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Retailers are blessed with extensive data about their customers and their shopping behavior. This data comes in the forms of offline and online purchase data, extensive email databases, response data, loyalty card databases, direct mail response data, social media data, and website data.  Despite this wealth of information and most retailers' extensive history and expertise in offline modeling, I'm shocked to see that many continue to struggle with merging siloed information and leveraging it across the new digital landscape.

Andy Rubin, head of Android, denied that Google was considering opening retail locations. According to AllThingsD's Ina Fried, Rubin said, "Google has no plans and we have nothing to announce."This is the opposite...

We used to call it shoplifting, but these days the foot soldiers of retail crime rings are known as boosters. Police even have an acronym for these operations: ORC, which stands for Organized Retail Crime. Police say big retail stores, from Walgreens to J.C. Penny, are getting hit by highly sophisticated shoplifting networks that steal and resell everything from underwear to razors to milk. According to the National Retail Federation, theft can amount to annual losses as high as a $37 billion for retail businesses.

Davenport, Iowa -- Von Maur Department Stores announced Wednesday it has signed a contract to open a 150,000-sq.-ft. store at the GGP-owned Quail Springs Mall in Oklahoma City in fall 2014. The store will be the company's first location in Oklahoma....

Busting Organized Retail Crime Rings, Sharks, The Pope

MyBuys, Inc. and the e-tailing group today announced results of primary research across more than 1,100 consumers that examined how personalized marketing across channels impacts shopper attitudes and buying behavior. Survey results reveal that customer-centric marketing — the ability for retailers to engage consumers in one-to-one conversations across the customer lifecycle and all touchpoints — increases buyer readiness, engagement and sales activity, with a record 40 percent of respondents now stating that they buy more from retailers who comprehensively personalize the shopping experience across channels.

Toronto -- Sears Canada Inc. reported Wednesday that profit for the fourth quarter dipped 3% to $38.8 million on weakened hardware and electronics sales. Revenue fell 5% to$1.25 billion in the period, and same-store sales dropped 3.8%. Parent Sears...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Limited Brands reported that adjusted earnings per share for the 14-week fourth quarter ended Feb. 2 were $1.76 compared with $1.50 for the 13-week fourth quarter ended Jan. 28, 2012. Comparable-store sales for the quarter increased 5%....

NEW YORK — Coach announced that Zach Augustine will join the company as EVP, global environments, effective March 11, reporting to Reed Krakoff. Augustine will lead initiatives across visual merchandising, architecture and creative cevelopment...

One of the benefits of shopping on Amazon.com comes from how the company presents alternatives to searchers on the site. These search results give shoppers additional choices beyond what they may have thought they already wanted. But like many things in life, there's always someone who doesn't gain the same benefit that many other people do from a given practice. As law professor Eric Goldman noted at Forbes, Amazon's search results and merchandising earned it a court challenge.