Data & Analytics

Rakuten has teamed up with First Bankcard to launch the Rakuten Rewards MasterCard Program, which provides cardholders with reward points for using their credit card to shop on Rakuten.com and elsewhere.  

Rakuten.com, formerly Buy.com, is Rakuten's U.S. marketplace, offering consumers more than 17 million products at everyday low prices from a network of small and large business shop owners.

L’Oréal Paris and the Melanoma Research Alliance, a private funder of melanoma research, have announced the launch of the “It’s THAT Worth It” campaign, a public health call-to-action that urges women of all skin tones to prevent melanoma by using sunscreen and to help save lives by supporting melanoma research for a cure.

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in March 2013 versus March 2014 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. H.E.B. and Publix topped the charts in circular page change, with increases of 27.8% and 41.2%, respectively. The massive increase at Publix was attributable to the release of an additional circular this March (five versus four in 2013), while H.E.B. simply ran more pages in each of its five March circulars (eight to 12 pages each this year, as opposed to six to eight last year).

Stamford, Conn. -- GE Capital Retail Bank announced a long-term extension of its agreement with American Eagle Outfitters to continue providing private-label credit card programs for online, mobile app, and store purchases made at any of the 856 American Eagle Outfitter and 115 Aerie locations across the U.S.

As part of the seven-year agreement, GE Capital’s Retail Finance business will continue to manage the American Eagle Outfitters credit card program, which began in 1996.

Seattle — AmazonFresh recently launched a new tool called the Amazon Dash that allows users to scan items or speak the items aloud as part of a new way to shop for groceries without having to go into the store or shop online.

By Ken Nisch, JGA

By Gary Ambrosino, TimeTrade Systems

Retailers are bending over backwards to meet the growing demands of today’s ever-connected consumer; however, most are still coming up short. The traditional rinse-and-repeat practices — slashing prices, offering free shipping and promoting exclusive products — aren’t winning over fickle consumers or helping gain a leg up on the competition.

Los Altos, Calif. -- Shoppers using the Catalog Spreee iPad app read 60% more catalogs and viewed 39% more catalog pages when compared year-over-year (first quarter 2014, compared to first quarter 2013). In addition, Catalog Spree’s new quarterly iPad Shopping Trends Report indicates half of all shoppers visited a retailer's website directly from the app to view further product details.

New York – While a majority of the most popular prepaid debit cards charge monthly fees, specific fee structures vary widely. According to a study of 30 of the most widely held prepaid debit cards conducted by Bankrate.com, 83% of the prepaid cards surveyed charge monthly fees, but 33% will waive them, typically based upon the amount loaded onto the card.

Ankeny, Iowa -- Casey’s General Stores has selected Softeon’s warehouse managements ystem (WMS), as well as its load planning, yard management, and labor management applications, to improve efficiency and accuracy of its DC operations and drive additional throughput from existing DCs to enable them to support addition of new retail stores in the same physical footprint.