And new shopping data, just released, add to the gloomy picture.
The vast shopping data Safeway maintains on both women through its loyalty card program.
She manages a team that collects and analyzes customer shopping data.
Department stores have among the highest return rates, according to the Retail Equation, which collects shopping data.
Amazon's considerable computing capability, for example, has been turned to fashion and the analysis of enormous amounts of shopping data.
Ideally all your shopping data would flow into one spot, accessible from your computer or mobile device.
"It's a milestone in the norming of e-commerce," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew project, which is releasing its latest online shopping data this week.
To some shoppers, the students offered a $10 discount card, plus an extra $2 discount in exchange for their shopping data.
The latest numbers in a slowly unspooling string of gloomy holiday shopping data show that customer traffic during Christmas week fell 4.9percentt compared with 2007, according to ShopperTrak, a research company.
A closer look at the shopping data shows that those retailers to benefit from increased sales often cater for teenagers and young adults with more disposable income and fewer bills.
In December, the company patented "anticipatory shipping," which will use your shopping data to put items that you don't yet know you want to buy, but will soon enough, on a truck or in a warehouse near you.
