Data & Analytics

Seattle - Specialty vertical apparel retailer Tommy Bahama promotes relaxation with its brand image, but is not taking it easy when it comes to loss prevention (LP). Tommy Bahama has selected March Networks' comprehensive retail solution to gain faster, more robust LP capabilities, improve recovery and apprehension rates with higher-quality video evidence, and better safeguard customers and employees at 130 stores worldwide.

Beijing, China – Chinese direct sales company JD.com Inc. is launching JD Worldwide, its new cross-border e-commerce platform that directly challenges Alibaba. JD Worldwide provides Chinese consumers with authentic imported products.

In a coup over Alibaba, JD.com is also launching of "Best of EBay Deals," a pilot program on the new platform in partnership with EBay. EBay’s channel on JD Worldwide will showcase a variety of merchandise from select EBay sellers in the U.S.

Chain Store Age editors conducted video interviews with key industry suppliers at SPECS 2015 in Las Vegas. Get updated on the latest trends and happenings in store design/planning, construction and facilities solutions and materials by clicking here.

It’s important to balance not only the flooring product selection but also color consistency across materials, employee and customer comfort, risk management, slip-and-fall issues, branding, sustainability and more. Meet Mark Bischoff with Tarkett, as he discusses what it means to marry design and safety in a space as well as how Tarkett manages national and international rollouts.

Walmart’s share price will be under pressure in the coming years as a holding company created decades ago by the Walton family to control their ownership of the company prepares to unload as much as 6% of Walmart’s outstanding shares.

Membership-based online retailer Jet is partnering with QVC parent company Liberty Interactive’s marketing and virtual inventory solutions provider CommerceHub to help retailers and brand capitalize on the soon-to-launch Jet e-commerce platform.

The nature of competition in the retail industry is not what it used to be. Decades of consolidation concentrated sales among a top tier of mega-retailers fueled deal-making among product manufacturers and others who serve the retail industry.

The top 10 U.S. retailers now account for more than $1,200,000,000,000 (zeroes added for effect) and that figure swells to $1.5 trillion if the next 10 largest are include. The big have gotten bigger and will continue to do so in the near term, however there is also a dramatic “re-fragmentation” of the retail industry underway.

Plano, Texas – A senior executive at The J.C. Penney Co. Inc. has accidentally disclosed same-store sales growth to date in the first quarter of fiscal 2015. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Penney said the executive sent an email to an analyst including the information that same-store sales have increased 6% so far in the quarter, ending in May 2015, with the retailer expecting growth to total 3.5%-4.5% for the full quarter.

New York -- Lower gas prices and an increase in the average age of U.S. cars on the road didn’t help Pep Boys’ performance in the fourth quarter, posted a wider loss in the fourth quarter. The auto parts chain had a loss of $26.7 million, compared to a loss of $3.33 million a year earlier. The latest results included a net charge of $12.4 million for write-downs and severance expenses.

Denver - The Running Specialty Group, a division of The Finish Line Inc., is entering a strategic agreement with Pear Sports, a mobile fitness and training content platform, for the launch of the RSG training channel, an interactive training platform and tracking tool which will integrate with the retailer’s store based training programs nationwide.