News

Ottawa, Canada - 360pi has unveiled the latest generation of its 360comparables solution targeted to address private label brands. This release augments 360pi’s attribute-based matching algorithm with the option for customer-controlled product matching.

New York -- Here are three new stores creating biz buzz in the Big Apple:

1. Under Armour

Coppell, Texas – The Container Store increased net income by about 800% year-over-year during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013, to $18.34 million from $2.09 million. A substantial drop in effective tax rate, as well as lower net interest expense, helped drive the impressive growth in net income.

Net sales slipped from $217.02 million to $216.82 million, while same-store sales climbed 1.4%. The company cited severe weather as reducing sales.

Irving, Texas – Net income at Michael’s Stores Inc. soared 36% to $143 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013 from $105 million in the same quarter the previous year. Net sales grew 2% to $1.55 billion from $1.52 billion and same-store sales rose 4.2%.

Michael’s credited a 53rd week in fiscal 2013, as well as increases in average ticket size and transactions, as driving its fourth quarter performance.

San Francisco - Consumers avoid doing business with a breached organization at a high rate. According to a new study conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research and commissioned by data management solution provider, Identity Finder, 33% of customers will shop elsewhere if their retailer of choice is breached.

Waban, Mass. – Grocery chain H.E.B. tied with the banking business of financial services provider USAA for the top spot in consumer forgiveness. Based on a study of 10,000 U.S consumers, the two companies both came in first in the 2014 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings, which rates 268 companies across 19 industries.

Carle Place, N.Y. – A shift in the Easter holiday from the third to the fourth quarter and severe weather negatively impacted financial results at 1-800-Flowers.com during the third quarter of fiscal 2014. 1-800-Flowers reported a net loss of $1.42 million, compared to net profit of $2.64 million in the prior fiscal year.

Net sales dropped 9% to $139.92 million, from $144.55 million.

Bellevue, Wash. – Eddie Bauer has signed a long-term renewal agreement with Alliance Data Systems Corp. to continue providing private label credit card services. Alliance Data will continue to deliver a marketing-driven private label credit card program that recognizes and rewards Eddie Bauer cardholders and complements the reward incentives the Eddie Bauer Friends rewards program offers customers.

Deerfield Park, Ill. - Walgreens is launching the 2014 Walgreens Way to Well Health Tour with AARP. For six years, Walgreens and AARP have conducted the community outreach program dedicated to providing free preventive and early detection health services to communities across the country.

Mountain View, Calif. - Airtight Networks, which provides in-store WiFi analytics such as how long customers stay and shop, how often they come in and marketing campaign effectiveness, is partnering with Frontera Consulting to package social media and retail intelligence capabilities with the Airtight platform. The new solution offers WiFi-based brand lifecycle management.