Data & Analytics

Chicago -- A survey released Tuesday by the e-tailing group said that nine merchants out of the 100 benchmarked excelled at online customer service.

According to the group’s 13th Annual Mystery Shopping Study, conducted during fourth quarter 2010, Lands’ End made the list for a third consecutive year. Coach and Saks Fifth Avenue are two-year repeat achievers.

Chicago -- Jones Lang LaSalle announced Tuesday that it has launched a website to deliver strategies, tools and information regarding the upcoming changes in lease accounting treatment by the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and its counterpart, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

By George F. Brown, Jr., [email protected]

The increased pace of merger and acquisition activity late in 2010, including some huge deals, suggests that 2011 will be an active year. Low interest rates, significant cash on many firms’ balance sheets, and stock prices that are low enough to attract buyers but high enough to move sellers off the sidelines all reinforce that possibility.

Washington, D.C. -- Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to be up 8% in January over the same month last year, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by NRF and Hackett Associates.

New York City -- A majority of retail associates (55%) said that 2010 holiday shoppers, driven by increasing availability of online shopping tools and mobile phone applications, were better connected to consumer information than in-store associates, according to a survey by Motorola Solutions. 

ROSEVILLE, Calif. -- Revionics a provider in retail life cycle price optimization solutions, announced that Dick’s Sporting Goods has selected Revionics as their price management provider. Revionics will provide Dick’s with its Everyday Price Management and Markdown solution, which includes Revionics’ category planning tools, weekly price maintenance capabilities, and science-based clearance price solution across all channels

Washington, D.C. -- Retail sales rose for a sixth consecutive month in December, with big gains in sales of autos and furniture. The increases lifted sales activity for the year by the largest amount in more than a decade.

Sales rose 0.6% last month to a level of $381 billion, the Commerce Department said Friday, less than the 0.8% economists had expected. However, the increase pushed sales for all of 2010 up 6.7%, the largest annual increase since 1999. Excluding autos, retail sales rose 0.5% last month.

MONTVALE, N.J. - A&P announced that sales for the third quarter were $1.8 billion versus $2 billion in last fiscal year’s third quarter. Comparable-store sales decreased 4.9%. The company reported that loss from continuing operations was $181 million versus last year’s third quarter reported loss from continuing operations of $502 million.