Machine Learning

New York -- Amazon.com made more than 2.5 million price changes a day throughout November, according to price intelligence firm Profitero. By comparison, in November, Best Buy implemented a total of 52,956 price changes every day and Walmart a total of 54,633 price changes.

Profitero’s analysis revealed that Amazon.com has increased its number of daily price changes 10-fold during the last 12 months. At the beginning of December 2012, the online retailer implemented just 269,113 price changes.

Walldorf, Germany – SAP is releasing the new InfiniteInsight solution. Based on patented automation technology from KXEN, an SAP company, the solution is designed to provide businesses the ability to deploy predictive analytics across the enterprise.

Capabilities of SAP InfiniteInsight include analytical data sets for predictive modeling, automated modeling, optimized scoring equations, and factory capability for model refreshes as needed.

New York -- Enterprise users will gain unprecedented control over their technology environment in 2014. This is the overarching theme of the key enterprise technology trends Verizon has identified for 2014.

In brief review, the trends include:

The Customer of One Comes of Age

Traditional craftsmanship and the latest in technology help make for the perfect fit at The Left Shoe, a new luxury men’s footwear retail concept from Finland. 

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Men’s Wearhouse will tailor email campaigns to individual shoppers using personalized email marketing technology from CQuotient. The solution will allow Men’s Wearhouse to capture data across consumer touchpoints and use predictive algorithms to target customers with individualized email messaging.

Westboro, Mass. -- MICROS-Retail, a division of Micros Systems, announced BJ's Wholesale's successful launch of Micros-Retail's next generation loss prevention and business analytics solution, XBR Ingenium.
   
As an existing user of MICROS-Retail's XBR, BJ's launched a pilot of XBR Ingenium.  After a successful program, BJ's is now deploying Micros-Retail XBR Ingenium company-wide, seeking to increase the investigative capabilities and productivity of its asset protection team.

Purchase, N.Y. — MasterCard Advisors, a division of MasterCard, and analytics firm Mu Sigma announced a new partnership to develop analytic products toward solving business challenges such as acquiring customers and increasing customer loyalty.

As part of the partnership, MasterCard has acquired an equity stake in Mu Sigma. Additional terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Atlanta – Predictix announced that Crate and Barrel is implementing a broad suite of planning solutions from Predictix, including merchandise financial planning/merchandise financial management, assortment planning and item planning.

The Predictix solutions are being deployed across all Crate and Barrel brands — Crate and Barrel, CB2 and The Land of Nod — and will go live this quarter as part of a strategic plan to optimize the retailer's planning processes.

Waltham, Mass. -- Profitect announced Monday that Weis Markets has selected its cloud-based Profit Amplification solution, a pattern-seeking predictive analytics tool, for deployment throughout the chain.

Weis Markets will initially deploy the Point of Sale and Inventory modules of the Profitect suite.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — New York Mets baseball executive Paul DePodesta is the newest member of the Sears Holdings board.

Although his qualifications are somewhat unconventional, DePodesta was elected to the board because his experience as VP of player development and amateur scouting for the Mets is believe to help Sears Holdings in the area of personnel development.