Data & Analytics

Thanks to a partnership between Amazon and Twitter, people can now link their Twitter accounts to their Amazon accounts and shop for items by responding to any tweet with an Amazon product link and hashtag #AmazonCart.

Customers can link their accounts by going to Amazon.com/AmazonCart.

The tweet only adds an item to a consumer’s shopping cart, but consumers must log into Amazon to complete their purchases.

Duane Reade has released the first update to its app for iPhone including the integration of iBeacon for 10 select Duane Reade locations active as of May 1.

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in April 2013 versus April 2014 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. Toys “R” Us experienced a massive 350% increase in page count year-over-year due to its release of three circulars this April versus one last year. Only a short eight-page “Bike & Trike Trade-in” circular was run last year. This year, the bicycle circular ran in the last week of the month again, but the other two circulars appeared to be a response to the late Easter this year, with a focus on $5 or less basket-fillers.

Kroger will be the first in Oregon to deploy a fleet of heavy-duty trucks that run on liquid natural gas. The 40 trucks will replace 40 diesel trucks currently in use and are expected to start making store deliveries in the Portland metropolitan area by the end of 2014.

The use of natural gas fuel not only reduces operating costs for vehicles, but also reduces greenhouse gas emissions up to 23% in medium- to heavy-duty vehicles.

San Francisco -- Intel Corp. said it has hired senior Staples executive Steven Fund to oversee its global marketing, effective June 2. He will be responsible for marketing strategy, communications, social media and advertising duties.

"As our industry and our business is changing, we need to change the way we develop, build, and market our products, and Steve is going to be a key asset for us as we move forward," CEO Brian Krzanich said in a statement on Monday.

Yorba Linda, Calif. -- For the first time, lighting professionals expect to install more LED than fluorescent fixtures over the coming year, according to the fourth annual lighting by Precision-Paragon [P2].    

When asked what is the dominant lighting technology they expect to install in 2014, 49% of respondents selected LED, and 46% indicated fluorescent. Asked the same question last year, 26% selected LED, and 68% indicated fluorescent.

It has been about five months since the Target data breach made the vulnerability of retail POS data a hot topic. Investigation has since shown the Target breach did not involve POS terminals. However, high-profile thefts of customer payment card data from Target and other retailers including Neiman Marcus, Michaels and Sally Beauty Supply have highlighted the need for U.S. retailers to adopt the global Europass, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) standard for accepting payments from cards that store consumer information on secure embedded microchips, rather than on magnetic stripes.

By Chris Horacek, VP, BravoSolution, the supply management company

Deerfield, Ill. -- Walgreen Co. said that its same-store sales rose 7.6% in April, boosted by Easter-driven growth in front-end sales.

The company’s total sales rose 8.8% to $6.49 billion in the month of April, up from $5.96 billion in the same period of last year. Pharmacy sales accounted for 64.5% of total sales for April.