Reducing Out of Stocks

Probably three of the ugliest words for a retailer or vendor are — out of stock. Each and every time an out of stock (OOS) occurs, the retailer, vendor, and consumer lose. Revenues and profitability go down, and consumer frustration rises. This is not a newsflash; it’s easy to find a wealth of OOS research… Read more »

Data-Driven Series: Know Your Customer Type

Both The Home Depot and Lowe’s continue to focus on the “Pro” customer as the key growth driver for sales. In the case of The Home Depot, there are some interesting store attributes available to vendors, which The Home Depot uses as store descriptors. Last week, I was working with one of our customers who… Read more »

What’s New in Digital and Social Media for Beauty?

At Accelerated Analytics, I work with over 20 beauty brands to supply key reports and analysis of how their products are performing at their retail stores. Our expertise, based on years of working with beauty retailers like Dillard’s, Ulta, Sephora and Nordstrom, help account executives, planners and sales reps to track sales to goals, store… Read more »

Are Omnichannel Shoppers More Valuable to Retailers?

That’s the question that the Harvard Business Review set out to answer in a recent study conducted between June 2015 and August 2016. They collaborated with a major U.S. Company which operates hundreds of retail stores across the country and studied the behavior of 46,000 shoppers. The customers were asked about “every aspect of their… Read more »

Stanley Black and Decker to buy Craftsman

The latest in a recent flurry of moves to raise cash, Sears Holding announced Thursday that it will sell its well-known Craftsman tools brand to Stanley Black and Decker. The value of the deal could top $1 billion. Stanley will pay $525 million up front – the deal is expected to close later this year… Read more »

Robert Lighthizer Named Chief Trade Negotiator

Yesterday, President-elect Trump named veteran Washington trade lawyer Robert Lighthizer as his chief trade negotiator in a move that confirms Mr. Trump’s intention to get tough with China, Mexico and other trade partners. Lighthizer, who is with the firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom and was deputy trade representative during the Reagan administration, would replace… Read more »

2016 Was a Great Year for DIY Retail

The holiday season is upon us, and how DIY retail will fare remains to be seen, but 2016 by most accounts has been a great year for DIY retail. The North American Retail Hardware Association (NRHA) is estimating industry growth for 2016 to end at 5.8%. The Home Improvement Research Institute (HIRI) is estimating a… Read more »