Data & Analytics

Crocs Inc. has a new interim finance chief after its CFO resigned to take the same position at West Marine.

Jeff Lasher, who joined Crocs in 2009 and was named chief financial officer in 2011, will remain with the company through early November. Lasher plans to join West Marine, Inc. as chief financial officer in November.

Markdowns and the costs of expansion hurt Lululemon profits in the second quarter, but the athleisure retailer did post an impressive jump in same store sales.

Staples Inc. has been a place to get printing done since it opened in the 1980s, but now the retailer is taking printing to a whole new level.
 

New York -- Barnes & Noble on Wednesday reported its fifth straight quarter of sales declines. But the CEO sounded a positive note, telling the Wall Street Journal that the retailer is looking at a new store prototype.

“The industry is evolving, and we think there are opportunities ahead with a different format,” CEO Ronald Boire told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. “I’ve sat in on a couple of meetings about this and we’ll have more to discuss later.”

New York -- While the use of technology in shopping is almost universal, brick-and-mortar stands strong, with the “omnishopper” choosing physical stores for better customer service and a faster, more social buying experience.

That’s one of the key findings of a report released on Wednesday by MasterCard, which notes that the continued appeal of physical retail might be a contributor to e-commerce’s relatively flat growth as a share of total retail sales (7.5% globally).

Research Triangle, N.C. -- Christmas keeps getting earlier with each passing year, but the main challenge for online merchants stays the same.

Nearly 60% of online retailers plan to start their holiday promotions in September or sooner, and 34% of the retailers said fulfilling orders on time is their biggest challenge during the holidays, followed by adjusting to competitor activity (27%) and converting mobile traffic (19%).

Wayne, N.J. – The days of kids using pencils to write holiday wish lists in poor handwriting may be over.

Toys “R” Us is offering the #TRUHotToyList, an omnichannel listing of the holiday season’s hottest toys.

The Woodlands, Texas – Conn’s Inc. named a new CEO as part of a planned succession, and also announced it beat Wall Street expectations for profit in the second quarter.

Following a year-long repositioning initiative, Conn’s has appointed Norman Miller to serve as CEO and president.

Miller brings more than 30 years of business leadership experience, most recently serving as president of Sears Automotive, and as president and COO of DFC Global Corp.

Issaquah, Wash. – Costco Wholesale Corp. is finally getting its online photo center partially up and running following a July 2015 data breach at the third-party hosting provider.

Returning users will have to create a new password before re-entering the site.

All photo center products except the mobile app, framed prints and mail order products are once again fully available. Costco expects to have the mobile app and mail order option available by the end of September, and framed prints available by mid-October.

Mahwah, N.J. - Bulky, slow web pages will drive away shoppers.

According to a new study of the top 100 e-commerce sites from Radware, “State of the Union: E-commerce Page Speed & Web Performance Summer 2015,” 57% of site visitors will abandon a web page after just three seconds if they are unable to interact with the key content.