Target Q4 comp sales +20.5% “…comparable traffic growth of 6.5 percent and a 13.1 percent increase in average ticket. Store comparable sales increased 6.9 percent. Digital comparable sales grew 118 percent…More than 95 percent of Target’s fourth quarter sales were fulfilled by its stores.” Press release

 

Kohl’s Q4 net sales fell to $5.88 billion from $6.54 billion a year earlier, topping the $5.86 billion forecast by analysts at CNBC. Read more

 

Customer Satisfaction in Retail Falls to Lowest Point Since 2015, ACSI Data Show “For 2020, online retail loses the most ground among all retail categories, tumbling 3.7% to an ACSI score of 78. Nordstrom captures the industry lead despite retreating 1% to 81. In second place, Costco (down 1%), Etsy (down 2%), and Newegg (down 1%) are all deadlocked at 80. Former industry leader Amazon tumbles 5% to an all-time low score of 79. With a stable score of 78, Target is the only e-commerce retailer to buck the downward ACSI trend.” Press release

 

Amazon Workers’ Union Drive Reaches Far Beyond Alabama at NY Times. “In this charged atmosphere, even routine things have become suspect. The union has raised questions about the changing of the timing of a traffic light near the warehouse where labor organizers try to talk to the workers as they are stopped in their vehicles while leaving the facility.” Read more

 

…Inside Joe Biden’s decision to dive into the Amazon union drive at Politico. “Democrats approached Biden advisers early this year to voice support for the factory workers. Discussions between White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, unions, and allied operatives took further shape in early February and continued through recent weeks.” Read more

 

AutoZone Q2 comp sales +15.2% Press release

 

Abercrombie quarterly sales fall 5% at Reuters. “Net sales fell to $1.12 billion from $1.18 billion a year earlier, in line with analysts’ average estimate of $1.12 billion, according to Refinitiv IBES data.” Read more

 

Macy’s, Inc. Announces Changes to Its Senior Leadership Team “John Harper, chief operations officer, will depart the company effective August 1, 2021. Subsequently, the role of chief operations officer will be eliminated…Laura Miller has been appointed chief information officer…” Press release

 

Kroger Announces Retirement of EVP and COO Mike Donnelly Press release

 

**A message from SPS Commerce. More than 90% of companies are not receiving essential information they need from their vendors. Without this critical information, they’re unable to properly measure vendor performance and experience sub-optimal fill-rates and receive late shipments. To learn how you can identify areas of improvement and enhance vendor performance, visit our website, or contact us at 866-245-8100.

 

Walmart drops the $35 order minimum on its 2-hour ‘Express’ delivery service at TechCrunch. Read more

 

CVS, Walgreens Look for Big Data Reward From Covid-19 Vaccinations at Wall Street Journal. “Every one of these customers is coming through our digital front end, so we have their email, we have their text message, and we have the ability to communicate with them regularly,” said Jonathan Roberts, CVS chief operating officer. CVS executives say they plan to stay in touch with vaccine recipients beyond receiving their second shot…” WSJ subs.

 

Czech on-demand grocery delivery startup Rohlik bags $230M to expand across Europe at TechCrunch. Read more

 

Instacart checks out another Amazon ad sales exec as hiring spree continues at Ad Age. “Instacart announced that it hired (Ryan) Mayward as VP of ad sales. Mayward was a sales director at Amazon for nearly a decade, where he helped Amazon grow its agency relationships and advertising technology business. At Instacart, Mayward rejoins Seth Dallaire, chief revenue officer, who left Amazon as head of its global ad sales team in 2019.” Read more

 

SpartanNash has promoted Amy McClellan to Vice President, Fresh Merchandising, effective March 8 Press release

 

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