Data & Analytics

Family Dollar cuts loss with chainwide rollout of RF-based EAS technology

Shrink is an unavoidable fact of life for retailers. But by leveraging electronic article surveillance (EAS) technology that places security tags on items, retailers can minimize the frequency and financial impact of shrink.

Steady as she goes. That old nautical phrase, urging a firm hand on the wheel and an unwavering eye on the compass, seems apt for today’s retailers. While economic waters remain troubled, an improved economic forecast promises retailers a smoother route to profitability in 2014. 

To describe the HSN of today as a TV shopping channel is both woefully dated and reductive. The company, a division of HSNi, has evolved into a multichannel leader, where digital commerce accounts for a whopping 50% of its $2.2 billion in annual sales.

HSN’s 24/7 shopping format, which bowed in 1981, now seems positively prescient amid the rise of e-commerce.

The 80 million strong Gen Y is a retail force to be reckoned with

A generational shift is afoot that’s about to upend the retail landscape.

By Scott Thibodeau, [email protected]

Cambridge, Mass. -- Akamai Technologies and Prolexic Technologies have signed a definitive agreement for Akamai to acquire Prolexic, a provider of cloud-based security solutions for protecting data centers and enterprise IP applications from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

By Ike Boruchow, analyst, Sterne Agee, New York

This year, Black Friday gave us a taste of what to expect for the remainder of the holiday selling season: intense competition, deep discounts, and choppy mall traffic. Earlier store openings drove heavy traffic, which dissipated and then bounced through the day.

New York -- Overall online sales from Thanksgiving through Sunday were up 14.5% in 2013 over the same period last year, according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark. Mobile traffic accounted for 40.9% of all online traffic, up more than 35% percent compared to the same period last year. Mobile sales remained strong, reaching 23.2% of all online sales, up 43.7% year-over-year.

In other findings:

Chicago -- Shoppers visited more stores and spent more money across the days of Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday (Nov. 28 and 29) than they did last year, according to ShopperTrak.

When compared to Thanksgiving and Black Friday last year, brick-and-mortar shopper traffic increased 2.8%, to more than 1.07 billion store visits. Retail sales also increased by 2.3%, as shoppers spent an estimated total of $12.3 billion across the two days.