Data & Analytics

Tampa, Fla. – Marketing enterprise management systems provider Aptaris has named Bill Morrell as VP technology. Morrell previously held IT executive positions at companies including BabyAge.com and Destination Maternity, as well as consulting roles with clients including Cadbury Adams, Nascar and DME.

Washington, D.C. - Consumers will take a conservative approach to spending this holiday season. According to NRF’s holiday consumer spending survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, the average holiday shopper will spend $737.95 on gifts, décor, greeting cards and more, 2% less than the $752.24 they actually spent last year.  Despite this reduction in individual holiday budgets, NRF is forecasting holiday sales will increase 3.9% to $602.1 billion.

New York -- J.Crew ranked No. 1 overall in customer service in September for the third consecutive month, in a monthly survey by StellaService, the independent ratings provider that ranks online retailers according to their customer service. StellaService measures companies monthly across four service areas: phone, email, shipping and returns.

Here is a look at the top finishers in the four individual categories:

Payments industry executive, Lisa Shipley, is joining Transaction Network Services (TNS) as head of global strategy for the company’s payments division.

In the newly created role, Shipley will be responsible for setting the strategic direction for the division. Shipley, who will be based at the company’s headquarters in Reston, Va., will also work closely with TNS’ product, sales, development and operations teams across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific regions to ensure the consistent execution of the strategy worldwide.

Plano, Texas – Law firm Wites & Kaplan, P.A. says class-action lawsuits have been filed that allege that JC Penny Company, Inc. and certain of its officers and directors committed violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Chicago – More retailers are hiring extra holiday staff this year. According to a new annual holiday hiring survey from CareerBuilder and Harris Interactive, 39% of retail hiring managers reported that they plan to hire seasonal workers this year, up from 36% last year and 29% in 2011.

Palo Alto, Calif. – HP Autonomy is releasing the HP Digital Marketing Hub, a new solution that enables marketers to deliver personalized experiences based on real-time analysis of diverse and massive volumes of information across multiple customer touchpoints. HP Digital Marketing Hub combines technologies from HP Autonomy, HP Vertica and HP Labs and leverages the HP Converged Cloud to provide advanced marketing analytics.

Global ecommerce and payments leader eBay said its third quarter revenues increased 14% to $3.9 billion and noted exceptional strength from mobile initiatives.

Profits declined to $689 million, or 53 cents a share, compared to $837 million, or 64 cents a share, but on an adjusted basis to exclude non-recurring expenses increased to $837 million, or 64 cents a share, compared to $718 million, or 55 cents a share.