Data & Analytics

San Francisco, Calif. - Apple accounted for 51% of the new device activations worldwide during the week leading up to and including Christmas Day (Dec. 19 - 25). According to data from mobile analytics provider Flurry, Christmas Day typically sees the highest number of new device activations and app installs each year, with 2014 following the trend.

Framingham, Mass. - Staples has negotiated a multi-year contract with CommerceHub, extending its decade-long partnership with the virtual inventory platform.

“CommerceHub’s platform and service are reliable and invaluable assets in helping Staples effectively expand inventory, manage suppliers and coordinate fulfillment,” said Peter Scala, senior VP e-commerce. “Our continuing partnership is essential to maintaining successful operations as Staples continues to develop its Staples Exchange marketplace platform.”

Santa Clara, Calif. - Intel Corp. has made a $24.8 million investment into Vuzix Corp., a provider of  wearable display technology video eyewear and smart glasses products in the consumer, commercial and entertainment markets. Vuzix is focused on next-generation optics and displays that have the potential to fit in fashion-based wearable glasses.  

Intel's investment will be used for general working capital to accelerate the introduction of Vuzix next generation fashion-based wearable display products into the consumer market.

Washington, D.C. – Restaurant operators continued to hold a sunny outlook even as the weather turned gray in November. The Restaurant Performance Index (RPI) – a monthly composite index that tracks the health of and outlook for the U.S. restaurant industry – stood at 102.1 in November, down slightly from its October level of 102.8.

Armonk, N.Y. – It was a very happy holiday for online and mobile retailers in 2014. According to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark data for the 2014 holiday period (Nov. 1 - Dec. 31), online sales surged, as did mobile sales and traffic.

Online sales were up 13.9% from the same period in 2013. Mobile traffic accounted for 45% of all online traffic for the 2014 holiday season, an increase of 25.5% year-over-year. Mobile sales accounted for 22.6% of all online sales for the 2014 holiday season, an increase of 27.2% year-over-year.

Last week, I took a look back at three technologies that disrupted retail in 2014. Now that we are kicking off the first work week of the New Year, it’s time to look ahead at three technologies likely to disrupt retail in 2015.

Wearables

Camp Hill, Pa. -- Rite Aid said that its same store sales for the week ended December 27, 2014, increased 5.3% over the prior-year period.

The drugstore chain’s pharmacy same store sales, which included an approximate 123 basis points negative impact from new generic introductions, increased 7.3%. Prescription count at comparable stores increased 5.1% over the prior-year period. Front-end sales were up 1.7%

By Greg Van den Heuvel, Pitney Bowes Software

Black Friday traditionally marks the first day of the holiday shopping season. During the most recent holiday season, millions of Americans have participated in the shopping frenzy, which according to CMO.com, accounts for nearly 40% of all annual sales. Black Friday weekend alone accounted for 133 million American shoppers, diving deep into discounts, hoping to land the best deal and get a head start on their holiday shopping.

Atlanta -- The new year has brought news of a possible new data breach. Chick-fil-A acknowledged on Friday that it has received reports of potential “unusual activity” involving payment cards used at a few of its restaurants and that it was investigating whether a data breach had taken place.

“We take our obligation to protect customer information seriously, and we are working with leading IT security firms, law enforcement and our payment industry contacts to determine all of the facts,” the company said in a statement.  

The more than 2 million sellers who comprise the Amazon Marketplace sold more than 2 billion items worldwide in 2014, as more and more businesses relied on the retail giant’s fulfillment capabilities.

Marketplace transactions accounted for 40 percent of all products sold through the retail giant last year, the company announced. Also, the number of items sold by Marketplace sellers doubled from 2013 even though the number of Amazon sellers remained the same.