Artificial Intelligence

Best Buy is strengthening its commitment to educating Canadian kids about technology with the launch of a Geek Squad Academy.

By Andy Wong, co-founder and VP of client services, Mobispoke

The rapid adoption of e-commerce in the digital age has fundamentally changed the way people shop. The online shopping experience today is not only richer and more engaging than in-store, but it is also personalized to each individual consumer, offering outfit pairings and special discounts based on a consumer’s profile.

ShopperTrak is teaming up with a shopping app called Shopkick to enhance the value proposition retailers offer to their customers in-store.

ShopperTrak, a global provider of consumer behavior insights and location-based analytics, and Shopkick is the most widely used real-world shopping app. Their partnership aims to leverage the market leadership and experience of both companies to deliver superior in-store experiences and rewards for shoppers, while also providing the retail community with an analytics tool to optimize the shopper’s experience in the store.

Jeffersonville, Ind. – Retailers worried that it will take a while for consumers to become comfortable engaging in omnichannel commerce via wearable technology can rest easy.

According to new research from Accent Marketing, half of more than 1,000 consumers surveyed said they would buy wearable tech so brands can send alerts and have more insight into their lifestyle.

And three in four Millennial respondents said they believe wearable technology is a new way for brands to engage consumers. Other key findings include:

Seattle – A seller of posters on Amazon.com has reportedly pled guilty to antitrust charges from the U.S. Justice Department. According to Reuters, David Topkins of San Francisco conspired to manipulate the price of posters on Amazon Marketplace between September 2013 and January 2014.

Omnichannel solutions provider RichRelevance has hired a former WalmartLabs executive to serve as its chief product officer.

Mahesh Tyagarajan will be responsible for product strategy and management, engineering and cloud operation and infrastructure. The company also named microstrategy and business objects veteran John Dickson as vice president of client services, where he will drive the expansion of RichRelevance’s position as the dominant provider of large-scale omnichannel personalization deployments around the world.

Providing an omnichannel customer experience is one of the most rewarding and challenging efforts a retailer can undertake. I recently spoke with David Stover, global head of business-to-consumer omnichannel solution management for Hybris, about some of the benefits and difficulties operating in the omnichannel space presents retailers.

Store Enablement is Harder than it Looks
According to Stover, store enablement represents the “last foot” of retail.

San Francisco — Omnichannel solutions provider RichRelevance has hired Mahesh Tyagarajan, a former WalmartLabs executive, to serve as its chief product officer.