Data & Analytics

The Home Depot continues to find ways to drive incremental growth, this time through a partnership with a provider of software services to the rental housing industry.

Nielsen knows what makes brand marketing effective and now the company is applying its consumer communications expertise to the world of packaging.

Nielsen Design Navigator is the name of a new creative enablement tool the company contends helps marketers improve the in-market effectiveness of package design.

Nielsen is known as a leader in marketing effectiveness, innovation forecasting and in-market success but the introduction of the Design Navigator is new territory. Why the company has made the move is understandable.

Talk about a perfect storm. As if the role of the CMO isn’t changing fast enough in all industries, the retail industry itself is undergoing major disruption and rapid transformation. As a result, retail CMOs certainly have their work cut out for themselves.

While by no means a comprehensive action plan, this article addresses five key imperatives that sit squarely in the eye of this storm.

While the Confederate flag has been an increasing source of controversy in recent years, retailers have long sold items featuring its image with no major outcry. But following the tragic shooting in Charleston, consumer sentiment against the “Stars and Bars” intensified to a degree that made selling Confederate flag-themed merchandise unacceptable to a large portion of the public within a few days.

Atlanta -- Giant Tiger, the largest Canadian-owned chain of discount stores in Canada, has increased pick accuracy and decreased short and overage claims since implementing Manhattan Associates’ warehouse management system (WMS).
 

Following a recent open invitation to U.S. retailers from Alibaba’s Jack Ma, everyone from established American brands to smaller mom and pop operations are looking to plug into the China opportunity. But what most American retailers don’t realize is that even with the reduced friction that technology has recently afforded, selling to the Chinese consumer is harder than it looks.

San Bruno, Calif. -- Sears has opened a store in the heart of the Silicon Valley dedicated to smart technology products for the home.

The retailer’s new “connected solutions” flagship is located at The Shops at Tanforan shopping center, in San Bruno, California. The 4,000-sq.-ft. store features a living room, kitchen, nursery, workout room, garage and outdoor area where consumers can experience the benefits of smart technology firsthand.  

Sears has opened a new connected home flagship store near Silicon Valley and Ryan Ciovacco, president of consumer electronics and connected solutions, spoke with Retailing Today about the major initiative.

In the ongoing battle for market share, brands pour over metrics and tweak strategies to increase customer loyalty. The stakes are high, customer acquisition costs are expensive and most businesses can’t afford to lose sales to competitors. With prices commoditized in many industries, today’s battleground is centered squarely on customer experiences.

New York – Barnes & Noble Inc. beat Wall Street expectations, sharply reducing its loss even as sales fell.

The bookseller reported a net loss of $19.42 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015, down from a loss of $36.7 million in the year-ago period. Reductions in selling, general and administrative (SG&A) and interest expenses, as well as lower depreciation and amortization, drove the decline in net loss.