Data & Analytics

Increasing strength in Pier 1 Imports’ e-commerce business translated into better-than-expected sales that fueled the company’s overall financial results for the first quarter.

Total sales for the quarter were $419.1 million, a 6.1% increase versus $394.9 million in the year-ago quarter. Comparable sales increased 6.3% during the quarter, driven by increases in total brand traffic, conversion and higher average ticket. E-commerce sales exceeded the company’s estimates, reaching 9% of sales for the quarter.

Cincinnati – Kroger Co. reported a 4% increase in its first-quarter profit, helped by the addition of Harris-Teeter, which the grocery giant acquired in January 2014. Kroger raised its net earnings and same-store sales forecast for the fiscal year.
   
The company earned $501 million in the quarter, up from $481 million in the year-ago period. The payment of $56 million to withdraw from two pension funds negatively impacted Kroger’s net earnings.

Seattle -- T-Mobile US Inc. is introducing "T-Mobile Test Drive," a program that lets people receive an iPhone 5s and unlimited nationwide service to take T-Mobile's network for a seven-day free trial. Starting June 23, people can sign up for T-Mobile Test Drive online.

Commerce, Calif. — 99¢ Only Stores has signed a lease for the entire 615,000-sq.-ft. Garfield Corporate Center in Commerce, California, in Los Angeles County. It is the largest industrial infill lease ever signed in Los Angeles County. In addition, the building ranks as the largest freestanding building to be constructed in Greater Los Angeles in the past 10 years.

JLL represented the landlord, KTR Capital Partners, the property’s developer and landlord, in the transaction.

Irvine, Calif. - Baja Fresh is piloting a solution from Sparkfly that will allow it to launch promotions through Google Search, Facebook, Yelp, Opera Mediaworks and UberMedia, and assess the effectiveness of each individual channel with real-time redemption data. Leveraging the technology from the Sparkfly platform, the campaign includes information on basket size and individual items purchased.

Amazon has thrown its hat into the smartphone ring. At an event in its hometown of Seattle, the online retailer unveiled Fire, the first smartphone it has ever designed.

In a marketplace that’s already crowded with the latest iPhones, Andriods and Blackberrys, Amazon has invested in two new technologies — Dynamic Perspective and Firefly — that make Fire a compelling product that won’t get lost in the mix.  

Armonk, N.Y. – Overall U.S. online retail sales for the week leading up to Father’s Day (June 9-15) were up more than 14% from the same period in 2013. According to the cloud-based IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, Father's Day average order value was $119.37.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) had forecast that Father's Day spending would shrink this year, reaching just $12.5 billion. But it looks like the smallest of gift-giving holidays fared better than expected.

According to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, a real-time, cloud-based digital analytics platform, overall U.S. retail online sales for the week leading up to Father's Day — June 9-15 — climbed more than 14% compared to the same period last year.