Data & Analytics

Costco showed again in December why it’s the cream of the crop among warehouse club stores.

The Wash.-based retailer reported an increase of 8% in same store sales in the United States, excluding gasoline sales and foreign exchange. Same-store sales at international stores rose by 1%.

Net sales for the retailer rose 5% to $12.12 billion in December from $11.53 billion a year earlier.

Costco showed again in December why it’s the cream of the crop among warehouse club stores.

The Wash.-based retailer reported an increase of 8% in same store sales in the United States, excluding gasoline sales and foreign exchange. Same-store sales at international stores rose by 1%.

Net sales for the retailer rose 5% to $12.12 billion in December from $11.53 billion a year earlier.

Pacific Sunwear said it will lose less money in the fourth quarter than originally expected after its California lifestyle product assortment resonated with holiday shoppers and drove a 9% same store sales increase.

Macy’s announced a series of major operational and merchandising moves to accelerate its omnichannel approach while also releasing solid holiday sales.

New York -- For the second consecutive year, security ranks as the top spending priority of CIOs in an annual survey by PiperJaffray, with 75% of respondents expecting to increase spending in 2015, up from 50% last year.  

The results reflect Network (firewall) and endpoint security were the top two segments of the market expected to see an increase in spending.

Reston, Va. -- Retail e-commerce spending from desktop computers for the entire November-December 2014 holiday season totaled $53.3 billion, up 15% from the corresponding days last year.

Chicago -- Nearly a quarter (21%) of consumers said that they are likely to return or exchange at least one of the presents that they received this holiday season. Additionally, male respondents expressed a greater interest in returning or exchanging gifts (30%) than female respondents (20%) by as much as 10%. That’s according to a survey by Retale, a location-based mobile platform connecting shoppers with their local retailers

Quincy, Mass. -- The Super Stop & Shop stores in Hyannis, Hyde Park and Wayland, Massachusetts have each received LEED (Leadership in Energy and Efficient Design) silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. (Stop & Shop has 13 superstores, which are LEED certified.)

Minneapolis -- Supervalu Inc.’s third-quarter profit more than doubled as the supermarket chain experienced sales growth in all three of its business segments. Its results beat analysts' expectations.

Supervalu reported an overall profit of $79 million for the quarter ended Nov. 29, up from $31 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 4.8% to $4.2 billion.

Vinings, Ga. - Video’s ability to engage shoppers, and increase conversion rate and revenue, makes it a valuable e-commerce tool. According to a study of 26 retail clients during second quarter 2014 from video commerce solutions provider Liveclicker, the average order value (AOV) for customers that watch video on a product page is at least 50% higher than a site’s overall AOV for 57% of retailers.