Data & Analytics

New York – A user-centric approach is the best way to enhance trust, transparency and privacy in personal data usage. In conjunction with A.T. Kearney, the World Economic Forum has released three reports as part of its Rethinking Personal Data initiative.

Atlanta – Havertys has promoted four executives to VP positions. Richard Gallagher was promoted to executive VP merchandising; Bonnie Berry was promoted to VP HR; Greg Johnson was promoted to VP distribution; and Jim Presmanes was promoted to VP risk management and insurance.   

New York – Kate Spade & Company earned net income of $46 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2014. This marked a return to profitability after a net loss of $52 million in the prior year period.

San Jose, Calif. – Adobe Systems is focusing on new predictive marketing and real-time customer engagement capabilities in several new digital marketing and analytics releases. Marketing Cloud Exchange, a new core service in Adobe Marketing Cloud (AMC), is a new marketplace for pre-built integrations and apps between Adobe solutions and third-party technologies (i.e., Google DDM, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Tableau).

La Paz, Bolivia - Bolivian drugstore chain FarmaCorp S.A., has entered into a five-year agreement for Revionics Price Optimization with Revionics Inc. FarmaCorp was searching for a price optimization solution and a partner that would help analyze customer demand and shopping preferences.

Tampa, Fla. - CoreMedia, a web content management (WCM) company, has released CoreMedia LiveContext 2.0, a next-generation digital engagement application integrated with IBM WebSphere Commerce that empowers e-commerce and marketing professionals to transform their online stores with deeper, more visually appealing and immersive experiences.

New York – Macy’s Inc. beat Wall Street expectations with profits of $224 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2014, up 3.2% from $217 million in the same quarter the prior year.

Earnings rose even as sales fell 1.7% to $6.38 billion, from $6.39 billion. Same-store sales declined 0.8%. Increased operating income and decreased cost of sales helped boost net income, while severe winter weather took a toll on sales.

Sears Holdings plans to hire an investment banking firm to explore strategic alternatives regarding its 51% ownership stake in Sears Canada.

The strategic alternatives are said to include the potential sale of Sears Holdings’ interest or Sears Canada as a whole, according to a statement by the Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based company. In a separate statement, Sears Canada said its board of directors intended to cooperate fully with Sears Holdings in the strategic alternatives exploration process to achieve full value for all shareholders.

The nation’s leading department store retailer overcame weak first quarter sales to muster a 3.2% profit improvement and expressed confidence in its performance the remainder of the year.

The company’s first quarter earnings per share of 60 cents was a penny better than analysts forecast and a 9% improvement from prior year earnings of 55 cents. However, sales declined 1.7% to nearly $6.3 billion while same store sales, excluding sales from departments licensed to third parties, fell 1.6%.

Ace Hardware president and CEO John Venhuizen called the company’s first quarter the "best for both revenues and net income in its 90-year history," thanks to strong performance in its core categories.

The co-op reported total revenues of $1.1 billion for the first quarter, up 16.8% from the same quarter last year. Net income was $24.4 million, up from $4.4 million in the year-ago quarter.