Data & Analytics

Dollar Tree and Dollar General shareholders may be wondering why the boards of their respective companies are so intent on acquiring Family Dollar after seeing the takeover target’s first quarter results.

Regional discounter Fred’s strong pharmacy sales weren’t enough to help the company avert a 1.4 percent same store sales decline for the month.

Lowe’s has a new partner in its pursuit of the connected home market and the lofty goal of making customers’ homes and lives smarter.

The nation’s second largest home improvement retailer will sell new smart home devices in 2015 certified by Icontrol Networks, the company behind the most widely used connected home platform in the industry.

It was a happy holiday from a sales standpoint at Steinmart with the company reporting a 5.8 percent same store sales increase for December.

The 5.8 percent comp increase for the December period ended Jan. 3 follows a 4.8 percent gain in November and a 4.5 percent increase during the prior December.

An improvement in delinquency rates helped Conn’s in December, as the company reported an 11.5% increase in total net sales.

Conn’s total sales, which the company reported at $132.4 million, were impacted approximately 7% by tighter consumer finance underwriting, the company said, which was implemented in response to rising credit delinquencies and defaults. The action improved 60-plus-day delinquency rates in December by 30 basis points over November, the company reported. The company also said same store sales edged up only 0.5% due to plummeting tablet demand.

Momentum from Black Friday weekend continued through the holidays for Pier 1 Imports Inc.

The home furnishings retailer, which reported a disappointing third quarter in early November, reported an 8.2% increase in December same store sales. CEO Alex Smith said while sales in the third quarter were soft, November sales were strong versus a year ago, particularly over Thanksgiving weekend.

Stage Stores is reporting a strong holiday sales season despite predictions from the company’s CEO that December would be very challenging for apparel retailers.

The parent company of Beall’s, Goody’s and other stores reported an increase in same store sales of 6.5% for the nine week period ending Jan. 3.

Barnes and Noble Inc. saw a sharp decline in holiday sales in its Nook e-reader division, even as its retail segment showed small improvement.

The Nook segment (including digital content, devices and accessories), had sales of $56 million for the nine-week holiday period, decreasing 55% as compared to a year ago. Device and accessories sales were $28.5 million, a decrease of 68%. Digital content sales were $27.4 million, a decline of 25%.

Barnes & Noble is expected to spin off the Nook segment into a separate business in March.

Karenann Terrell, Walmart’s Chief Information Officer, is among a distinguished group of female executives singled out by Retailing Today sister publication Chain Store Age as The Top 10 Women in Tech.

Hers may not be a household name among Walmart suppliers, but few of the retailer’s executives have as much of an impact on the daily lives of trading partners as Suja Chandrasekaran.

As Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Walmart, Chandrasekaran leads the technology and data transformation underway at Walmart that is referred to as Retail Link 2.0. The information sharing system known as Retail Link was pioneered by Walmart more than two decades ago and today is used extensively by suppliers for all manner of supply chain applications.