Artificial Intelligence

New York — The economy is in better shape than many people think — especially when you look under the hood at some of the parts, CNBC senior analyst Ron Insana told attendees at Chain Store Age’s 50th annual SPECS show. Insana was a keynoter at the event, which was held at the Gaylord Texan Hotel, Grapevine, Texas, March 9 – 12, and attracted retail executives in store planning, construction and facilities. “The United States economy is actually performing quite nicely,” Insana said. “If you look around the world, no one else comes close.”

Atlanta – Close to half (45.1%) of brands reported that ‘measuring ROI and results’ is their greatest challenge when using the Twitter platform for marketing, followed by ‘building an audience’ (42.1%) and ‘engagement’ (36.8%). According to a new survey from Social Media Marketing University (SMU), 65% of brands say that Twitter is an effective marketing tool, while 30.6% are undecided. Other notable findings include: • 96.2% of brands using Twitter as a marketing tool report having challenges using the platform to achieve specific goals.

Finance executives who participated in professional services firm BDO’s annual CFO survey expect 8.2% growth in online sales this year and not surprisingly plan to increase investments in mobile capabilities.

Mobile and online sales will continue to drive growth for retailers in 2014, the firm said. However, now that e-commerce has firmly taken root in the retail industry, growth is beginning to stabilize. As a result, about 64% of CFOs said online sales will grow in the coming year, a figure below the 74% who expressed that sentiment the prior year.

Armonk, N.Y. -- With consumers engaging more directly with businesses through mobile and social media, more than 60% of CIOs will focus more heavily on improving the customer experience and getting closer to customers, according to a new report released by IBM.

The report, entitled "Moving from the Back Office to the Front Lines — CIO Insights from the Global C-suite Study” is based on face-to-face conversations with more than 1,600 CIOs from 70 countries and 20 industries worldwide.

What’s next for Walmart under the leadership of new CEO Doug McMillon is the focus of the Spring edition of Walmart Supplier News.

Change is in the air at Walmart as the Doug McMillon era begins. No company makes a change at the top out of a desire to maintain the status quo, and McMillon has already indicated there are changes to come.

Tractor Supply Company has named former Ulta Beauty executive Robert D. Mills as SVP and chief information officer, succeeding James Callison. Mills will also serve on the company’s executive committee.

Callison, who informed the company last year about his plans to retire, will remain on-board for an undisclosed amount of time while the transition is completed.

By Loreal Lynch, VP marketing, Shopatron

The rise of multichannel shopping has forced retailers to begin implementing strategic omni-channel initiatives across their organizations in an effort to satisfy increasing customer demands. These initiatives are ushering in even higher customer service expectations from shoppers who have no patience for disconnected experiences that fail to match the omni-channel marketing promise.

The journey to South by Southwest (SXSW) begins long before the leading technology conference even begins. As first time attendees it quickly became apparent that winging it doesn’t work in Austin yet being open to possibilities is also essential essential.

Stepping of the plan we wondered if we had planned enough. Everyone looked like they knew where they were going and what they were doing and who they were doing it with. We were just trying to find our hotel!