IBM

At a time of year when consumers are still caught up in end-of-summer barbecues and back-to-school shopping, retailers are getting caught up in the rush of holiday planning. Holiday sales can account for 20% to 40% of a retailer’s total annual sales, according to the National Retail Federation, and a successful holiday can turn around a bad year or make a good year even better.

But the holiday season presents challenges as well as opportunities.

London -- UK PC and video game retailer Game UK will use IBM’s big data analytics and cloud-based software to optimize its online marketing efforts and provide personalized product recommendations based on each customer's shopping interests and online behavior.

Game’s drive to upsell and increase loyalty within its customer base is powered by technology from IBM’s Smarter Commerce initiative. This latest purchase of marketing automation software extends Game’s existing Smarter Commerce investments.

By Karen Lowe, [email protected]

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Insite Software, a leading provider of B2B e-commerce platforms and shipping solutions, has appointed David Ricketts as its SVP of sales.

Ricketts has more than 15 years of experience in software sales management, working with retailers, wholesalers, manufactures, distributors and consumer packaged goods companies to expand sales revenues via B2B and B2C e-commerce, omnichannel commerce and mobile, social and tablet commerce.

Roundarch Isobar, the U.S. arm of the global digital marketing agency Isobar, has appointed Steven Moy as the company’s chief commerce officer. He joins from SapientNitro, where he was VP of business and office lead at that company’s Boston office.  

Roundarch Isobar will leverage Moy’s experience in retail to further develop the company’s digital commerce practice. He will report directly to Jeff Maling and Geoff Cubitt, co-CEOs of Roundarch Isobar.

Armonk, N.Y. -- Online consumer spending rose a healthy 15% in the second quarter of this year compared to the second quarter of last year. The IBM Online Retail Sales Index shows that mobile sales reached 19.4% of total online sales, up 28% from last year. Online shopping growth substantially outpaced the 4.6% year-over-year increase of in-store sales during the second quarter.

Seoul, South Korea – South Korean home shopping retailer NS Shopping is deploying mobile and analytics solutions from IBM to improve its omni-channel customer experience and relationship management.

NS Shopping currently sells its merchandise via television, catalogues and online, and will use IBM Smarter Commerce technology to integrate mobile and social channels into its retail environment.

Armonk, N.Y. -- Retailers and CPG companies with leading stock prices are more likely than their lagging competitors to use Big Data analytics to understand and adjust to customer needs. According to a study of 325 senior retail merchandising executives conducted by IBM Center for Applied Insights in conjunction with Planet Retail, 65% of leading retail merchandisers feel Big Data analytics is critical to their business compared to just 38% of other retail companies.

CINCINNATI — Market6, a leading provider of Web-based retail analytic applications, has appointed software industry veteran Ray B. Tacoma to the company’s board of directors.

Tacoma has more than 25 years of senior management experience with organizations such as Netezza, MicroStrategy, FileNet and Oracle. The board will look to Tacoma to provide it with extensive domain and industry knowledge so it can optimize Market6’s strategy and execution as it provides retailers and consumer goods companies with SaaS-based retail analytic applications.

Walnut Creek, Calif.  - In a webinar on June 27,  analysts from RSR Research presented insights gleaned from numerous retail IT-focused events they attended this past spring. Their findings focused on five key areas: next generation POS/store/commerce engine, buy side of omnichannel, user experience, high performance computing and cloud.