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Retailers are taking advantage of the long holiday weekend to promote sales and specials, especially around sporting goods, BBQ supplies, consumer electronics and outdoor gear. Of shoppers surveyed by ChargeItSpot,  43% of shoppers are planning to shop this weekend looking for deals and 22% said they would be shopping for sporting goods. Of those shoppers,... Read more »

Two new Westlake Ace Hardware stores in Omaha, Nebraska, have brought the store total for this conglomerate of Ace Hardware Stores to 100. The stores were originally Q.P. Ace Hardware Stores, and they will be rebranded with the new ownership name, while keeping personnel the same. Q.P. Ace Hardware will continue to won four other... Read more »

As part of an overall drive to broaden their relationship with pro customers and better serve their needs, Lowe’s Companies has finalized the acquisition of Maintenance Supply Headquarters for $512 million. The Houston-based company is a distributor of maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products serving the multifamily housing industry. The deal is a next logical... Read more »

The National Retail Federation (NRF) and the University of Florida announced it survey results of its National Retail Security Survey last week. Inventory shrink rose to $48.9 billion in 2016, from $45.2 billion in 2015. Thefts totaled 1.44% of sales, up from 1.38%. Retailers surveyed shared that 48.8% of them reported increases in inventory shrink.... Read more »

Consumers demand more home delivery when they shop online, and demand not to pay shipping fees when they do so. Retailers have been struggling to increase their e-commerce business while offsetting declining foot traffic to physical stores. It also requires them to compete heavily with Amazon.com. The holiday shopping season sees the highest amount of... Read more »

According to a recent study by Mood Media titled “The State of Brick and Mortar: 2017”. The study is based on a survey of more than 11,000 consumers in nine countries and sought to better understand what influences consumers’ decisions to choose brick-and-mortar over online shopping, what they most enjoy and don’t enjoy about the... Read more »

According to eMarketer’s forecast, back-to-school retail sales will grow 4% over last year. During the core shopping season of July and August, back-to-school retail sales will account for approximately 17% of total retail sales for the year, and are projected to reach an estimated $857 billion in the U.S. in 2017. E-commerce continues to fuel... Read more »

According to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released late last week by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates, retail import volume should hit an all-time high by the end of the summer. The rate of import growth at the nation’s major retail container ports has begun to slow after double-digit surges earlier this... Read more »

L’Oreal and several of its luxury divisions, including Lancome, utilize Accelerated Analytics to process and normalize their North America retailer POS data. L’Oreal was announced as # 33 in the list. The L’Oreal Luxury segment markets high-end skin care and beauty products. Forbes lists its value at $107.5 billion. Lancome was just announced as being... Read more »