Artificial Intelligence

Mooresville, N.C. –- Lowe’s Companies Inc. is among the first users of an omnichannel fulfillment solution that is being jointly developed by JDA Software Group Inc. and IBM. The new initiative from the two technology providers will combine JDA intelligent fulfillment and labor productivity solutions with IBM Commerce and order management technology.  

Irvine, Calif. -- C-store operator ABC Stores selected DecisionPoint Systems to automate its Hawaiian warehouse operation using Wavelink's Speakeasy voice picking technology. The move reduced picking errors and increased efficiencies by 40%, prompting the retailer to look at further deployment.  

New York -- Samsung Electronics and SAP SE are partnering to deliver enterprise mobility solutions for a number of industries, including an integrated payments solution.  

London -- Leading British retailer Asda has partnered with ecommerce performance marketing company HookLogic to launch the company’s first venture into the European market.    

San Jose, Calif. -- RetailNext Inc., a leader in applied Big Data for physical retail, named Marc Dietz as its chief marketing officer.    Dietz comes to RetailNext most recently from IBM where he led worldwide marketing for the company’s SaaS portfolio, including multiple acquisitions such as DemandTec, Coremetrics, and Silverpop.   

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 newletter provides a Q&A with the CEO of one of those companies in each issue. This time, the spotlight is on John McIntyre of Sightly.   What does Sightly do?  

About a year ago, I wrote a TechBytes column about a concept app called “Snap", which SAP had developed to provide consumers with interactive instructions for assembling products at home. After some fine-tuning, SAP is now officially launching a DIY home assembly app called “Bilt” for Android and iOS tablet devices.   

By John M. Pierre, Linguastat    The single greatest challenge that retailers face today is to have an individualized “conversation” with each customer and to do so on a global scale. Consumers expect a similar personalized experience regardless of channel, from the marketing offers they receive to the products that appear in search results.