Data & Analytics

Plano, Texas -- Pretax restructuring charges related to corporate reorganization and store closures, as well as pretax impairment charges, helped reduce net earnings at Rent-A-Center Inc. 7% to $25.3 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2014 from $27.2 million in the third quarter of the prior year. Revenues grew 2% to $769.5 million from $754.8 million, and same-store sales rose 1.9%.

 

Mountain View, Calif. -- AgilOne, the cloud-based predictive marketing company, announced that home design retailer Jonathan Adler will use AgilOne’s cloud platform to improve customer engagement by creating more personalized, data-driven marketing.

New York –- Magento, an EBay Enterprise company, has created the exclusive Fashion Partner Initiative. This program includes expert technology partners, system integrators, digital agencies and developers that can step in and act as an extension of a fashion retailer’s in-house team.   

Schaumburg, Ill. -- Motorola Solutions Inc. has unveiled the Symbol TC70 touch computer, an enterprise-class mobile computer running the Android KitKat operating system. Designed to boost efficiency and customer service in the retail, wholesale and manufacturing industries, the TC70 is supported by more than 50 certified applications including price and inventory checks, line busting, assisted selling, workforce management and inventory management.  

The world’s leading beverage company is intensify efforts to generate high single digit earnings per share growth after strategies introduced earlier this year have been slow to take hold and third quarter earnings fell 13%.

Coca-Cola Company CEO Muhtar Kent unveiled a new slate of actions to reinvigorate growth and cut expenses in conjunction with the release of disappointing third quarter results. Revenues were essentially flat with the prior year at $12 billion during the quarter ended Sept. 26 while earnings per share declined 13% to 48 cents from 53 cents.

CVS Health has confirmed a Wall Street Journal report that it is working to establish a tobacco-free pharmacy network and is looking for tobacco-free pharmacies to participate in the new offering.

As widely reported, CVS Health’s pharmacy locations are now officially tobacco-free as the company forges ahead on its mission to help shape the future of health care.

Epicor Software Corp. has agreed to acquire privately held QuantiSense, Inc., a provider of cloud and on-premises packaged analytic solutions for the retail industry. The acquisition of QuantiSense, expected to close by Oct. 31, 2014, will add QuantiSense business intelligence and advanced retail analytics offerings to the Epicor Retail solutions portfolio, helping empower users to leverage enterprise-wide data as actionable insights to optimize all aspects of their operations, from the supply chain through to multi-channel points of purchase.

Any retail marketer today understands that the value of a loyalty program lies in the data it collects and the ability to target consumers based on that data. But in today’s omnichannel environment, consumers have expectations on of how retailers are using their information what that data is “buying” them -- expectations that retailers are struggling to meet.

Digital Challenges

By Les Berglass    The appointments of new chief executives of major brands always cause a stir, but Gap Inc.’s recent announcement that Art Peck would succeed Glenn Murphy hit Wall Street like a truck. Why? Because the investment community  wanted a more predictable, standing CEO—it likes stability. But the truth is, this is a positive and revolutionary change.