Data & Analytics

San Jose, Calif. -- Despite some surprising showings over the holiday 2014 shopping season, a report by RetailNext said that overall traffic at brick-and-mortar stores dipped 7.1% for the Nov. 30-Jan. 3 shopping period.

The newly released Retail Performance Pulse also showed a 6.5% year-over-year decrease in sales.

By Evan Puzey, Kewill

Despite the fact that the supply chain community continues to discuss the nearshoring trend, outsourcing still reigns supreme – and that’s a problem for organizations that don’t have complete visibility into their supply chain.

This is the age of the empowered consumer. Energized by the rapidly accelerating global growth of mobile devices, shoppers now have immediate access to data on products, prices and competitive services. In addition to shifting the balance of power away from retailers and manufacturers, the spread of information and the growth of technologically sophisticated pure-play retailers have contributed to rapidly rising expectations about just how personalized and participatory the shopping experience can be.

Minneapolis – Target Corp. enjoyed many digital returns during the 2014 holiday season, as the retailer broke seasonal digital sales records. Target.com sales on the all-important Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping days were up 40% from 2013.

Dallas – “Table commerce” (or perhaps “t-commerce”) is not a widely recognized channel of customer engagement, but The Neiman Marcus Group just may change that. Neiman Marcus is piloting three interactive tables from T1Visions in its Austin, Chicago, and Topanga, California, locations.

Matthews, N.C. – Higher sales of discounted, low-margin items did not necessarily add up to a happy holiday season for Family Dollar Stores Inc. The company missed Wall Street expectations for both net income and net sales during the first quarter of fiscal 2015, even as Dollar Tree and Family Dollar both continue making preparations for a multi-billion-dollar takeover this year.

Plano, Texas – It will not be a happy New Year for employees of some 40 J.C. Penney stores. The company on Thursday said that it plans to close approximately 40 stores, which represent less than 4% of its total store base, on or about April 4, 2015. The closures will affect about 2,250 employees.

Hamilton, Bermuda – Signet Jewelers Ltd. had a sparkly holiday season. The retailer’s eight-week fiscal 2015 holiday season sales grew 3.6%.

Signet's omnichannel strategy was successful during the holiday season. E-commerce sales increased 90.9%, and, excluding the Zale division, increased 20%. As a percent of Signet's holiday season's total sales, e-commerce increased 1.6%. Each division delivered higher e-commerce growth and penetration relative to total sales.

New York – Aeropostale did not deliver strong holiday sales in 2014. Total net sales for the nine-week period ended Jan. 3, 2015 decreased 11% to $507.8 million, down 11% from $572 million in the 2013 holiday season

Same-store sales, including the e-commerce channel, decreased 9%. The company said profit margins during the holiday period were higher than expected and same-store sales were within original guidance for the quarter.
 

San Francisco – In-store sales mostly showed small improvements in December 2014 compared to the prior year. According to the latest U.S. Retail Benchmarks report from in-store analytics provider Euclid, there was 0.6% year-over-year growth in general merchandise, apparel, furniture and other retail sales and a 1.2% increase in clothing and apparel sales, but a 1.5% decline in general merchandise sales.

Here are some of Euclid’s other top findings in its December report around shopper behavior metrics: