Data & Analytics

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in June 2012 vs. June 2013 and noticed some common overall trends across top retail chains. Although Staples and Walmart each saw large year-over-year increases in circular page count, page count was fairly stable overall, with none of these key retailers seeing a decrease of more than 13%.

Burlington, Mass. -- KeyPoint Partners has released The KeyPoint Report for Eastern Massachusetts/Greater Boston 2013. The report examines supply, occupancy, absorption and retailer expansion and contraction for virtually every retail property in the region. The 2013 report also includes a ten-year historical perspective that discusses the regional retail economy before, during and since the recession.

Molson Coors Brewing Company has appointed former human resources director of Vodafone Vicky Cookson as the company’s chief people officer for Molson Coors Europe, based in Prague, Czech Republic, effective Sept. 1.

Cookson will report directly to global chief legal and people officer Sam Walker and join the European leadership team led by Mark Hunter. Cookson is human resources executive with international and cross-cultural experience. 

Camp Hill, Pa. – Rite Aid reported a slight boost in monthly same-store sales but a decreased in year-to-date same-store sales. For the four weeks ended June 29, 2013, same-store sales increased 0.7% from the prior-year period. June front-end same store sales increased 0.4%, while pharmacy same store sales increased 0.9% despite the negative impact of generics.  

NAPERVILLE, Ill. — OfficeMax is taking its new Business Solutions Center store concept to Chicago’s business-rich Streeterville neighborhood later this summer. The retailer opened its first center in Milwaukee back in April to test the pilot concept. 

The currently unoccupied street-level location at 550 St. Clair St. will give the retailer 3,900-sq.-ft. of retail space where it will be able to showcase business services, solutions and products to help local entrepreneurs grow their businesses. 

Deerfield, Ill. -- Walgreens on Wednesday reported June sales of $5.79 billion, an increase of 2.5% from the year-ago period.

Total front-end sales increased 2.2% compared with the same month last year, while comparable store front-end sales increased 0.8%. Customer traffic in comparable stores decreased 2.9%, while basket size increased 3.7%.

Every week, retailers unleash significant advertising and promotion efforts in the perpetual competition to engage shoppers, drive trips and grow sales. Annual retail sales and market share are the result of the competition that played out in the preceding 52 individual weeks, and many companies highly value “winning the week.” But some weeks can be much more competitive than others, creating challenges for retailers also facing strong pressures to be efficient and limit costs.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — Shop.org, the digital arm of the National Retail Federation, has re-elected Scot Wingo, co-founder and CEO of ChannelAdvisor, a leading provider of cloud-based e-commerce solutions for retailers and manufacturers, to its board of directors.

Wingo was re-elected to the 20-member board for another two-year term by existing Shop.org members along with executives from Belk, HSN, Razorfish, Tory Burch and Urban Outfitters.