Data & Analytics

Advantage Sales & Marketing has acquired food brokerage company Tri-Venture Marketing to expand its national footprint and enhance its capabilities across a range of fresh categories.

Advantage, already one of the nation’s leading providers of sales, marketing and third party merchandising support services to retailers and suppliers, will operate the new business as Advantage Tri-Venture and maintain the firm’s existing headquarters in Lakeland, Fl., which coincidentally is the hometown of leading southeastern supermarket operator Publix.

Bay Shore, N.Y. - One in three shoppers have walked out of a store without buying the goods they intended to because of a bad experience with a self-service checkout, according to a new survey from queue management company Tensator. With 84% of respondents admitting to needing staff assistance when using a self-service, nearly 60% of customers actually prefer using more traditional staffed checkouts, the company said.

Other survey findings include:

Woonsocket, R.I. – CVS is reportedly offering a new program to its ExtraCare loyalty program members, called myWeeklyAd, which creates a personalized profile with targeted product offers based on previous purchases. According to Wall St. Cheat Sheet, CVS spent about $7 million on the omnichannel program which is available on PC, tablet and smartphone.

New York -- Management consulting firm Kurt Salmon appointed Deanna Emsley as a partner in the firm’s retail and consumer products Group.

Prior to joining Kurt Salmon, Emsley was senior VP of inventory management and corporate strategy for women's clothing and accessories retailer Coldwater Creek, where she was responsible for sales, margin and inventory plans for all channels.

Management consulting firm Kurt Salmon has named Deanna Emsley as a partner in the firm’s Retail and Consumer Products Group.

Emsley has nearly 25 years of experience in retail, specializing in planning, forecasting, distribution and omnichannel. She has worked as a consultant and in-house for top-tier brands, including Williams-Sonoma and Abercrombie & Fitch.

Atlanta - The Home Depot has selected National Tenant Network to assist property owners, managers and investors on its new Pro Xtra site. Home Depot's Pro Xtra will enhance existing Pro Desk programs, as well as add new benefits for members.

SAP demonstrated a concept consumer app called “Snap” at its recent Retail Forum in Dallas. Snap provides customers with interactive 3-D assembly instructions for a vast array of products. The instructions are pulled from manufacturer CAD files and delivered via cloud after the customer scans a product barcode or QR code, with options such as zoom and audio. Snap even lets shoppers register products for warranties and automatically request replacement parts.

Jon Abolins, senior tax director at Avalara