Data & Analytics

Indianapolis – With retailers like Amazon.com entering the online services market, online services network Angie’s List is tapping a veteran retail e-commerce executive to run the company.

Scott Durchslag, who served as president of e-commerce and global marketing at Best Buy from 2012-2014, has joined Angie’s List as president and CEO.

Cincinnati -- The ax fell at Macy’s on Tuesday.

In the name of optimizing its omnichannel approach, Macy's said it plans to close between 35 and 40 namesake stores in early 2016 even as its moves ahead with expansion of its new off price format, Macy’s Backstage.

In the name of optimizing its omnichannel approach, Macy's said it plans to close between 35 and 40 department stores at undisclosed locations in early 2016 while moving ahead with expansion of its off price format.

Prescription counts decreased a little and pharmacy same-store sales were up in August, according to numbers reported by Rite Aid Thursday.

As many of us grasp at the last moments of summer, those in the retail industry have one eye on the end of the year -- the time between November and December. It makes sense: holiday shoppers spent over $616 billion dollars just last year between Black Friday and Christmas. And while the ample time and resources spent on these two annual marketing priorities is certainly deserved, it is easy to put all of our eggs in this basket, accidentally neglecting the major retailing opportunity just around the corner -- the first quarter.

Philadelphia – Marketers are largely not conscious of the full potential social images (such as Instagram posts) hold for their email marketing efforts.

According to new research from Curalate and Movable Ink, while 76% of marketer emails include social media buttons, only 14% include social images.

San Jose, Calif. -- The back-to-school season traditionally gives retailers a much-needed boost, bringing traffic into stores in August. How did things turn out this year?

Not so great it turns out, according to RetailNext Inc., which provides retail analytics for brick-and-mortar stores. The firm’s, monthly Retail Performance Pulse revealed a 7.3% year-over-year decrease in sales on a 9.9% decline in traffic at physical stores for the retail month of August (Aug. 2 through Aug. 29 on the retail 4-5-4 calendar).

Armonk, N.Y. – Consumers are mobilizing for back-to-school shopping in a very literal way.

Mobile sales were up nearly 42% in August, reaching 25.3% of all online sales, according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark data.

During this time, consumers also used their mobile devices to browse deals, with traffic accounting for 49.4% of all online traffic, up more than 19% compared to the same period year.