Data & Analytics

Amazon announced a record-setting holiday season for its annual membership program Amazon Prime. More than 1 million customers around the world became new Prime members in the third week of December.

On Amazon’s peak shipping day, more Prime items were shipped worldwide than ever before. The entire 2013 holiday season was the best ever for Amazon, with more than 36.8 million items ordered worldwide on Cyber Monday, which is a record-breaking 426 items per second, and millions of customers unwrapped Kindle e-readers and Kindle Fire tablets this holiday season.

Holiday sales are up 2.3% so far this season with the bulk of gift card redemptions yet to contribute to the results, according to new data from MasterCard SpendingPulse.

For companies across all industries, 2013 brought a number of challenges that significantly impacted supply chains and presented even greater uncertainty around the state of the transportation industry. Shippers were forced to adapt to a slowly recovering economy and increased regulatory mandates, compounded by the continued pressure to cut costs and maintain — if not improve — service performance levels, all while effectively planning for the future.

Online holiday sales from desktop computers increased a less-than-expected 10% after a late season surge failed to materialize, according to comScore.

The digital measurement firm in late November predicted online sales from desktop computers would increase 14% during the November and December time frame and reach slightly more than $48.1 billion. However, as of December 26, data from the firm showed sales were up 10% to $42.8 billion for the comparable period.

Streamz, a Mozaex spin-off company, has released what it’s calling the “world’s first smart streaming headphones.”

The headphones have a built-in Android processor, WIFI, Bluetooth and storage, which allow you to play music and audio from multiple sources, including onboard stored music, streaming online radio, streamed phone music, plus audio from your TV, movie and game player.

Travel company Thomson’s has debuted its next-generation travel-store concept, at Bluewater shopping center in Kent. Designed by 20.20, the format integrates the latest technology combined with great service to enhance the experience of choosing and booking a vacation.

Chicago -- Rough weather last week prevented many last-minute shoppers from getting to the stores to finish up their holiday purchasing. ShopperTrak reported that for the week of Dec. 16 to Dec. 22, GAFO in-store retail sales decreased by 3.1% from the same week last year. Retail brick-and-mortar shopper traffic decreased by 21.2% compared to the same time period in 2012.

Las Vegas – FacialNetwork.com is releasing a beta app called NameTag for Google Glass. The app can spot a face using Google Glass' camera, send it wirelessly to a server, compare it to millions of records and in seconds return a match complete with a name, additional photos and social media profiles.

Minneapolis – Media reports indicate that Target may have been victimized by hackers based overseas and also has agreed to a credit monitoring deal for New York shoppers and is suffering declining traffic. According to Reuters, sources involved in the current investigation of the Target security breach said investigators are focusing on unidentified hackers from an unidentified foreign location.

Washington, D.C. – U.S. household purchases rose 0.5% in November 2013. According to new figures from the U.S. Department of Commerce, this followed a 0.4% increase in October that was larger than previously reported and is the largest increase since July 2013.