Data & Analytics

Ace Hardware reported first-quarter revenues of $923.2 million, up 1.7% from the same quarter in 2012. Net income of $4.4 million was down from $10.2 million earned in 2012.

New York -- Almost all (97%) social video ad shares of alcohol brands during fourth quarter 2012 and first quarter 2013 were for four brands, Budweiser, Neft Vodka, Carlsberg and Heineken, according to a new report from Unruly Media.

Findings from “Untapped Potential: The State of Sharing in the Alcohol Sector” indicate Budweiser (59%) and Neft (24%) accounted for most of this social sharing activity.

Overall, wine brands have been the slowest to embrace social video ads, accounting for less than 1% of sharing activity.

Grapevine, Texas – While overall sales for GameStop fell significantly during first quarter 2013, the video game retailer can take some solace in a substantial boom in mobile sales. Total sales of $1.87 billion were about 7% below $2 billion in sales recorded during the first quarter of last year. However, mobile sales grew an impressive 290% to $46.8 million and digital receipts increased 47%. Net earnings of $54.6 million were 25% below net earnings of $72.5 million a year earlier.

Dallas -- Alliance Data Systems Corp., a provider of loyalty and marketing solutions derived from transaction-rich data announced its retail services business has signed a multi-year agreement to provide private label credit card services for multichannel computer and electronics retailer TigerDirect, a subsidiary of Systemax, Inc.   

New York -- A Thursday report by Bloomberg said that U.S. consumer confidence for the week ended May 19 advanced, indicating that Americans’ outlook on the economy is optimistic.

The weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index increased to minus 29.4 from minus 30.2 the prior week. A measure of personal finances was positive for a sixth consecutive week, the longest stretch in more than five years, according to Bloomberg.

Kearney, Neb. -- The Buckle reported Thursday that net income for the quarter ended May 4 fell slightly to $37.6 million, compared with $37.8 million in the year-ago period. Results were impacted by higher operating expenses.

Revenue increased 2.3% to $269.7 million from $263.8 million, and same-store sales edged up 1.2%.

NAPERVILLE, Ill. — OfficeMax Workplace, the U.S. business-to-business division of OfficeMax, has expanded its IT Lifecycle Management Services to help customers streamline their technology work environments. 

The company has added HP Networking solutions to its portfolio, which also includes technology offerings from Motorola and Cisco. The move provides organizations with more options to modernize their wireless and wired networks, increase productivity, unify digital communications and grow their networking capacity. 

Denver -- A study released Thursday by The Integer Group and M/A/R/C Research found that 16% of Hispanic shoppers are using their mobile devices to make purchases, compared to 12% of general market shoppers.

The Checkout ongoing shopper behavior study polls consumers nationally about their shopping attitudes, shopping behaviors and economic outlook.