Data & Analytics

New York -- Cool weather affected sales at Lowe's for the first quarter ended May 3. 

Lowe’s saw net earnings of $540 million for the quarter, a 2.5% increase over the same period a year ago. Sales for the quarter decreased 0.5% to $13.1 billion from $13.2 billion in the year-ago quarter, while comparable-store sales decreased 0.7%. 

The world’s second largest home improvement retailer reported its results a day after rival Home Depot announced first-quarter sales of $19.1 billion, up 7.4%.

DALLAS — Bon-Ton is turning to PeopleAnswers to help the company improve retail sales and lower employee turnover. Under the terms of a five-year software licensing agreement, the company will leverage PeopleAnswers’ HR-focused business solution to achieve its goals.

DALLAS -- PeopleAnswers has announced a five-year software licensing agreement for The Bon-Ton Stores to use the PeopleAnswers HR-focused business solution to improve its in-store employee sales performance while lowering employee turnover.

MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. — Kohl’s has appointed Starbucks executive Michelle Gass to the newly created position of chief customer officer. She will report directly to Kohl’s chairman, president and CEO Kevin Mansell.

Gass, who joins Kohl’s on June 17, will have leadership responsibility for Kohl’s branding across all channels. She will oversee all marketing efforts, the company’s high growth e-commerce business on Kohls.com and the customer’s total omnichannel experience.

San Francisco – Target opened a new Technology Innovation Center in San Francisco, on May 20. The center, located in shared space with the digital marketing agency SapientNitro, employs about 20 people, including some shared SapientNitro employees. Target will use the center to develop mobile and e-commerce services, allowing it to better compete with online-savvy rivals such as Amazon.com.

Lewisville, Texas – Today’s shoppers are more price-conscious and in search of deals than ever before, according to a new study from digital rewards provider Parago.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — AutoZone reported net sales of $2.2 billion for the 12-week third quarter period ended May 4, an increase of 4.5% from $2.1 billion for the same period last year. Domestic same-store sales decreased 0.1% for the quarter.

Minneapolis – Target Corp. is testing a video streaming service with internal employees. Called Target Ticket beta, the service features 15,000 movies and TV shows for digital download.

The service, which is password-protected, presumably is designed to compete with Netflix and Hulu, among other digital video platforms.