Data & Analytics

At Westfield San Francisco Centre, shoppers have the opportunity to win a $1,000 shopping spree, while Westfield has the chance to gain valuable marketing access.

Westfield mall patrons are invited to text “spree” and their email address in order to be entered into a drawing for a $1,000 shopping spree. The text also opts them in to receive ongoing alerts and up to four messages per month from Westfield.

Opt-out is easy, requiring only a “stop” text to a designated number.

Boston -- Research results released Thursday by mobile and social merchandising solution-provider Zmags found that less than one-third of the top 100 Internet retailers are prepared for tablet shopping.

According to “Mobile & Tablet e-Commerce: Is anyone really ready?” commissioned by research firm Hawk Partners, too few retailers have optimized sites for tablet commerce. Most are simply relying on their standard websites to provide an “adequate enough” tablet shopping experience.

Washington, D.C. -- POS solution-provider POSitive Technology said Thursday that It'Sugar has selected them as their POS partner to implement the Microsoft Dymanics RMS and OpSuite solutions to meet the company’s growth needs.

Candy retailer It'Sugar plans to open as many as 10 new stores in 2012, in addition to continuous updating and refreshing of inventory to keep pace with sales and customer preferences, said the company.

WASHINGTON — Retailers in 2012 will invest heavily in IT, e-commerce, customer service and mobile platforms in order to build customer engagement, a new report from the National Retail Federation Foundation and KPMG found. The report, titled, Retail Horizons: Benchmarks for 2011, Forecasts for 2012," surveyed 247 retail executives from various sectors, outlines retailers’ top strategic initiatives for 2012 including merchandising, ecommerce, store and field operations, supply chain and human capital, among others.

Washington, D.C. -- The monthly Global Port Tracker report, released Wednesday by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates, said that import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to be down 6.8% in February from the same month a year ago. However, volumes should show year-over-year increases through most of the remaining first half of 2012.

Chicago -- A survey released Wednesday by WorkInRetail.com found that 45% of retail hiring managers are concerned that their top workers will leave the organization in 2012.

WorkInRetail.com, CareerBuilder’s job site for retail professionals, polled 247 retail hiring managers and 654 full-time retail employees in November and December 2011. The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive.

Washington, D.C. -- A report released Wednesday by the National Retail Federation and KPMG found that retailers in 2012 will invest heavily in IT, e-commerce, customer service and mobile platforms in order to build customer engagement.

The report, “Retail Horizons: Benchmarks for 2011, Forecasts for 2012," polled 247 retail executives from various sectors regarding their top strategic initiatives for 2012.

New Albany, Ohio -- Margin squeezes and flagging same-store sales hurt Abercrombie & Fitch Co.’s fourth quarter profit dropped nearly 80% drop, to $19.6 million from $92.6 million a year earlier, amid margin squeezes and flat same-store sales.

Target was ranked 27th on the 2012 Harris Poll Reputation Quotient study behind five notable retailers and in roughly the same position with the same score as the prior year, the market research firm announced on Monday.

Sales in the consumer electronics space would have been abysmal in 2011 were it not for tablet and e-readers, according to data from market researcher The NPD Group, which shows Target has an opportunity to gain share.

Target’s recent moves to deepen its relationship with Apple could be beneficial in that regard, as it was Apple that drove CE activity in 2011 and is likely to do so again in 2012. Currently, Target is not among the top five CE retailers, which NPD lists as Best Buy, Walmart, Apple and a tie between Staples and Amazon.