Data & Analytics

PriceGrabber, a leading distributed e-commerce platform and shopping site, conducted its Winter Holiday Shopping Survey and found that 69% of consumers plan to shop at the same retailers at which they shopped last year.

Closeout retailer Tuesday Morning reported a comparable-store increase of 9.1% for the first quarter ended Sept. 30, compared to the year-ago quarter. The comparable-store sales growth was fueled by a 13.4% increase in customer transactions and a 4.3% decrease in average ticket.

The company reported a net sales increase of 6.3% to $183.7 million, compared to $172.8 million in the year-ago quarter.

New York -- Consumer confidence fell sharply in October, according to The Conference Board, whose monthly consumer confidence measure dropped to 71.2 in October, down from 80.2 in September. Economists had expected a reading of 75.0 in October.

The Present Situation Index decreased to 70.7 from 73.5.The Expectations Index fell to 71.5 from 84.7 last month.

Waldorf, Germany – Retailers see a need for functional competencies leaning toward technology and data skills, even more than general business and people management. But a new survey of 76 retail managers from top retailers conducted by SAP during the recent SAP Retail Forum North America in Dallas, Texas revealed that 84% of retailers are worried that it will be challenging to find employees with these skills.

Plano, Texas – Pizza Hut is introducing all-new mobile ordering apps and a refreshed mobile website. The new mobile enhancements will enable users to order in less than 30 seconds, will be GPS-enabled to assist in finding the nearest restaurant and will immediately update as new products and deals are introduced.

Carle Place, N.Y. – 1-800-Flowers.com reported a net loss of about $4.5 million during the first quarter of fiscal 2014, essentially unchanged from the prior year. Revenues grew 2.9% to $123 million, from $119.6 million.

Yorba Linda, Calif. -- Jon Rosen, executive VP of indoor location analytics technology provider iInside, will provide an in-depth review of how retail traffic analytics work, how retailers benefit from precise shopper traffic insights, how traffic data is operationalized to drive revenue, and how to choose between the many indoor petitioning methods available during a live webinar on Wednesday, Oct. 30, at 9:30 a.m. PDT.

Chicago -- Four of the 10 busiest holiday shopping days will occur between Dec. 20 and Dec. 24, and retailers should prepare accordingly, according to ShopperTrak, a leading provider of shopper analytics. Additionally, with a shortened shopping season and only four weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas – down from five last year – retailers must be ready to capture holiday spending during a narrower window of time.

ArbiterSports, a leading game management solutions provider, has named Jeremy Brown as the company’s chief technology officer.

According to the company, they brought in Brown because he is a software architect, user-interface designer and quality assurance expert. To address the company’s accelerated growth, a decision was made to divide the responsibilities of CTO and chief infrastructure officer between two individuals. Both roles were previously handled by Troy Black, who will retain the job of chief infrastructure officer.

OurPet's Company, a leading proprietary pet supply company, saw sales in its grocery, mass retail and pet specialty channels grow substantially in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, compared to the same period last year.

The company’s sales were also complemented by higher international sales, which were up more than 42% from the same quarter a year ago.