Author: Helen Thomas

Accelerated Analytics Develops Future Data Scientists

Posted on September 12, 2018 by - Blog

 

Retail Analytics Leader Works with School

Students from Florida Polytechnic University will be undertaking two Capstone projects with Accelerated Analytics in 2018-19. The students involved are studying Data Science, Computer Science and Information Technology, and the projects are part of the Senior Design program. Both projects involve Data Aggregation and Machine Learning.

Accelerated Analytics is very proud to work with this talented group of students.  FPU selected ten projects for Data Science/Business Analytics, and two of those are working with Accelerated Analytics. Forbes magazine predicted that demand for these job roles will spike by 28% by 2020. Data Science and Analyst jobs are among the most challenging to fill, taking five days longer to find qualified candidates than the market average. As thought leaders in retail analytics, Accelerated Analytics is committed to contributing to the education of future experts in their industry. Careers at Accelerated Analytics can be found on their web site.

Home Depot Crushes Q2 2018 Sales

Posted on August 29, 2018 by - Blog

POS Reporting Services

Home Depot Q2 2018 Sales, Accelerated Analytics’ Customers Up 8.9 Percent

The Home Depot announced its Q2 2018 sales results, and once again it was a smashing success story for the DIY retailer. Accelerated Analytics checked the results of our customers who sell in and use our reporting for managing their business with The Home Depot. For the third straight quarter, our customers outperformed Home Depot’s total sales results!

Are you a Home Depot DIY retailer? Accelerated Analytics customers reported an 8.9% increase in US store comp sales over last year. Home Depot at large reported an increase of 8.1% over 2017 for the same period. Our customers are using our reporting and analysis tools to decrease out of stocks, improve store performance and reduce lost sales opportunities. Being the third quarter in a row of this superb trend is a testament to our customers and our tools!

If you’re a DIY retailer that wants to increase sales and performance, Accelerated Analytics can help. Our POS data analysis and reporting tools will allow you to see your data as a whole so you can start making real-time decisions that will impact the performance of your business. If you’re tired of trying to make sense out of all your data and missing out on the many opportunities you have to grow your company, we can help.

You can reach us by calling 1-915-746-2073 or by using our contact form.

New CEO, Lowe’s Helps California Wildfire Victims

Posted on August 2, 2018 by - Blog

Lowe's DIY Retailer

New Lowe’s CEO, Marvin Ellison, having been on the job only since June, joined the team at their headquarters in Mooresville to load 15,000 disaster-relief buckets for California wildfire victims, and for future natural disaster preparedness. 1,400 employees are helping to stuff the buckets, which are at a cost of $700,000 and being paid for by Lowe’s and its vendors. 2,000 buckets are set to ship to California, while the rest will be stockpiled for any future need. The buckets contain work gloves, scrub brushes, insect repellant and dust masks. “This is a tremendous effort and being new to the company it warms my heart to see so many of us helping out so many people in need,” he says.

As part of his leadership plan, Ellison eliminated top level management roles and brought in new executive, Joseph McFarland III. McFarland comes from J.C. Penney and prior to two years there as executive vice president, had a two-decade career with The Home Depot. He served as president of the northern and western divisions. Ellison said in a news release that these changes will allow Lowe’s to “drive operational excellence.”

 

New Home Sales and Housing Market Continuing to Slow Down

Posted on July 30, 2018 by - Blog

Home Sales Report

The US Commerce Department announced this week that new home sales decreased to an 8-month low in June, decreasing 5.3%, the lowest since October 2017. While economic GDP reports last week show the US economy as robust, housing has seen rising building material costs and shortages of supply, causing its contribution to the US economy to weaken.

Mortgage rates are higher and loan applications to purchase a home fell 1%. Median new home price fell to $302,100, a 4.2% decrease from last year. New home sales fell in the South, West and Midwest, but in the Northeast new home sales increased to a 10 ½ year high.

Although new construction materials are at a higher cost, nearly 2/3 of the homes sold in June were under construction or yet to be built. Economists predict the fallout effect in the next half of the year may be with home product and furniture sales.

Report Upgrades Coming Soon for Dillard’s Reporting

Posted on July 24, 2018 by - Blog, Dillard's

For customers using Accelerated Analytics for daily Dillard’s reporting exclusively, we have report upgrades coming soon! These upgrades are based on customer feedback and requests. In order to remain the most robust Dillard’s reporting tool on the market, Accelerated Analytics will be implementing the following upgrades.

Upgrades include updating the source of descriptions of style, color and size to be from our daily data feed from Dillard’s, instead of from a third party catalogue, saving our customers money. New reports, like a KPI and Weekly Trend report, will be added. Top line numbers will head each report. Daily detail reports will now show this year – last year comparisons all on one report. In all, every vendor will now have a total of 11 best practice reports at their disposal: Door Sales Detail, Style Sales Detail, Door Sales To Date, Style Color Size To Date, Scorecard, Out of Stock Report, Lost Dollars Report, Trend Chart, Weekly Trend, KPI, and US Sales Map.

To learn more about our Dillard’s daily sales and inventory reporting tool, visit our Dillard’s solution page on the Accelerated Analytics web site.

POS Reporting Weekly Trend

 

Lowe’s and Sherwin-Williams Partnership Expands

Posted on July 23, 2018 by - Blog

DIY Retailer for Lowe's

 

Following the February 2018 announcement that The Sherwin-Williams Company, Consumer Brands Group would become the sole nationwide supplier to Lowe’s US stores, today the DIY retailer announced a new line of Valspar exterior stain products. The Valspar stain will come in 50 colors and is offered exclusively at Lowe’s stores and on Lowes.com. The move is designed to streamline and simplify paint and stains to be easier for customers to buy and associates to sell. Other brands Lowe’s offers from Sherwin-Williams include HGTV Home, Purdy, Krylon, Minwax, Thompson’s Water Seal, and Cabot.

“We strive to provide endless color to our customers, and our new product line is no exception. Valspar stain is available in a wide range of colors – both expected and unexpected – because not only do consumers look to Valspar for quality products, but also as the authority on color,” says Andy Bottoni, Director of Marketing at The Sherwin-Williams Company, Consumer Brands Group. “With this new product line, we hope to inspire more creativity when it comes to outdoor color.”

Retail Trends for the Rest of 2018

Posted on July 3, 2018 by - Blog

Retail Trends 2018As retail looks to the remainder of the 2018 year, several trends are emerging as most popular among chains. Analysts predict 2018 to continue to be a good year for retail and these trends are contributing to the sector’s success.

The beauty industry continues to strive for innovative experiences in stores for its customers, whether it be yoga sessions on a wellness floor or magic mirror technology to virtually apply makeup on a customer. A second big trend is ethical shopping to appeal to Gen Z consumers, with buy-one, give-one to charity models such as Toms shoes, or improving environmental energy savings with sustainability plans as announced at The Home Depot.

Another trend is pop-up stores for brands to test promotions and gain celebrity sponsorship. Many retailers, such as Nordstrom, are investing in conversation commerce technology to empower salespeople to connect with online shoppers as if they were in the actual store. Other investments in data technology continue to be a strong trend, whether it be anti-merchandise return fraud or using RFID to track merchandise.

A final big trend is innovative partnerships between retailers and brands and technology to promote unique experiences for shoppers.

Accelerated Analytics Third 2018 Innovation Award Goes to Vera Bradley

Posted on June 4, 2018 by - Blog

POS Reporting Solution

Accelerated Analytics awarded its third and final 2018 INNOVATION AWARD to General Merchandise and Apparel category winner, Vera Bradley. Accelerated Analytics CEO, Chad Symens, and Director of Sales and Marketing, Jen Freyer, presented the award to Shequeita Orr, Vera Bradley’s Director of Sales and Business Planning, in their NYC showroom. The Vera Bradley team uses their Accelerated Analytics POS Apparel and Fashion reporting solution for their key department store and military store channels. Their ability to use the reports to strategize and effectively market their assortments earned them this year’s award. Congratulations to the Vera Bradley team!

 

Accelerated Analytics 2018 Customer Innovation Award for DIY Goes to WM Barr

Posted on May 17, 2018 by - Blog

WM Barr POS Reporting Services

Accelerated Analytics is excited to officially announce the first of its three 2018 INNOVATION AWARD winners is W.M. Barr. W.M. Barr has been a customer of Accelerated Analytics for 10 years, utilizing best practice POS reporting to manage their business at The Home Depot. Accelerated Analytics awarded W.M. Barr this honor in the DIY, Home and Hardware category for demonstrating the most innovative use of analytics through its POS reporting tool. The award was presented to W.M. Barr President, Scott Beal, at the National Hardware Show in Las Vegas, last week. Presenting the award was Accelerated Analytics President and CEO, Chad Symens. Accelerated Analytics looks forward to their continuing strong partnership with the W.M. Barr team for many more years. Congratulations W.M. Barr team!

W.M. Barr sells multiple brands, including Damprid, Goof Off, Klean-Strip and many others.

Accelerated Customers with Home Depot Reporting Outperform Others in 2017!

Posted on May 17, 2018 by - Blog

Analytics Clients Outperform FieldCongratulations to our customers working with The Home Depot! Last month, THD released it’s Q4 performance, reporting 7.5% growth in sales over the same period prior year. During the same period, our THD customers more than doubled that pace, posting a collective 16.3% increase in sales over the prior year. Long term sales growth guidance for THD as we go into 2018 is 4.5-6.0%. During the Q4 Conference call, THD highlighted it’s initiatives to increase same-day or next-day local delivery to consumers from the stores and increased pickup in-store for online orders. Targeted marketing and customer experience development is being aimed at high income baby boomers, first time home owner millennials, and a continued emphasis on pros (especially in Canada).  As far as total year over year comps, Home Depot announced for fiscal year 2017 growth of 6.7%. Accelerated Analytics customers outperformed this number, growing on average a whopping 14%!

Accelerated Analytics can help you focus on the stores that matter most in these initiatives. Contact sales@acceleratedanalytics.com to setup a quick demo of how you can obtain reports to ensure you keep you finger on the pulse of your key retail partners’ major initiatives. Home Depot Outperforms with Accelerated Analytics