Artificial Intelligence

With 2016 upon us, most everyone is thinking about the New Year’s resolutions they have in place for the upcoming year. The perennially popular resolutions range from losing weight to getting out of debt.

If you look closely, the resolutions could mirror goals that retailers may want to consider in 2016, especially as it relates to loss prevention (LP).

Plug and Play brings together retailers and start-ups that offer specific technology and expertise that can relieve merchants’ pain points. Chain Store Age offers a Q&A with the head of one of those start-ups, Wibe Wagemans, president of Palo Alto, California-based IndoorAtlas.

What does your company do?

The holiday promotion season is fast approaching with the arrival of Thanksgiving and Black Friday. From that moment the race is on for customer dollars through to the New Year. We’ve all been through this many times, and it seems like no sooner has one season finished than we are shortly into planning for the next. But what impact are the prices we set having on customer behavior and the profits of retailers?

What if you could target parents based on their specific stage of parenthood, such as expectant or parents of a newborn? According to The Drum, eBay Advertising is rolling out a new tool that will let retailers using its service do just that. [The Drum]

Apple Inc. may be planning an entry into the fledging industry of mobile person-to-person payment.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is in discussions with several banks to develop a service that would let consumers make mobile payments to each other, rather than use cash or personal checks. The service would be in direct competition with the Venmo mobile payment platform from PayPal, which is popular among millennial consumers.

A 3,500-sq.-ft. rotunda “smart” skylight has been installed in the new grand entrance and event space at the nation’s largest shopping mall. The new space is part of Mall of America’s 750,000-sq.-ft. expansion.

The skylight is comprised of more than 300 panes of electronically tintable SageGlass, which controls sunlight to optimize daylight and enhance comfort by preventing glare and solar heat.

The Amazon Echo smart home device represents a potential threat to Amazon’s competitors, but sales are sales.

Amazon Echo will be available in more than 3,000 stores around the country in time for the holiday shopping season. Select locations of ABT, BJ’s Wholesale Club, The Home Depot, Staples, Sears, Brookstone, RadioShack, Fred Meyer, Fry’s, Hhgregg, P.C. Richard & Son, and R.C. Wiley will offer Echo.

Of all the celebrants of China’s annual “Singles Day” Nov. 11 holiday, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. was probably the happiest.

By midnight Nov. 11 China time (which is ahead of all U.S. time zones), Alibaba estimated it had settled about $14.34 billion in gross merchandise volume (GMV) through its Alipay payment platform on its China and international retail marketplaces.

At one point or another, anyone discussing the future of personalization in offline retail has quoted the film Minority Report, where virtual billboards scan Tom Cruise, and immediately customize their message. The virtual assistant in Gap refers to the last time he entered the store, and inquires about his recent purchase.

Now, 13 years later, some of these technologies are becoming mainstream. For example, large retailers like Target and venues like the new Levi’s Stadium are equipped with beacons to customize your experience.

A start-up retail logistics company and award-winning retail designer are behind an unusual — and very tech-savvy — new “smart” store model that has just opened its doors.