Data & Analytics

New York -- The news of the recent security breach at Kmart stores generated lots of comments from security experts.    Here is a roundup:         

Denver -- Junction Solutions announced today that it completed the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 at 122 stores of Fanzz, a leading sports apparel and team gear retailer.  

Las Vegas -- VeriFone Systems announced RubyCi, an integrated site controller and point-of-sale (POS) solution designed to enable average-sized convenience stores and petroleum retailers to more efficiently manage their POS, payment and fueling systems and prepare their payments infrastructure for EMV. The new solution combines features of VeriFone’s Ruby2 POS system and Commander Site Controller.   

By Steven Pinder, Tom White and Kurt Kendall    Retailers are being squeezed by growing consumer individualism, globalization and evolving preferences. These pan-industry pressure points are causing a proliferation of SKUs that retailers must now nimbly administer. And with online competition eating into already-low margins, the challenge for brick-and-mortar retailers is clear: Find a better way to manage assortment practices.  

New York -- Smart machines, mobile and digital business transformation all weigh heavily in tech research giant Gartner’s top 10 predictions for IT organizations and users in 2015 and beyond.    Here is an overview of Gartner's top 10 trends:    

Hoffman Estates, Ill. -- Kmart is the latest retailer to be hit by a payment data breach. The breach was discovered last Thursday by the chain’s information technology team, and the company immediately launched an investigation with a leading security firm, according to Kmart’s parent company, Sears Holdings Corp.   

Boston -- Dollar General maintains its overall opening price point leadership position in Kantar Retail’s fourth annual opening price point (OPP) study. For the third consecutive year, Dollar General‘s overall basket was the least expensive, edging out Walmart supercenter’s basket by 2.5%, representing a widening of the gap between the two in the 2013 study.   

New York -- Last week, SAP hosted its annual Retail Forum in the palatial confines of the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan. Within the elegant surroundings a lot of very practical and down-to-earth information about the latest retail IT trends was dispersed. Here are three tech trends retailers should pay extra close attention to.   Predictive Analytics  

Kmart said its store payment systems were penetrated by cybercriminals who used a form of malware undetectable by current anti-virus systems.

The retailer said its information technology team on October 9 detected its payment data systems had been breached and immediately launched a full investigation working with a leading IT security firm. It was determined the breach began in early September and upon detection Kmart said it was able to quickly remove the malware.

Water conservation is big business for the nation’s largest home improvement retailer who earned accolades from the Environmental Protection Agency for selling nearly 13 million WaterSense devices.

The EPA named Home Depot a 2014 WaterSense Partner of the year for selling nearly 13 million WaterSense labeled products which helped customers save an estimated 42.5 billion gallons of water and more than $358 million in water related utility costs. The retailer said the water saved is enough to supply 291,000 U.S. homes for a full year.