Data & Analytics

Waban, Mass. -- Survey results released Wednesday by Temkin Group revealed that Publix and Trader Joe’s ranked the highest among 246 companies in terms of customer experience.

The 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings, which polled 10,000 U.S. consumers, were dominated by grocery chains and food purveyors. After Public and Trader Joe’s was Aldi, and rounding out the top 12 were Chick-fil-A, Amazon.com, Sam's Club, H.E.B., Dunkin' Donuts, Save-a-Lot, Sonic Drive-In, Little Caeser's and Ace Hardware.

Fourth quarter same store sales at The Home Depot advanced 7% and profits swelled 29% to $1 billion, or 68 cents, compared to profits of $774 million or 50 cents a share the prior year.

Cincinnati -- Macy's earned a better-than-expected $730 million in the fourth quarter, compared with $745 million a year earlier when it booked one-time gains from the sale of store leases. The department store retailer forecast an annual profit for the recently completed year that surpassed analysts’ estimates and provided new guidance for continued growth and progress for 2013.

Atlanta -- The Home Depot Inc. said Tuesday its fiscal fourth-quarter net income jumped 32%, beating expectations, helped by strong U.S. sales and repairs and cleanup resulting from Superstorm Sandy. The chain also said it will buy back $17 billion of its common stock and boosted its quarterly dividend by 34%.

NEW YORK — L'Oréal Paris is relaunching LorealParisUSA.com, which will include a first-to-market content production and syndication partnership with AOL, the company said Tuesday.

The company described the site as the first major one to be designed for all devices, making it easy to navigate for users on desktop computers, tablets and mobile phones.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index's (ACSI) annual E-Commerce Report, produced in partnership with customer experience analytics firm ForeSee, customer satisfaction with e-commerce websites continues to rise, gaining 1.2% to 81.1 on the ACSI's 100-point scale. 

A 1.8% decline in second quarter same store sales at AutoZone was attributed to a two week tax return processing delay by the Internal Revenue Service.

The delay kept tax refunds out of the hand of AutoZone customers inclined to perform maintenance on their vehicles during the retailer’s second quarter ended February 9. Last week, Walmart also cited the tax processing delay as a source of sale weakness when it reported a 1% comp increase that was at the low end of its forecast range for a 1% to 3% increase.

Chicago -- The retail industry is poised for another year of heavy deal flow. Nearly all retail CFOs (94%) expect merger and acquisition will increase or remain steady in 2013, according to a new survey from BDO USA.

The bullish forecasts follow $324.6 billion in global retail and consumer M&A activity in 2012, which was up 33% over 2011 and the busiest year since 2007, according to Dealogic. A majority of CFOs (68%) expect the U.S. markets to see a majority of deal volume, followed by the Asia-Pacific market (20%) and Latin America market (7%).