Data & Analytics

San Francisco – Several key retail customer metrics during October 2013 indicate holiday spending will rise this year compared to last year, even as holiday store traffic levels decline. According to data on nearly 20 million domestic shopping sessions during October analyzed by in-store retail analytics technology provider Euclid, window conversion in October, defined as the number of shoppers that enter a store as a percentage of the total foot traffic, rose to 8.3% from 6.5% last year, but decreased from 8.7% in September 2013.

Burlington, Ontario -- Ikea Canada announced it has purchased a 46 megawatt wind farm in Pincher Creek, Alberta. The 20-turbine wind farm will be the largest owned by a Canadian retailer and is expected to generate 161 gigawatt hours (GWh) each year, which is more than double the total energy consumption of Ikea Canada. The project is currently being constructed by global wind and solar company Mainstream Renewable Power and is expected to be fully operational in fall 2014.

Cabela's has launched an improved mobile website for customers using handheld devices or smartphones, just in time for the holiday season.

According to the specialty retailer, the site gives customers a seamless mobile shopping experience and offers the same information and services as the desktop version.

Isis, a mobile commerce joint venture created by AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless, has unveiled its upgraded Isis Mobile Wallet, which allows customers to pay at contactless payment terminals directly from their smartphones.

New York -- Isis, the mobile commerce joint venture created by AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA, Inc. and Verizon Wireless, today released the latest version of the Isis Mobile Wallet. The m-commerce app is now available to consumers for download in the Google Play app store and at thousands of AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless retail stores nationwide.

Toronto -- To help increase profitability, Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) launched a promotion optimization initiative in Canada to improve the ROI of its flyers, or newspaper ads. HBC worked with Saferock to develop the solution, which uses sophisticated analytics to analyze millions of records each week.

By Stephen Springham, senior retail analyst at Planet Retail

Three quarters of results and a hat-trick of disappointments — Walmart U.S. again failed to achieve its guidance of flat comps in Q3, reporting a decline of 0.3%. This was not entirely unexpected as an already fragile consumer environment has not been helped by the government shutdown.

Swansea, Ill. -- CrowdSource, a leading provider of managed crowdsourcing solutions, announced it has entered a definitive agreement to acquire San Francisco-based Servio, a competitor in the enterprise crowdsourcing industry. The acquisition will strengthen CrowdSource’s client portfolio, expand its workforce and augment its current service offerings.