerce Department.     The increase, the most in three months, was helped by a rebound of automobile and restaurant sales.    On the less positive front, excluding autos and gasoline, sales were up only 0.1%, less than economics predicted.    

Omnichannel retailing continues to change customer shopping patterns, but “balance” spurs sales.   More specifically, consumers’ average single-trip spending increases nearly four times when engaged by both in-store staff and the brand’s website, according to a new report from InMoment.  

Specialty retailer Vera Bradley has raised an alert about a possible data breach.   The company said it is investigating a payment card breach that may have affected cards used at the retailer's stores between July 25, 2016 and Sept. 23, 2016. Hackers may have accessed customer data including card numbers, cardholder names, expiration dates and internal verification. Online transactions were not affected.