Data & Analytics

Staples exec joins omnichannel furniture firm
Kyle Marchesseault was named director of marketing at Blueport Commerce, a company that describes itself as the omnichannel solution for the $78 billion furniture industry.
The retail industry’s new best friend
President Barack Obama has taken heat over his use of executive orders, but that wasn’t the case on Friday when retail trade groups lined up behind the president in support of wide ranging data security measures.

Survey: 63% of online shoppers never familiar with Alibaba

Los Angeles -- More than half (63%) of U.S. online shoppers are not familiar with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.com, according to a survey by Bizrate Insights, a division of Connexity (formerly Shopzilla).

Interestingly, respondents not familiar with the Alibaba brand or website skewed toward younger generations and women (who traditionally are the decision makers behind the lion’s share of retail).
Transforming a vacant building into a LEED-certified office space

Test Test TEst
Report: Total online Thanksgiving Day sales to top $1 billion

Wilmington, Del. -- Total online Thanksgiving Day sales will top the $1 billion mark this year for the first time ever, increasing year-over at least 23.4%, with most purchases made after 6 p.m., according to BestBlackFriday.com, a website providing information regarding holiday sale pricing, shopping tips and news.
EBay beats Street on Q3 revenue; lowers full-year forecast

San Jose, Calif. -– EBay Inc. beat Wall Street estimates with its third quarter revenue results but lowered its forecast for full-year sales due to the impact of a May 2014 security breach. Net income fell 2% to $673 million from $689 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2013.
Amazon to hire 80,000 holiday employees

Seattle – Amazon.com is creating 80,000 seasonal positions across its U.S. network of fulfillment and sortation centers for the 2014 holiday season in order to meet an increase in customer demand. In 2013, Amazon converted thousands of seasonal employees into regular, full-time roles after the holidays, and expects to do the same this year.
SGI releases tool to scale SAP HANA

Milpitas, Calif. –- SGI, a provider of data analytics solutions and an SAP global technology partner, has introduced SGI UV for SAP HANA. It is a purpose-built, in-memory computing appliance for growing environments running the SAP HANA platform.
Powerhouse Dynamics’ mobile app expands real-time facility ops and energy management capabilities

Boston -- Powerhouse Dynamics, creator of the SiteSage enterprise energy and asset management system, is beefing up its mobile app with a series of control and reporting enhancements to provide facility managers with complete facility energy and equipment operations management.
Martha and Meredith in 10-year tie-up

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and leading publisher Meredith Corporation have entered into a decade-long partnership that is being described as transformative.
Bonial eyes development of Retale brand

Retail advertising solutions provider Bonial International, parent company of Retale, has placed several executives in key roles as it looks to disrupt the traditional retail advertising universe.

Dan Cripe was name chief technology officer and Andrea Francesco Domeneghini was named chief marketing officer at Bonial and will be based in the company’s Berlin headquarters.
‘Tis the season for temporary jobs

Amazon’s 50 fulfillments centers and 15 sortation centers are looking to hire 80,000 seasonal works to cope with an anticipated surge in U.S. holiday sales.

Amazon, like other retailers, touts the seasonal positions as an opportunity to get in on the ground floor with the company and establish a foundation for a career. Last year, Amazon said it converted thousands of seasonal employees into regular, full-time roles after the holidays, and expects to do the same this year.