Data & Analytics

Menomonee Falls, Wis. – Kohl’s Corp. exceeded Wall Street expectations for profit but missed analysts’ expectations with its sales and same-store sales performance during a mixed first quarter of fiscal 2015.

Net income climbed 2% to $127 million from $125 million in the year-earlier period, aided by improved expense management.

Milwaukee – A sharp reduction in loss from continuing operations, primarily related to the sale of the Rainbow banner to Supervalu, helped Roundy’s Inc. cut net loss to $2.33 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2015, from $4.52 million the same quarter a year earlier. Net sales rose 14% to $981.93 million from $862.69 million, while same-store sales dropped 1.6%.

Walmart is reportedly testing an unlimited shipping service that could undercut Amazon Prime.

Seattle – Starbucks Corp. is denying reports that hackers illegally gained entry into accounts of some users of its mobile app. Multiple media reports have indicated hackers broke into hundreds of accounts of Starbucks app users, stole their stored value, and leveraged the reload function to obtain customer payment card data.

In a statement, Starbucks said news reports of a hack are false and that it occasionally receives reports of unauthorized activity caused by criminals re-using names and passwords stolen from other customer accounts.

Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. has confirmed that there was an “illegal intrusion” into the company’s payment card systems. It is the retailer’s second data breach in a little over the year. Here are insights on the breach from four security experts:

Steve Hultquist, chief evangelist at RedSeal, the security analytics company:

New York – Fast-fashion retailer H&M estimates that it will continue to expand annually at a rate of 10% to 15%, which would take the U.S. store count to more than 400 and the total store count to almost 4,000 stores by the end of the year.

During 2015, the Swedish retailer has thus far announced it will open 61 stores, including the Herald Square flagship in New York City, which will become the largest H&M in the world when it opens on May 20.

Strong growth in its e-commerce divisions couldn't lift profits at Nordstrom Inc., which reported a drop in earnings for the first quarter. 

For the period ended May 2, Nordstrom reported a profit of $128 million, or 66 cents a share, down from $140 million, or 72 cents a share, a year earlier. The retailer also reported that Nordstrom.com and Nordstromrack.com had a combined 70% increase in sales in the first quarter.

Allentown, Pa. – Mobile payment is growing, and Millennials and men may be leading the way. According to a recent survey of 1,000 U.S. adults by Harbortouch examining the current state of mobile payment adoption shows that Millennials were the highest percentage of mobile payment users, with nearly 42% falling into that demographic.

In addition, men are twice as likely to use some form of mobile payment compared to women. Of those surveyed who aren't currently using mobile payments, 20% blame payment-related issues.