Data & Analytics

Sherwin-Williams cited higher paint sales volumes in its Paint Stores Group and acquisitions as helping to drive net sales growth. 

The company increased net income 12%, to $262.97 million from $234.95 million, during the third quarter of fiscal 2013.

Net sales grew 9.4% to $2.85 billion from $2.6 billion.

Boston -- For the second year in a row, Dollar General came out on top in Kantar Retail’s opening price point (OPP) survey, narrowly beating out Walmart Supercenter. The OPP survey, now in its third year, determines how select retailers meet the grocery and consumable needs of shoppers looking for the lowest shelf prices to fulfill their basket requirements.

Mike Graen has left his position as director of innovations and supplier collaboration at Walmart to assume a new role with leading merchandising and marketing services company Crossmark.

Grain will serve as managing director of the Crossmark Center for Collaboration currently under construction adjacent to Walmart’s headquarters on Southwest 8th Street in Bentonville, Ar.

New York -- Putting social media functions entirely within control of marketing and communications is a mistake, according to a new study conducted by Tata Consultancy Services, a leading IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, of over 60. Forty-five percent of respondents in North America said marketing controls social media, but most companies aren’t satisfied with this structure.

Competition from digital entertainment providers may be on the rise, but with an installed base of 43,600 locations, rental activity at Redbox hit a new high in the third quarter and generated traffic for retail partners in the process.

Phoenix — The metropolitan Phoenix retail market ended the third quarter with a retail vacancy rate at 10.5%, down nearly a full point from 11.3% a year ago, according to CBRE’s Phoenix Retail MarketView report for the third quarter.

The market recorded positive absorption of 385,625 sq. ft. for the quarter and so far this year has absorbed 1.1 million sq. ft.

By Carl Meadows, [email protected]

Retailers always prefer clear skies. But from an operational standpoint, more and more are preparing for cloudy days ahead – via cloud computing.

If a retailer is considering the use of a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet for its data rather than using its own physical servers, just how cloud-ready is it? 

New York -- Amazon.com narrowed its loss in the third quarter and posted a better-than-expected 25% increase in sales. The online giant reported a net loss of $41 million, down from $274 million in the year-ago period, in line with expectations.

Amazon reported revenue of $17.1 billion, beating expectations by about 2% on strong sales growth, particularly in the U.S. market.