Data & Analytics

Hoffman Estates, Ill. -- Sears Holdings Corp. said Tuesday that it will close between 100 and 120 underperforming Sears and Kmart stores, following dismal holiday sales results for the brands.

The company said it has not yet identified which stores will be shuttered, but said that the closures are part of an overall plan to shift its focus from shoring up underperformers to concentrating its efforts on stronger stores.

New York City -- The IBM Benchmark Report, released Tuesday, showed continued strength for online retailers.

According to the report, which provided a snapshot of online retail data for December 25 and December 26 as of 12 pm PST, Christmas Day online sales grew by 16.4% year-over-year. And 18.3% of all online sessions on a retailer’s site were initiated from a mobile device, up from 8.4% on Christmas Day 2010 — an increase of 117.8%.

Other report highlights included:

In cultural commentary about the American economy, one company at a time always seems to be the goat. Everything it does is interpreted as evil, according to a recent column by Bloomberg’s Michael Kinsley.

There were no new surprises during November regarding prices at Walmart, but then that is to be expected. The everyday low price strategy to which Walmart has a newfound adherence is boring and that’s the way the company and presumably its customers like it.

Walmart and the Walmart Foundation give away so much money it is hard to keep track of it all and this was certainly evident during the holiday season.

On Thursday, the company announced another round of grants totaling $200,000 to 10 nonprofits groups as part of its “12 Days of Giving” Facebook campaign. Those grants mark the culmination of an innovating corporate giving campaign that integrated social media and resulted in a total of $1.5 million being awarded to 145 organizations in all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.

Increasing shopper traffic in stores was a challenge for Walmart throughout 2011, but it was a different story online. The retailer surged to number 18 on the November ranking of the top 50 U.S. Internet properties compiled by online measurement firm comScore.

Walmart.com registered 58.5 million unique visitors in November, a big lift sequentially from October when it had 45.2 million visitors and, more impressively, well above November 2010 when comScore showed Walmart.com with 51.8 million visitors.

Stein Mart released restated third-quarter results Friday that showed an upwardly revised loss that wasn’t quite as bad as originally feared.

Kate Berg has been name president of Collective Bias, the rapidly growing social shopper marketing firm based in Bentonville, Ark. Berg will focus on organizational development at the firm which has grown to more than 30 employees in the roughly two years since it was founded and split her time between Bentonville and New York where an expanding roster of clients include Meredith Corp. and the Duane Reade drug chain.

Jacksonville, Fla. -- Stein Mart Inc. reported Friday that its third-quarter loss widened after correcting for a computer problem that caused an error in prior results.

The retailer posted a revised loss of $3.1 million for the quarter, instead of the $1.8 million loss previously reported. That loss compares to a profit of $4.3 million in the year-ago quarter.
 

San Luis Obispo, Calif. -- An e-commerce solution for branded manufacturers on Friday released a new forecast on how retail shopping will be influenced by the Internet, in addition to mobile and social networking.