Data & Analytics

Redwood Shores, Calif. -- As part of a larger initiative to upgrade the customer experience and localize offerings in its 640 stores nationwide. The Finish Line will roll out new Oracle Retail merchandising, planning, stores and CRM solutions. The athletic-goods retailer is leveraging Oracle’s cloud computing services in the process.

The Finish Line will use the integrated retail systems to tailor offerings to customer and regional preferences.  

By Jeff Weidauer, [email protected]

Talk to anyone who has been in the retail business for a while, and they will tell you that the world has changed, and continues to do so. Technology is changing daily how shoppers think about the trip, how retailers track sales and shopper behavior, and the way CPG manufacturers approach category management. Metrics abound, and the seemingly simple business of retail now depends on complex algorithms and data analysis to grow and profit.

Minneapolis -- Target Corp. said Tuesday it will sell its $5.9 billion credit card portfolio to TD Bank Group.

The business will be sold for an amount equal to the gross value of the outstanding receivables at the time of closing, said Target; the portfolio currently has a gross value of about $5.9 billion.

TD Bank also agreed to a seven-year deal to underwrite, fund and own the retailer’s future credit card and Visa receivables in the U.S.

Dallas -- A survey released Tuesday by Chase Paymentech, a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase & Co., found that online companies are expecting the 2012 holiday shopping season to be better than last year.

According to the Chase Paymentech eHoliday Shopping Monitor, 59% of e-commerce companies surveyed expect better sales volume this season than in 2011, while almost half (47%) expect it to be better than pre-recession levels in 2007.

Fort Worth, Texas -- RadioShack Corp. reported Tuesday a wider-than-expected loss of $47 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with a profit of $300,000 for the same period last year. Sales dropped from $1.03 billion to $1.0 billion and same-store sales dropped 1.6%.

WAYNE, N.J. — Toys"R"Us' first owned tablet is now available in stores and online. The company first announced the Tabeo, the first-ever consumer electroncs device, a month ago.

CLEVELAND — Greeting card maker American Greetings announced last week that its board has formed a committee of independent directors to consider an offer to privatize the company, reported the Associated Press.

According to AP, CEO Zev Weiss and his brother, president and COO Jeffrey Weiss, along with other investors and executives, submitted a proposal to the board on Sept. 25. The group wants to buy all of the company's common stock that it doesn't already own for $17.18 per share, valuing American Greetings at approximately $581 million.

BURLINGTON, Mass. — E-commerce solution-provider Demandware said Monday that Pacific Sunwear of California has launched Demandware’s multichannel commerce solution, powered by the Demandware Commerce platform, across its web, mobile and tablet channels as well as its brick-and-mortar stores.

Pacific Sunwear replaced its legacy platform with the new cloud-based platform.

ATLANTA — QuantiSense, a provider of retail analytics and decision orchestration solutions, has partnered with Teradata. As a result of this partnership and certified integration, retailers will benefit from the rapid and focused implementation of the QuantiSense Decision Orchestration PlatformTM which fits seamlessly into Teradata’s scalable, enterprise-wide retail solution.

New York -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is being hit by yet another lawsuit, as a proposed class action was filed Monday alleging that the world’s largest retailer and its staffing agencies broke federal minimum wage and overtime laws. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Illinois' Eastern Division claims that Wal-Mart and its staffing firms Labor Ready and QPS required temp workers in the Chicago area to arrive early for work, stay late, and work through lunches and breaks without pay.