Data & Analytics

By John Rossman, a managing director with Alvarez & Marsal

Pittsburgh – American Eagle Outfitters is lowering its earnings outlook for the second quarter of fiscal 2013 due to what the retailer characterizes as weak sales and margins. The company now forecasts earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter of about $0.10, down significantly from $0.21 in the second quarter of last year.

Los Angeles – Fandango and Rue La La have both begun offering customers the option of using the V.me digital wallet service from Visa to pay at online checkout. V.me eliminates the need to enter billing, shipping and account information, and instead allows consumers to pay for a purchase by entering their user name and password.

Other e-commerce merchants that have recently started accepting V.me payments include Crutchfield, Modnique, and Sonic Electronix.

Mississauga, Ontario – Rexall is launching MyRexall, a new service providing its customers with the ability to view and print their personal medication records online. In addition to viewing their medication record, MyRexall will allow customers the ability to request a refill at their local Rexall, print their medication record for review with a physician or other health care professional and easily transfer prescriptions to their local Rexall pharmacy.

Seattle – Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is purchasing The Washington Post from media holdings firm The Washington Post. Co. for $250 million in cash. He is making the purchase privately and Amazon.com is not involved in the transaction. Bezos will reportedly take the currently public Washington Post private.

Naperville, Ill. – OfficeMax had a generally difficult second quarter of 2013, with declining total and same-store sales and a net loss. The retailer is also predicting more disappointing results for the upcoming two fiscal quarters.

Waban, Mass. – Amazon.com was the top-ranked company across 19 industries in the 2013 Web Experience Ratings from Temkin Group. Amazon.com had a score of 77%, almost 21 percentage points higher than the retail industry average.

Other retailers in the top 10 included eBay, tied for fifth place at 70%, and QVC, tied for eighth place at 69%. Taco Bell and Kmart earned ratings that were at least 15 points below the retail industry average. Old Navy was the only retailer to have a double-digit score increase from last year.

NAPERVILLE, Ill. — OfficeMax has reported weak second-quarter retail sales as the merger with Office Depot, which reported weak second-quarter sales last week, moves forward.

NEW YORK — Delia’s, a multichannel retailer that primarily markets to teenage girls, has hired Daphne Smith as the company’s EVP of operations, reporting to CEO Tracy Gardner.

Smith was previously with J.Crew for 16 years, working in various roles including SVP of direct. She has spent the past 18 months at New York & Company as the company’s SVP of e-commerce.

Sears Holdings has selected HighJump Software, a global provider of supply chain management software, to help the company manage its distribution network. 

The retailer will implement the HighJump Supply Chain Advantage warehouse management system as well as HighJump solutions for yard and labor management across its North American distribution network, which includes 41 distribution centers that cover more than 40 million sq. ft., 106 market delivery operation sites for cross docking appliances and integrated retail fulfillment from select stores for online purchases.