Data & Analytics

Smarter decision-making is a goal all retailers have, and now Target should be in an even better position to execute on that objective following a major agreement with industry leading data warehousing and analytics provider Teradata.

Was it a good holiday season or a bad one? Depends who you ask and how results are interpreted as evidenced by conflicting perspectives on U.S. Commerce Department statistics released Thursday morning.

It was widely reported that December sales were a disappointment by media outlets, which cited Commerce Department statistics released Thursday morning showing a rise of 0.1% versus the 0.3% that was widely reported as the expectation of economists.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for December, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $400.6 billion.

The December figure is up 0.1% from November, and up 6.5% from December 2010.

Total sales for the October through December 2011 period were up 7.0% from the same period a year ago.

By Stephen Wyss, BDO USA, LLP

New York City -- The National Retail Federation’s 101st Annual Convention and EXPO kicks off Jan. 15 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City. The four-day event will feature topics ranging from digital and mobile retailing to the evolution of the retail store to economic trends and trends in consumer spending. Former President Bill Clinton is the featured keynote speaker on Jan. 17.

New York City -- Consumer confidence rose more than forecast in January, reaching its highest level in eight months amid signs of an improving labor market.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment increased to 74 from 69.9 at the end of December. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey called for 71.5. The measure has increased 9.9 points in the last two months, the biggest such gain since April-May 2009.

New York City -- Retalix Ltd. announced that Target Corp. has selected the Retalix 10 Store Suite as its next-generation store platform for Target's new retail operations in Canada. Retalix 10 is designed as an integrated platform that unifies and streamlines deployment and management of in-store systems to ensure a consistent and personalized shopping experience.

I have to admit it: I was shocked when I heard the news this week that Glen Senk, the widely-admired CEO of Urban Outfitters, was resigning.  Sure, the company wasn’t coming off the best of years, having battled lackluster sales throughout much of 2011. A series of fashion misses — nothing new in the always dicey world of women’s apparel — had taken their toll on profit as the retailer sought to clear slow-moving merchandise with deep discounts.

New York City -- Ron Eigenbrod, founder & CEO of Lightstat Inc., Pleasant Valley, Conn., died suddenly at his New Hartford home on Christmas Eve of a heart attack. He was 59.

Riverside, Calif. -- A McDonald's restaurant in Riverside, Calif., has been LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification. It is the chain’s first location west of the Mississippi, and only the fourth in the United States, to receive the prestigious designation. Other LEED-certified McDonald's restaurants are located in Cary, N.C., Savannah, Ga. and Chicago.