Data & Analytics

Toronto, Canada -- Staples Canada has announced its sustainability achievements for the third quarter of 2013, meeting its recycling and energy efficiency program goals.

Largo, Fla. – Valpak has signed a franchise agreement with Lia Jensen to acquire the Valpak of West Michigan territory. The market was previously owned and operated by Valpak corporate.

Jensen, a first-time franchisee, has assumed The Blue Envelope distribution and began mailing out to residents and businesses in Kent, Ottawa, and Allegan Counties in October.

Cincinnati – Kroger has promoted Mark Tuffin to senior VP of retail divisions. He succeeds Michael Ellis, who will become Kroger's president and COO on Jan. 1, 2014.

Arlington, Va. -- Ajani Stewart has joined the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) as part of the sustainability team within the RILA legal department. Stewart is leading the development of RILA’s Center for Retail Compliance (CRC). RILA recently received funding to develop the CRC, a web-based resource for retailers and stakeholders in the industry to access solutions and information for maintaining and achieving environmental compliance. Stewart is responsible for the development of the center.

Chicago – Wintry weather across the Midwest and Northeast took its toll on store traffic, as a report by ShopperTrak showed that in-store sales for the week of Dec. 9 to Dec. 15 were down 0.8% from the same week last year. New data from ShopperTrak also shows that in-store shopper traffic also fell last week by 19.9% compared to the same time period in 2012.

By Len Shneyder, Senior Marketing Manager, OtherLevels

The numbers are out and they don’t lie: Almost 40% of all online traffic during Black Friday was driven by mobile devices. That figure is up 34% from the previous year, according to IBM’s Holiday Benchmark. But what’s more impressive than that is that nearly one-fifth of all online sales during the holiday shopping bonanza came from mobile devices.

New York -- The majority of American shoppers think that holiday discounts advertised by retailers are faked, according to a survey conducted by British marketing consultant David Rawlings.

Rawlings’ Google survey, "Before-Christmas sales — Do you believe the discounts are genuine?," queried 1,500 American Internet users, and found that more than 70% of those polled answered "no" to that question.

Austin, Texas -- Merchandise optimization solution-provider Revionics said that it has entered into a multi-year agreement with DIXY Group, one of Russia’s largest national retail operators in the food retail market, to provide Revionics price optimization solution to the company’s DIXY Neighborhood Stores, which includes 1,580 retail stores.

The majority of American shoppers think that holiday discounts advertised by retailers are faked, according to a survey conducted by British marketing consultant David Rawlings.

Rawlings’ Google survey, "Before-Christmas sales — Do you believe the discounts are genuine?" queried 1,500 American Internet users, and found that more than 70% of those polled answered "no" to that question.

3M wowed investors on Tuesday by sharing aggressive organic growth plans, doubling a share repurchase program, raising the prospect of billion dollar acquisitions and increasing its dividend by 35%.

The $30 billion company offered the details during a meeting with investors to update a five-year growth plan that extends through 2017. The plan envisions 9% to 11% growth in earnings per share, 4% to 6% organic revenue growth and approximately a 20% return on invested capital.