Data & Analytics

Price investments hinder Supervalu profits
Supervalu president and CEO Sam Duncan is encouraged with the progress the retailer is making and why not. Identical store sales in the company’s Save-A-Lot units were up 6.5% in the second quarter.

The company’s total sales for the period ended September 6, increased 1.8% to $4.02 billion while profits declined to $31 million, or 11 cents a share, from $40 million, or 15 cents a share. When adjusted for some non-recurring items, second quarter earnings were $34 million, or 13 cents a share.
Frascotti named top toy exec at Hasbro
Global branded play leader Hasbro, Inc. today announced the promotion of John Frascotti to the newly-created position of president, Hasbro Brands, effective immediately.

In this new role, Frascotti assumes the additional responsibilities of worldwide product development and now oversees all of the company’s global marketing and design and development teams. By combining the teams, the company will continue to drive strong innovation, maximize operational efficiency, facilitate greater collaboration and streamline decision-making.

eBay enables more commerce in Q3

Enabled commerce volume at eBay surged 27% in the company’s third quarter with cross border trade showing particular strength, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the company from revising downward its full year outlook.
Land O’Lakes challenges food leaders

Ensuring the roughly nine billion people who are estimated to inhabit the planet by 2050 have enough to eat is a big challenge. That’s why Land O’Lakes has introduced new program to fund big ideas from future food leaders.
O Alliance recruits circular retail exec

Former Delia’s and J. Crew executive Walter Killough has joined consulting firm O Alliance as managing director.

The O Alliance is a new consulting firm positioned to help retailers pursue the concept of circular commerce. In his new role, Killough will be responsible for business development, strategic partnerships and overall day-to-day management of the company. Killough spent 10 years with junior’s retailer Delia’s and most recently served as CEO. Prior to that he served as COO of J. Crew Group.
Report: Only 5% of retailers have fully executed omnichannel strategy

Minneapolis -- Few companies (5%) believe they are “advanced” when it comes to omnichannel capabilities, and between 35% and 40% believe they are lagging, according to a report by SPS Commerce, a provider of enterprise retail cloud services. The company’s third annual “Retail Insight” report confirms the cross-functional challenges retailers, suppliers and logistics firms face as they build omnichannel capabilities into their operations.
Study: Retailer web pages load too slowly

Tel Aviv, Israel -- The average online shopper expects a Web page to render in less than three seconds, but analysis of the load times of the top 100 retailers reveals that the median home page on a desktop takes 6.5 seconds to render its primary content and 11.4 seconds to fully load.
Giant Eagle pilots Brickstream in-store analytics

Pittsburgh –- Multi-format food, fuel and pharmacy retailer Giant Eagle Inc. is piloting smart devices from Brickstream for capturing and analyzing in-store data at six stores. Brickstream’s hardware and software solutions deliver the equivalent of “clickstream” analytics for the brick-and-mortar world.
American Eagle Outfitters tests in-store impact of shopBeacon

Redwood City, Calif. -- Shopping app Shopkick reported on results of its end-to-end, iBeacon compatible technology, shopBeacon, with inaugural partner American Eagle Outfitters. The teen retailer installed shopBeacon technology at over 100 locations and has tested its impact on shopper behavior over the past months.
Survey: Millennials seek expert help

Cincinnati –- Millennial consumers age 18-29 seek sessions with experts to assist the purchase process. According to U.S. consumer survey research conducted by LoyaltyOne in September 2014, 84% of Millennials said that being able to redeem rewards/loyalty program points for a session or consultation with a chef or nutritionist would motivate them to shop more with that grocer.
Boston Retail Partners recommends EMV compliance, tokenization

Boston –- Between April and June of 2014, the retail sector led all industries in data breaches with 145 million records, or 83% of the total records compromised, costing retailers $195 per record apprehended. In response, Boston Retail Partners has released recommendations for data security best practices. The recommendations include:
Lessons Learned from Back-to-School Shopping: Three Trends Driving Peak Season Strategies

By Leela Rao-Kataria, GT Nexus When most people are asked what the busiest holiday for retailers’ is they immediately cite the traditional holiday season. But most consumers don’t realize back-to-school shopping is the second biggest shopping season in the United States. And unlike the winter holidays, back-to-school has an additional challenge for retailers: it’s the longest running holiday season, extending over three months.