Data & Analytics

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in February 2013 versus February 2014 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. The home improvement retailers have continued to reverse trends from 2013. Home Depot doubled its page count and slightly decreased ads per page, leading to longer, slightly less dense circulars. Despite this, Home Depot still ran less than a quarter of the number of pages that Lowe’s ran, largely due to Lowe’s running three circulars to Home Depot’s one.

Combating fraud at the POS with chip-based payment systems

The data security breaches at Target and Neiman Marcus have put a white-hot fire under the push for the adoption of microchip-based credit-card technology to replace the traditional (and, many would say, backward) U.S. standard of magnetic strip cards. (The latter store unencrypted customer data on magnetic stripes.) Advocates of the chip cards, which store encrypted customer data on embedded microchips, say their use minimize the risk of data breaches at the POS.

As recent events demonstrate, the magnetic stripe-based payment cards used by the vast majority of U.S. retailers, banks, payment processors and card issuers are vulnerable to fraud. The Europay, MasterCard, Visa (EMV) standard used by the rest of the developed world stores sensitive customer data on an encrypted chip, rather than on a magnetic stripe, making payment card fraud much more difficult. Erik Vlugt, VP product marketing for electronic payment solutions vendor VeriFone Inc., recently shared insight on the advantages EMV can offer U.S.

From mat management to the use of proper cleaning products, prevention is, of course, key to slip and fall management in retail stores. But there are two additional key areas that should be addressed — management communication and accountability. Indeed, sharing information and holding department managers accountable for results can reap numerous benefits for a company.

Ascena Retail Group, the operator Lane Bryant, Justice and Dress Barn stores, cited increased spending on growth initiatives and a challenging sales climate for a second quarter profit decline and its second full year earnings guidance reduction in two months.

As I have previously expressed in this column, I am a Bitcoin skeptic. The recent news that major global Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox suddenly disappeared, possibly due to losing as much as $350 million to fraud allowed by a computer glitch, reinforced my reservations about Bitcoin and similar electronic currencies. In theory, independent electronic currencies are promising, but in practice, relying on third-party payment methods which are not backed by the full faith and credit of a stable government is a risky proposition.

Publix’s sales for the fourth quarter of 2013 boosted the company’s stock price from $30 per share to $30.15 per share.

The company reported sales of $7.4 billion, a 5.3% increase from last year’s $7 billion. Comparable-store sales for the fourth quarter of 2013 increased 4.3%.

Net earnings for the fourth quarter of 2013 were $422 million, compared to $392.8 million in 2012, an increase of 7.4%. Earnings per share for the fourth quarter increased to $0.54 for 2013, up from $0.50 per share in 2012.

Suffern, N.Y. -- Ascena Retail Group, the operator of Lane Bryant, Justice and Dress Barn stores, reported second-quarter profit of $31.9 million, down from $47.2 million in the year-ago period. Looking ahead, the company reduced its full-year adjusted earnings guidance to a range of $1.00 to $1.05 per share from its previous guidance range of $1.10 to $1.15 per share.

Sales increased to $1.27 billion from $1.24 billion last year. Same-store sales were flat.