Data & Analytics

Target chairman, president and CEO Gregg Steinhafel drew a proverbial line in the sand last month when he noted the company’s same-stores sales performance in December would be better than the company’s modest showing in November.

Actually, what he said was, “For the month of December, our comparable-store sales results will compare the five weeks ending Dec. 31, 2011 to the five weeks ended Jan. 1, 2011. We expect a low to mid single-digit increase in Target’s comparable-store sales for this period, stronger than our November performance.”

Customer experience analytics firm ForeSee today released the results of their seventh annual Holiday E-Retail Satisfaction Index, and Target was ranked 29.

There were no new surprises during November regarding prices at Target and Walmart.

The difficulties Target experienced with the relaunch of its website early last fall and subsequent fall off in traffic couldn’t have come at a worse time, as total retail online sales hit new highs during the holiday season.

Online sales increased 15% to $35.3 billion From Nov. 1 through Dec. 25 compared with the same time period the prior year, according to the online measurement firm comScore.

GOODLETTSVILLE, Tenn. — Dollar General was among the discount stores that benefited from a more cautious consumer spending in 2011, and the retailer expects that momentum to continue in 2012. The company announced that it plans to open 625 new stores and add more than 6,000 new jobs in 2012. These new stores and jobs will be spread among Dollar General’s 38-state operating area, plus California and Massachusetts.

The analysts at Morningstar combed through 330 consumer sector companies and came up with a list of 10 names that comprise the firm’s new “Consumers’ Choice List. 

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.

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.