Data & Analytics

A massive share repurchase program at Bed Bath & Beyond enabled the company to overcome increased expenses and a decline in gross margins to produce earning per share growth that exceeded analysts’ estimates.

In anticipation of the holiday shopping season, Amazon has introduced #AmazonWishList, which allows customers to add items to their Amazon Wish List without leaving Twitter.

Customers who find Tweets with an Amazon.com product links will be able to add those products to their Amazon Wish List by replying on Twitter with #AmazonWishList.

Three executives at Hormel Foods will be advancing to new roles as of Oct. 28.

Mark D. Vaupel, currently director of information technology services, will advance to VP of information technology services. Swen Neufeldt, currently director of business development in Asia, general manager of China and VP of Hormel Foods International, will advance to president of Asia Pacific, Hormel Foods International. And Jeffrey A. Grev, currently director of corporate development, will advance to director of legislative affairs.

Walmart already offers a prepaid debit card, credit card, check cashing and money transfers, but it’s expanding its financial services to include an exclusive checking account called GoBank, with Green Dot Corp., a prepaid-cards specialist.

The checking account is linked to MasterCard debit cards. GoBank, which will be available nationwide by the end of October, doesn’t charge overdraft fees or minimum balance fees and waives the monthly membership cost of $8.95 with qualifying direct deposits of $500 a month.

According to Deloitte’s annual retail holiday sales forecast, steadily improving economic fundamentals should moderately boost holiday sales in stores and online this year.

E-commerce platform WooCommerce has partnered with LevelUp to lower payment processing costs for merchants.

WooCommerce merchants can now accept LevelUp payments for a flat 1.95% processing rate. Merchants will also be able to run a full suite of revenue-driving marketing campaigns.

New York -- PayPal has made its first direct entry into the virtual currency space. The company announced via a blog post that it has entered into agreements with leading Bitcoin payment processors BitPay, Coinbase and GoCoin. The agreements let PayPal’s digital goods merchants in North America accept Bitcoin, with a simple integration through the PayPal Payments Hub.

Chicago -- The strategic merits of Burger King Worldwide's leveraged buy-out of Tim Hortons Inc. will be tested by Monday's enactment of tightened U.S. Treasury tax rules on U.S. companies seeking to re-domicile their headquarters in countries with more favorable tax systems, according to Fitch Ratings. The new regulation is meant to reduce the attractiveness of inversions and is effective immediately.

Stamford, Conn. -- Half of Americans (49%) plan to shop online earlier for gifts this holiday season, with the main reason being to ensure they receive their packages on time (63%), according to a survey by Pitney Bowes.