Data & Analytics

The holiday promotion season is fast approaching with the arrival of Thanksgiving and Black Friday. From that moment the race is on for customer dollars through to the New Year. We’ve all been through this many times, and it seems like no sooner has one season finished than we are shortly into planning for the next. But what impact are the prices we set having on customer behavior and the profits of retailers?

Consumers find it easy to use social media for brand engagement, but that doesn’t mean they are using it.

According to the new “Global Brand Simplicity Index” from New York-based branding firm Siegel+Gale, 65% of consumers say social media is a simple platform for learning about brands, products and services via social media. Yet only 32% use social media for this purpose.

Similarly, 45% of consumers find social media simple for engaging customer service, but only 11% use social media for customer service engagement.

Photo: left: Adam Zimel; right: Micah Kagan

Getting Dense

With 2016 upon us, most everyone is thinking about the New Year’s resolutions they have in place for the upcoming year. The perennially popular resolutions range from losing weight to getting out of debt.

If you look closely, the resolutions could mirror goals that retailers may want to consider in 2016, especially as it relates to loss prevention (LP).

Strong back-to-school sales allowed Kohl's to upstage Macy's in the third quarter.

Kohl's revenue rose a better-than expected 1.2% to $4.43 billion in the period ended Oct. 31. Same-store sales rose 1%. Earnings fell to $120 million, or 63 cents a share, from $142 million, or 70 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding a loss on the extinguishment of debt, adjusted per-share earnings were 75 cents a share, which also beat expectations.

Amazon.com has expanded its Prime Now restaurant delivery service to Los Angeles in a move seen as a precursor to expansion of the food ordering capability to all 18 market where the one-hour Prime Now delivery service is offered.

PayPal Inc. is continuing its evolution from serving as the digital payment platform for former parent company eBay Inc.

Since its July split from eBay, new PayPal initiatives have included serving as a payment option for a number of new retail partners, reversing a policy that previously excluded U.S.-based online gambling sites from accepting PayPal, and expanding a global free returns service in the U.S.

Strong back-to-school sales allowed Kohl's to upstage Macy's in the third quarter.

Kohl's reported that for the third quarter ended Oct. 31, same store sales increased 1%. It had net income of $120 million, or 63 cents per share, compared with net income of $142 million, or 70 cents per share, in the same period a year before. Revenue rose 1.2% to $4.43 billion.