Data & Analytics

Athens, Ga. -- Say hello to Snagshout, a new website that offers shoppers a discount in exchange for a review.

The site, which launched on Wednesday, offers deep discounts on a wide range of retail products for purchase, use and review. It connects shoppers looking for deals with merchants looking to gain traction with new items on Amazon.  

Target Corp.’s Bullseye blog has posted a Q&A with the company’s new chief information officer, Mike McNamara. The British native arrived at Target in February 2015, after 15 years with Tesco PLC.

Here is the Bullseye Q&A with McNamara:

Washington, D.C. – Kids may be unhappy about back-to-school season, but importers are surely thrilled.

Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to increase 7.3% in July 2015 month from the same time last year as retailers stock up for the busy back-to-school season, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates.

The menswear market is hot. Men’s apparel sales in the United States rose 2% in 2014 to $61.3 billion, up from $60.8 billion in 2013.

And Men’s Wearhouse — one of North America’s largest menswear specialty retailers with 1,758 stores — has been taking note.

Atlanta – Home furnishings retailer Havertys is on a roll. Sales for the second quarter of fiscal 2015 increased 7% to $187.7 million from $175.1 million a year earlier, and the company plans to open a new store in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the third quarter.  

Same-store sales for the quarter increased 4.8%. Total written sales increased 5% and written same-store sales increased 2.4%. Havertys also plans to complete two store renovations in the third quarter.
 

Paris – Luxury retail group LVMH has re-appointed AT&T as its global supplier for advanced communications services. In a four-year, multi-million-dollar agreement, AT&T will connect more than 4,500 LVMH sites in more than 100 countries.  

Chicago – As grocery shoppers’ lives keep getting busier, Ahold’s online grocery delivery service Peapod keeps trying to make shopping easier.

Peapod has completely redesigned its mobile and tablet app, with larger, high-resolution photos and a host of new features designed to streamline and simplify online shopping.

San Luis Obispo, Calif. – Retailers who want to keep their customers happy and ensure positive word-of-mouth need to follow the “five-day rule” when fulfilling deliveries.

According to a new study of 13,000 consumers from cloud-based distributed order management solution provider Shopatron, 87% of orders delivered by a retailer or brand in five days or less resulted in the customer becoming a “promoter.”

Advertisements and valuable content can bring your audience to your website, but what is driving them to your store? Even though customers are able to view and purchase items online, more than 90% of consumers are still more inclined to buy at a physical location.

Some techniques — like direct mail and business cards — are old-fashioned ways of driving your offline sales, but modern strategies are offering more advanced techniques for connecting with your consumers digitally. Keep up with your audience and build on-site relationships with these four tips.