Data & Analytics

With its stock trading at a 52-week low, Sears has made an interesting choice to lead its department store business.

The company says it has found a new executive to develop a strategy for the Sears format that focuses on meeting the needs of the Shop Your Way member.  

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is not backing down in its challenge to the upcoming July 15 Amazon “Prime Day” event. One day after reducing the minimum online purchase for free shipping from $50 to $35 and reducing prices on thousands of online items, Wal-Mart is going a step further and guaranteeing it will offer lower prices than Amazon.

Lewisville, Texas – Connected consumers are increasingly using a wide variety of channels on their path to purchase. According to new research from Blackhawk Engagement Solutions, the smartphone is the most prevalent Internet device, with 71% of shoppers using one daily.

Smartphone use is followed by laptop, 66%; desktop computer, 50%; and tablet, 43%.

Washington, D.C. – Despite all the hype surrounding Apple Pay and other digital wallet solutions, so far consumer response to the digital wallet phenomenon has been one big shrug of the shoulders.

Gallup analysis shows that only 13% of U.S. adults with a smartphone have a digital wallet on their device.

Dallas – The Elephant Bar casual dining chain is herding loyalty members as they approach local stores.

The 29-unit retailer has deployed the Paytronix Geofencing solution to send messages designed to compel visits from members of its rewards program when they are within a set proximity to a restaurant.
In a review of three recent campaigns, Elephant Bar determined that approximately 30% of members visited a restaurant on the day that they received a geofencing message.

Redwood Shores, Calif. – Oracle is enabling retailers to fulfill orders in the cloud with two new product releases on the Oracle Supply Chain Management Cloud platform. The two solutions, Oracle Order Management Cloud and Oracle Global Order Promising Cloud, provide modern order promising, management, visibility and fulfillment capabilities.

Shoes.com is laucnhing new efforts to make the shopping experience more convenient and accessible for customers on the go.

The company has launched a refreshed, mobile responsive OnlineShoes.com website and iOS app, designed to keep up with customer demand and enhance the mobile shopping experience for customers. The company will also release a mobile app for the Android platform that will debut later this summer.

When building and deploying mobile apps, retail and distribution firms have employed a variety of approaches, including custom app builds, cloud-based DIY app builder tools, and in some cases, building their own enterprise app stores. No matter what path is chosen, businesses involved in all aspects of retail are turning their attention to applications that can improve the productivity and efficiency of an increasingly mobile workforce.