Data & Analytics

Commerce, Calif. – Smart & Final Stores Inc. reported net income of $11 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2015, essentially flat compared to $11.1 million in the year-earlier period. Higher expenses related to higher sales volumes, increased store support costs, additional marketing expense, and public company costs inhibited profit growth.

Washington, D.C. - The National Retail Federation (NRF) is now a little less rosy in its sales expectations for 2015. The NRF has lowered its full-year retail sales forecast because of unexpected slow growth recorded during the first half of the year, similar to the industry’s experience in 2014.

However, NRF still expects sales will steadily increase through the remainder of the year. NRF forecasted in February that retail sales would grow 4.1% in 2015 from 2014, but today’s revision lowers the forecast to 3.5%.

Seattle – Starbucks Corp, is partnering with one of the world’s best-known media brands to provide an elevated news experience for users of its mobile app. As part of an expanded agreement with the New York Times, top news of the day as well as a selection of other articles, will be available for free via the Starbucks mobile app for My Starbucks Rewards loyalty members.

Online retailer Jet.com is all about low prices and so far the upstart membership club competitor is living up to it value proposition.

Seattle – Amazon.com is taking the title of the classic Bob Dylan album “Bringing It All Back Home” to heart. The retailer is expanding its Amazon Home Services professional services marketplace to 15 metropolitan areas, including Atlanta; Boston; Chicago; Dallas-Fort Worth; Houston; Miami; Philadelphia; Phoenix; San Diego; San Jose and Washington, D.C.

Amazon Home Services has expanded the number of providers and the services they offer in 15 metropolitan areas, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Miami, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Jose and Washington, D.C.

The move adds to existing availability in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. Amazon Home Services now includes over 15 million unique services across more than 900 professional services, the Seattle-based company said.

Madrid, Spain – Spanish retail chains including department store retailer El Corte Ingles and supermarket retailer BonPreu are leveraging a new smartphone-based payment solution. The retailers are deploying the digital payment network from Dinube, which uses tokenization, Near Field Communication (NFC) technology and biometric fingerprint security to replace card-based payments.

Clearwater, Fla. – Recreational boat retailer MarineMax Inc. should be floating after receiving positive fiscal results for the third quarter of fiscal 2015. Net income sailed 29% to $14.9 million from $11.5 million in the same period the prior year, aided by gains from sale of real estate.

Revenue grew approximately 8% to $231.8 million, compared with $214.4 million. Same-store sales increased approximately 10%.