Machine Learning

San Francisco -- Shoppers think it is cool to get digital help finding relevant products and information – and navigating the store, according to a study by RichRelevance. But they are creeped out by digital capabilities that identify, track and use location and demographics, such as targeted advertisements based on facial recognition. In addition, the dressing room is the one area where personalized product information and recommendations are not welcome.

Roanoke, Va. - Advance Auto Parts Inc. has selected Teradata as the vendor of choice for its Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW).

Advance Auto Parts will leverage the EDW to aggregate data from multiple sources to perform advanced analytics and help drive the business.

The new Teradata platform at Advance includes testing as well as production and will leverage the Teradata Americas Data Migration Center of Expertise

Purchase, N.Y. - MasterCard will acquire cloud-based analytics provider Applied Predictive Technologies (APT) for $600 million.

APT’s Test & Learn platform enables users to apply analytics to design, measure and calibrate marketing, merchandising, operations and capital initiatives.

Plug and Play brings together retailers and start-ups that offer specific technology and expertise that can relieve merchants’ pain points. Chain Store Age’s Customer Disruption newsletter provides a Q&A with the CEO of one of those companies in each issue. This time, the spotlight is on Arie Shpanya of Wiser.

What does your company do?

New York -- Facebook hopes to transform the way  customers communicate with retailers by re-inventing the customer service platform. Facebook and its partner Zendesk, a customer service platform firm, are teaming up to allow businesses to provide scalable and responsive customer service to the more than 600 million people worldwide who use Facebook's popular Messenger app. The social media giant is inviting retailers and other companies to develop software that allows customers to communicate instantly with them through Messenger.

By Todd Weller, Hexis Cyber Solutions

For retailers, it’s now no longer a matter of “if” you will be compromised by a cyberattack, but “when” you will be. But they can mitigate the impact of attacks now and in the future by preparing a response plan with policy-based automation.

The rapid changes in the digital and mobile world are radically affecting consumer behavior, disrupting traditional means of retailer/consumer interaction and influencing buying behavior and payment options in an unprecendented way.

Capitalizing on these technological innovations means keeping a close eye on the ways in which innovations in technology are turning the retail world upside down. There is no better way to do this than attend Mobile World Congress.

Following a recent series of data breaches targeting both large and medium sized retailers, many retailers are investing in technology that will help encrypt credit card data at the point of sale. Although a meaningful way to reduce risk, endpoint encryption is not the silver bullet solution hoped for by many retailers.

Walmart Executive Vice President of Global Customer Insights and Analytics Cindy Davis has been confirmed as a featured speaker for IRI’s upcoming Summit.

New York - For the upscale, 33-store Barneys New York, customer experience is everything. Affluent shoppers buying high-priced merchandise have certain expectations beyond the availability of quality items, regardless of channel they choose.

“We want every customer to have an online experience personalized to their taste profile, preference and geography, just as we would do in our flagship stores,” Matthew Woolsey, executive VP of Barneys digital, told Chain Store Age.