Data & Analytics

Fort Worth, Texas – RadioShack opens its latest custom concept store, located in Boston, April 10. Situated in the Downtown Crossing neighborhood, the newly remodeled store features a custom contemporary nautical design, paying homage to the city's maritime heritage with sailing rope accents, weathered wood and a ship's bow centerpiece.

St. Louis - Panera Bread has unveiled a series of integrated technologies to enhance the customer experience at its restaurants. The new “Panera 2.0” initiative brings together new capabilities for digital ordering, payment, operations and consumption for patrons who choose to eat in as well as for those who order to go. In test for several years, the solution is now live in 14 of the chain’s locations and is slated to be deployed in nearly all locations over the next 36 months.

Colorado Springs, Colo. – Acellos is integrating its Prophesy Dispatch TMS (transportation management system) productnwith MacroPoint, a service that provides location tracking for brokered loads. The integrated solution provides transportation brokers with a way to automatically track loads including arrival, departure from stops and GPS position updates.   

The newest jewel in Amazon’s content crown is leading digital comics provider comiXology.

Amazon reached an agreement to acquire comiXology for an undisclosed sum. The company was founded in 2007 offers an extensive library of digital comic book content from more than 75 top publishers as well as top independent creators. According to Amazon, comiXology revolutionized the digital comics reading experience with its immersive Guided View technology.

Armonk, N.Y. -- IBM Corp. announced it will acquire digital marketing technology provider Silverpop. The Atlanta-based Silverpop allows marketers to target highly personalized offers and promotions. IBM said the technology will enhance its enterprise marketing capabilities.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Patrick Byrne has relinquished his role as chairman of Overstock.com and Stormy Simon was named president of the online discount retailer.

Matthews, N.C. – Family Dollar Stores Inc. plans to close about 370 underperforming stores , cut jobs and lower prices on 1,000 basic items on the heels of a disappointing second quarter. The retailer is also slowing its new store growth beginning in fiscal 2015 to bolster its return on investment. It now anticipates opening 350 to 400 new stores as opposed to approximately 525 stores in 2014.
 

Pier 1 Imports president and CEO Alex W. Smith described fiscal 2014 as a transformational year for the company, emphasizing the company’s continued focus on its ‘1 Pier 1’ strategy, which has evolved its operating model from a broad portfolio of stores to a true omnichannel retail business.

But the company had a difficult fourth quarter marked what it described as an unusually high number of snowstorms, which impacted approximately two-thirds of its selling days in many of its key markets.