Data & Analytics

New York -- Shopper sentiment tracker NetBase said that, since Black Friday, it has been tracking the changes in shopper moods for 10 retailers with its Holiday Shopping Mood Meter.

The company found that Kohl’s was No. 1 more often than Amazon, Walmart was the only brand with a net negative sentiment, and Old Navy broke the Top 5 only once.

By Marcus Ranum, [email protected]

Security practitioners have plenty of opportunity to be extra-glum during holiday season: it’s the time of year when a breach can have maximum impact – avoiding downtime and disruption is critical and your systems are going to be processing more credit cards than any other time of the year.

New York -- Facebook has added a new service, called Gifts, which allows Facebook users in the United States to buy gifts for their friends on the social media platform. The new feature, rolled out just in time for the holiday shopping season, has the potential to give Facebook an ongoing supply of valuable personal information.

Minneapolis -- Christopher & Banks said its net income totaled $3.6 million for the quarter ended Oct.27, compared with a loss $13.7 million in the year-age period.

Revenue rose 2%, to $117.3 million from $114.6 million. The chain has closed more than 100 stores during the last year, but strong sales at its existing locations boosted revenue. Same-store sales rose 13.7%.

Christopher & Banks noted that effective Nov.26, LuAnn Via joined the company as president and CEO.

Fort Worth, Texas -- Pier I said its total sales increased 10.9% to $425 for the third quarter, ended Nov.15, with comparable-store sales rising 7.9% from the year-ago period.

Nashville, Tenn. -- Genesco Inc. said Friday its third-quarter profit increased to $41 million, from $26.2 million in the year-ago period, better than Wall Street expected. The company also raised its fiscal 2013 outlook, even as it warned that November was off to a slow start.

By Jennifer Friedberg, [email protected]

This is the year that retailers stop being afraid of mobile technologies, and instead, are embracing them as a way to engage with, and to better serve, their customers.

A worse than expected 1% decline in November same store sales indicates the holiday season is off to a slow start at Target.

The 1% decline was substantially worse than the low single digit increase the company forecast at the start of the month when it reported a 2.4% increase for October that was toward the low end of guidance. The November weakness suggest traffic trends may be deteriorating at Target as the company said blamed the decline on a decrease in comparable store transactions following that metric’s flat performance in October.

The Sustainability Consortium jointly administered by the University of Arkansas and the University of Arizona, with support from Walmart and many of its suppliers, is ranked among 10 ideas changing the way people live by Scientific American.

Digital audience measurement firm comScore has launched a new service called Media Metrix Multi-Platform to help advertisers makes sense of how shoppers are interacting with their brands in an increasingly multi-channel world.