Data & Analytics

Volatile demand for firearms seems to be easing at Cabela’s, which reported a profit rise of 6.9% in the first quarter despite a drop in same store sales.

O’Reilly Automotive says it plans to build a new distribution center in Texas to help support its 205 new stores in 2015.

America’s second largest retailer in the automotive aftermarket industry said its expansion plans are on track after profit rose in the first quarter on higher sales and better margins, continuing a trend of 15% or greater profit growth for the past six years.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Global responsibility and sustainability continue to be priorities for Wal-Mart Stores Inc.  The company filed its proxy statement ahead of its June 5 annual shareholders meeting, and also issued its annual report, and the 2015 Global Responsibility Report and Global Compliance Program Report.

The Global Responsibility Report outlined social and environmental work over the past year.  Accomplishments, according to the company, include:  

New York -- Sears Holdings Corp. is hoping to spark a turnaround in its struggling Hometown and Outlet Stores division with a 51-store refresh program that starts with seven stores in Arizona.

The store refresh includes a new product assortment, redesigned merchandising, new fixtures & signage, and comprehensive employee training, among other changes.

Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores is embracing its branding as “America’s Appliance Experts” with a refresh of seven stores in Arizona, among other states.

The store refresh includes a new product assortment, redesigned merchandising, new fixtures & signage, and comprehensive employee training, among other changes.

For those shoppers who are sick of lugging phone chargers from room to room, Ikea has a solution: The Swedish retailer is launching a new line of home furnishings with wireless chargers.

As smartphones have become an essential part of consumers’ lives, Ikea decided to make the charging function a natural part of the home.

Seattle - While Amazon is winning the battle for smartphone shoppers in America, it has yet to achieve the same dominance in at least 10 other countries internationally. This is the key finding of a monthly report from Informate Mobile Intelligence that tracked and measured consumer use of smartphones in 12 countries during February 2015.

The new report reveals shopping apps as having the highest penetration in the U.S. at 60%, followed by India at 46%. The other 10 countries measured, by comparison, only had a median reach of about 18%.

Dallas – Waiting in line is probably the least appetizing part of the dining out experience. That is why Chili’s Grill &Bar has selected the NoWait mobile network to power its new mobile waitlisting app.

Rolling out nationwide in summer 2015, NoWait enables guests to search local Chili's restaurants, understand the wait time to be seated and add their names remotely to a restaurant's real-time seating list. Customers will also be able to track their place in line and show up when their table is scheduled to be ready.