Data & Analytics

ST. LOUIS — Six percent more men are doing the primary grocery shopping for their families versus five years ago, according to results of a new survey by Schnucks.

At Westfield San Francisco Centre, shoppers have the opportunity to win a $1,000 shopping spree, while Westfield has the chance to gain valuable marketing access.

Westfield mall patrons are invited to text “spree” and their email address in order to be entered into a drawing for a $1,000 shopping spree. The text also opts them in to receive ongoing alerts and up to four messages per month from Westfield.

Opt-out is easy, requiring only a “stop” text to a designated number.

WASHINGTON — The monthly Global Port Tracker report, released Wednesday by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates, said that import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to be down 6.8% in February from the same month a year ago. However, volumes should show year-over-year increases through most of the remaining first half of 2012.

Supply chain optimization solutions provider Quintiq Inc., announced that Walmart selected the company’s next-generation load assignment and dispatch system to lower the total miles driven and improve fleet efficiency.

“We are delighted with Walmart's choice of Quintiq,” said Victor Allis, CEO of Quintiq. “We believe this demonstrates that no supply chain is too large or complex for our state-of-the-art supply chain optimization software.”

Boston -- Research results released Thursday by mobile and social merchandising solution-provider Zmags found that less than one-third of the top 100 Internet retailers are prepared for tablet shopping.

According to “Mobile & Tablet e-Commerce: Is anyone really ready?” commissioned by research firm Hawk Partners, too few retailers have optimized sites for tablet commerce. Most are simply relying on their standard websites to provide an “adequate enough” tablet shopping experience.

MINNEAPOLIS — It's a common dilemma for retail stores; customers come in to check out the latest merchandise only to then buy it at a competitor's website. According to a new survey from market research fim ClickIQ, nearly half of consumers who have shopped online within the past six months first checked out the product at their local retail store and then made the purchase online, often from a different source.

Despite considerable efforts by Walmart in recent years to improve its reputation, a recent Harris Interactive Reputation Quotient poll shows the company has considerable room for improvement.

The study, now in its 13th year, surveyed 17,500 consumers about their perceptions of the 60 most visible companies in America. Not surprisingly, a fair number of those were major national retailers who have become household names. Walmart ranked 41st overall on the list of 60 companies and 10 other retailers were ranked ahead of Walmart.

Washington, D.C. -- POS solution-provider POSitive Technology said Thursday that It'Sugar has selected them as their POS partner to implement the Microsoft Dymanics RMS and OpSuite solutions to meet the company’s growth needs.

Candy retailer It'Sugar plans to open as many as 10 new stores in 2012, in addition to continuous updating and refreshing of inventory to keep pace with sales and customer preferences, said the company.