Data & Analytics

WTI expects June 2014 to trend similar to last year and above normal for the U.S. as a whole. Cooler and more normal temperatures can be expected from the Western Plains to the Rocky Mountain states. Temperatures will be cooler than last year along the West Coast, but still above normal with slightly weaker demand for summer categories. In the Northeast, temperatures will trend similar to last year while precipitation trends drier than a very wet June 2013, which will benefit store traffic and increase demand for outdoor categories.

SGK, formerly marketed as Schawk, a leading global brand development, activation and deployment company that drives brand performance, has appointed Andrew Flynn as SVP of brand strategy.

In this new role, Flynn will focus on identifying and developing strategic brand solutions for clients to help drive brand performance by leveraging the services offered by Brandimage and Anthem, part of SGK's brand development group, and Schawk, the company's brand deployment business.

eBay Enterprise, an eBay company, plans to increase adoption of omnichannel commerce technologies globally after securing 451 clients and 862 extension and renewals in the first half of 2014.

Leading brands that turned to eBay Enterprise to power their retail growth include Alex and Ani, BOXPARK, Destination XL, Karmaloop, MailPix and StubHub.

Current clients have also added new services to enhance the consumer experience.

In a major boost to member benefits, Sam’s Club announced a credit card cash back program that gives members the opportunity to earn 5% cash back on fuel, 3% cash back on dining and travel and 1% cash back on all other purchases, up to $5,000 annually.

Five Below plans to open eight locations in and around Houston Friday, June 6, marking the specialty value retailer’s first foray into that city. The company already has 15 stores in the Dallas and Austin markets.

The store openings are part of the company’s aggressive growth strategy. Last year, the Philadelphia-based retailer opened 60 new stores, and it plans to match that number this year. With the Houston openings, there will be 338 Five Below stores in 20 states throughout the country.

Seattle -- In collaboration with Disney, Starbucks Corp. has opened its first company-operated store at Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida, a nearly 4,000-sq.-ft. location at Downtown Disney West Side. This past March, Disney opened its first company-operated café at Downtown Disney, Anaheim, California. 

Jacksonville, Fla. -- tw telecom, a provider of Business Ethernet and networking solutions announced it was selected by Stein Mart to provide Internet protocol virtual private network (IP VPN) service nationwide. The technology will allow Stein Mart to directly connect and securely pass data to its more than 270 stores and data centers nationwide.

By Anand Medepalli, VP of Solution Strategy, JDA Software Group Inc.

There will be more changes in retail the next 10 years than what has been seen in the last 50 years. Maybe that’s why omnichannel retailing is a hot topic. Omnichannel retailing centers on providing a seamless shopping experience regardless of channel to deliver a unified and customized shopping experience.

Sweetwater, Fla. -- Ikea announced it had completed the installation of South Florida’s largest solar array, which will be plugged-in officially atop the future Miami-Dade Ikea store opening this summer in Sweetwater, Florida. Combined with rooftop arrays in Orlando, Tampa, and Sunrise, this fourth solar project will keep Ikea as the state’s largest non-utility solar owner.

Atlanta -- EarthLink Holdings Corp., a managed network and cloud services provider, announced that Anna’s Linens have selected the company to provide a comprehensive managed network solution and SIP Trunking for voice over IP for its more than three hundred stores and 3,200 employees.

To accommodate their rapid growth, increasingly centralized IT model, and need to run more applications, Anna's IT leaders worked in collaboration with EarthLink partner Grauman Communications to transition to an EarthLink MPLS network and SIP Trunking.