Data & Analytics

Walmart is launching a new initiative with InComm and Pursuant Health that allows health plans to promote health risk assessments at kiosks in Walmart stores.

InComm, a leading prepaid product and transaction services company, and Pursuant Health (formerly SoloHealth) announced the partnership at the 2015 Money 2020 Conference in Las Vegas.

Two leading retailers highlighted different aspects of their digital customer experience efforts at the recent SAP Retail Forum in Miami.

Keri Stelle, director, Target Technology Services, said Target Corp. is trying to modify its entire corporate culture to respond to changing needs of the new digital customer in a session titled, “Who is the Evolving Target Guest?”

“It’s not just about Mom anymore,” said Stelle. “Today, the entire family wields influence over the retail purchase.”

A new study from Juniper Research has found that the increased rollout of contactless payment services using fingerprint scanners will push the number of biometrically authenticated transactions to nearly 5 billion by 2019, up from less than 130 million this year.

The research observed that at present, only two services, Apple Pay and Samsung, used fingerprint scanners for authentication, with availability currently limited to the U.S. and U.K. for the former, and the U.S. and South Korea for the latter.

Instacart will be opening a temporary online Halloween pop-up shop.

Customers in Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco will be able to receive same-day delivery of costumes until supplies last. Instacart successfully piloted the Halloween shop in Seattle in 2014.

Instacart will charge its normal delivery prices for the special program: $3.99 for a two-hour delivery, and $5.99 for a one hour delivery when customers spend $35 or more. First-time Instacart users can have their costume delivered for free, as can Instacart express members.

It won’t impact retailers’ bottom line as much as the new Buy Now button, but Twitter is continuing its evolution into more of a sales-oriented digital platform.

Twitter is testing a new feature called “Promoted Moments,” which builds on its Moments offering that was launched at the beginning of October. Twitter Moments allows users to click on a special tab and view a curated list of stories considered to be the “best” on Twitter.

Retailers sending email promotions may want to hold off on announcing deals that offer a specific number of dollars off the listed price.

According to a new study of more than one billion marketing emails by retention marketing firm Retention Science, customers are more receptive to percent-off deals than dollar-off deals. Percent-off deals result in customers 38% more likely to click, and 47% more likely to convert when they were presented with a dollar-off offer.

It won’t impact retailers’ bottom line as much as the new Buy Now button, but Twitter is continuing its evolution into more of a sales-oriented digital platform.

Twitter is testing a new feature called “Promoted Moments,” which builds on its Moments offering that was launched at the beginning of October. Twitter Moments allows users to click on a special tab and view a curated list of stories considered to be the “best” on Twitter.

U.S. consumers will generate only a lackluster 3.2% year-over-year increase in holiday sales, according to the latest forecast of November-December spending.

Customer Growth Partners’ 15th Annual Holiday Forecast says retail sales for the holiday period will reach $607 billion, a new record, but the anemic 3.2% pace reflects declining median incomes for all but the top 20% of households.