Data & Analytics

Listening to Walmart describe enhancements to its online shopping experience — improved navigation, increased localization, simplified checkout — it sounds like the retailer is talking about its physical stores.

Whether online or in stores, the touch points the shopper experiences on their path to purchase have much in common. No surprise then that the range of enhancements Walmart said it made to its site this week are focused on the same things all retailers focus on to create a positive physical experience.

Recent enhancements to Walmart’s website ensure that Andy Murray, the company’s SVP of creative, will have plenty to talk about later this year when he addresses the topic of “Evolving with the omnichannel shopper,” at the Shopper Marketing Conference & Expo.
 

As is the case with many digital companies, RetailMeNot demonstrated it could grow revenue in the second quarter, but generating a profit was a different matter.

Denton, Texas – Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. reported its net earnings declined 7% to $67.76 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2014, from $72.47 million in the same period the prior year. Net sales grew 4.1% to $949.27 million, from $912.1 million.

Expenses associated with an executive management transition and a previously disclosed data security breach in March 2014 contributed to Sally Beauty’s fall in net earnings.

Sunbury, Pa. – Net income at Weis Markets Inc. plummeted close to 47% during the second quarter of fiscal 2014, compared to the prior year period. Weis reported net income of $12.8 million, compared to $21.18 million a year earlier.

Weis cited company reinvestment and price discounting as driving the net income decline. Second quarter sales increased 4.5% to $691.9 million, from $662.1 million and same-store sales increased 2.9%.

San Francisco – Specialty cosmetics retailer BareMinerals is opening a pop-up “Shade Shop” in the SoHo neighborhood of New York, Aug. 1 to Aug. 2. The assortment is merchandised by shade family – light, medium, tan, dark and deep – in a streamlined, easy-to-navigate environment.

The store will also feature a rotating color bar. Designed as a playground to test new concepts, BareMinerals will refresh the shop seasonally, with the first transformation taking place in November.

San Jose, Calif. – EBay Inc. has released its 2014 diversity report. The online auction retailer, whose global workforce is 58% male and global workforce is 61% white, says it has made improvements in workforce diversity but still has progress to make.

EBay’s global leadership is 72%, while its global technology wotkforce is 76% male. The non-tech workforce is much more gender-diverse, with a slight 51% male majority.

Redwood Shores, Calif. – Specialty supplements retailer PureFormulas recently migrated to Oracle Commerce to personalize the customer experience and open up new market segments without sacrificing ease of use.

Dedham, Mass. – Reflexis has selected SoftLayer, an IBM company, to provide the infrastructure for its platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that will support retailers’ mobile and Web applications. Using Reflexis' PaaS, customers can implement mobile and web applications, which help retailers provide a seamless online-to-store shopping experience and provide a higher quality of customer engagement.