Data & Analytics

Reston, Va. -- A report released Friday by comScore showed that holiday online spending grew 14% year-over-year to $42.3 billion, as individual shopping days reached record spending levels.

Total results, however, fell slightly short of early-season predictions, as softer-than-expected buying occurred during the early to mid weeks of the period.

San Jose, Calif. -- A Friday report by RetailNext said that its analysis of 8.5 million shopping trips to big-box and specialty retailers in the U.S. during the 2011 and 2012 holiday seasons revealed that:

Hyphen Solutions has appointed Ken Pinto, a former supply chain executive for Toll Bros. and other national home builders, as its VP supply chain.

Pinto brings 21 years of supply chain management expertise to Hyphen's real estate and software management team. He most recently served as the director of supply chain at Toll Bros. and has held similar positions at Standard Pacific and Pulte Homes. Pinto also heads the Supply Chain Benchmark Group, which is a coalition of the purchasing leaders of some of the largest home builders in the United States.

Top food executives at Walmart are presumably in the crosshairs of Safeway recruiters now that longtime chairman and CEO Steve Burd has announced his retirement.

Indianapolis -- Finish Line Inc. reported Friday a loss of $107,000 for the quarter ended Dec. 1, compared with a profit of $5.55 million in the year-ago period. The unexpected swing, said the company, was due in part to a lukewarm response to Finish Line’s new online store.
 
Sales in the quarter climbed 5.2% to $296.6 million, missing Wall Street’s expected $296 million in revenue, and same-store sales rose 3.6%.

Houston -- Houston-based X Team International partner Baker Katz said that it has completed the sale of the former Syms clothing store in Houston’s Westchase District.

The 40,777-sq.-ft. building was sold to Tennis Express for an undisclosed amount. Tennis Express will relocate an existing store and consolidate off-site storage into the new location.
 

Oak Brook, Ill.-based Ace Hardware launched Instant Savings, a program for Ace Rewards members that allows them to receive instant discounts at the register.

“We have made it even easier for our customers to shop with Ace by delivering more value and convenience for them,” said John Surane, senior VP, merchandising, marketing, advertising and paint. “We constantly look for ways to add value for our customers, and Instant Savings is a major new exclusive benefit to our Ace Rewards loyalty program that does just that.”

BELLEVUE, Wash. — Coinstar, a leading provider of automated retail solutions, has appointed its current CFO J. Scott Di Valerio as new CEO, effective April 1. At that time, Di Valerio will also be appointed to the Coinstar board of directors.

Di Valerio succeeds Paul Davis, who is retiring on March 31, and will remain a member of the board until then.

Di Valerio has been CFO at Coinstar since 2010, and has overseen Coinstar's corporate information technology and supply chain functions.