Data & Analytics

We are living in the age of instant gratification. Heightened consumer expectations are putting overwhelming pressure on retailers to engage with each customer in real-time across every touchpoint. Increasingly, this means getting products in their customer’s hands whenever, wherever and however they want it. But it can be hard to deliver on these new fulfilment options – such as click-and-collect or same-day delivery – with traditional distribution infrastructures.

The Fresh Market says its planned exit from California led to higher costs and lower profit in the first quarter, but analysts say the company may be in trouble.

Office Depot is seeking to attract more veterans and their families to its stores with a new discount program.

The retailer is teaming up with Veterans Advantage to reward active duty and retired military, veterans, National Guard and Reserve, and their families with a 20% discount on office supply purchases. Veterans Advantage discounts are available every day on regularly-priced items and can be combined online with the company’s standard free delivery on qualifying purchases of $50 or more within our local delivery areas.

The CEO of Gap Inc. says efforts to improve "product acceptance" at Gap and Banana Republic stores is a work in progress that continues to drain on the company's financial results, which included an 8% decline in its first-quarter profit.

Former Sears and Walgreens finance executive Atul Kavthekar is joining LivingSocial as CFO to help execute the e-commerce company’s ongoing re-invention strategy.

Hibbett Sports says harsh winter weather, tax refund delays and the West Coast port dispute all contributed to the company posting an unanticipated decline in same store sales for the first quarter.

Jeff Rosenthal, president and CEO, said: “We experienced early headwinds in the quarter, with February posting a negative high-single-digit comp due to impacts from weather-related closures, port delays and a shift in the timing of tax refunds.”

Foot Locker has "hit the ground running in 2015," according to CEO Richard Johnson, adding that the company posted a better-than-expected 14% increase in profit in its first quarter as the sportswear retailer continues to benefit from sales growth.

Tampa, Fla. -- Ashley Furniture Industries announced that it is establishing, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Ashcomm LLC, its U.S. e-commerce headquarters in Ybor City.

The headquarters office will occupy 70,000 sq. ft. of space in Centro Ybor in the heart of Tampa’s historic business and entertainment district. It will eventually house more than 100 employees in executive, administrative, marketing, design, and information technology positions for both the e-commerce business as well as other Ashley corporate operations.
 

Kearney, Neb. – The Buckle Inc. fell short of Wall Street expectations for profit in a generally disappointing first quarter of fiscal 2015.

Net income fell 10% to $33.6 million from $37.3 million, with higher cost of sales and selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses cutting into profitability.

Net sales slightly declined to $271.34 million from $271.67 million.

Same-store sales dropped 2.2%. In one bright spot, online sales increased 12.9%.
 

Seattle - Auburn University's new RFID Lab held its grand opening May 21, during which Amazon.com announced a joint project with the university to explore the business case for the implementation of RFID within the Amazon supply chain. Amazon has utilized RFID technology in its fulfillment centers, where customer orders are picked from shelves, moved on conveyers and loaded onto trucks for rapid shipping and delivery.