Data & Analytics

Washington, D.C. -- Los Angeles, New York and Chicago top the list of the cities with the highest organized retail crime activity, with Miami and Atanta rounding out the top five, according to a study by the National Retail Federation.

The NRF’s ninth annual Organized Retail Crime (ORC) Survey found that while organized crime has inched down slightly, it remains widespread. Over 90% (93.5%) of retailers said they had been a victim of organized retail crime during the past year, down from 96% the prior year.

Atlanta -- A just-released report by Jones Lang LaSalle Retail found that three trends — in retail investing, retail expansion and e-commerce — are making national borders increasingly irrelevant to the retail industry. According to Jones Lang LaSalle’s “Global Capital Flows,” retail investment captured 25% of the total global market share of real estate investment in first quarter 2013.

Suffern, N.Y. -- Ascena Retail Group Inc. reported its fiscal third-quarter net income dropped nearly 37% amid costs related to its acquisition of Charming Shoppes and a charge tied to debt extinguishment. The chain also lowered its full-year earnings forecast.

Net income slipped to $31.2 million for the quarter that ended April 27, from $49.4 million in the same quarter a year ago.

Revenue rose nearly 46% to $1.14 billion, boosted by the company’s acquisitions of the Lane Bryant and Catherines chains. Same-store sales fell 4%.

Atlanta -- Jones Lang LaSalle has announced that its retail group, in an exclusive deal, will lease and manage Shenandoah Plaza in Newnan, Ga. Anchoring the 146,121-sq.-ft. property are Big Lots, Rent-A-Center and Goodwill.

The property is currently 100% occupied. John Bemis, southeast retail market lead, and Janine Christian, senior VP, will direct JLL’s team on the assignment.

Chicago -- For pure play premium pet food and accessories retailer PetFlow, online marketing is a crucial component of its business. Initially, PetFlow used Google AdWords to direct consumers searching for specific pet products to its site. However, as PetFlow co-founder Alex Zhardanovsky told the audience during a morning keynote session at the Internet Retailer Conference in Chicago, initial efforts by the retailer to expand its online marketing activities to Facebook did not work so well.

Atlanta -- Jones Lang LaSalle Retail Group said that vacancy rates should fall far enough to enable some landlords in every U.S. market to demand slightly higher rents — at some point over the next six months.

New York -- Same-stores sales increased 3.2% in May, edging up from a 3% gain in April, according to a preliminary tally of 12 retailers by the International Council of Shopping Centers.  

The number of retailers reporting same-store sales has dropped dramatically over the past two years, with major department store companies and discounters no longer reporting. Many specialty fashion chains are also following suit. Some experts caution that the results are now so limited they are not representative of the industry at large.

As fans of the late ’90s Ben Affleck-Matt Damon film “Good Will Hunting” know, Cambridge, Mass., is often viewed as the province of what are locally referred to as “smaht kids.” I was privileged to be surrounded by “smaht kids” (or their grown-up equivalent) during the recent MIT Sloan CIO Symposium, which was held at Kresge Auditorium on the MIT campus in Cambridge. While there, I got to listen to their insights on how the evolution of IT and business is dramatically changing the role of the CIO.