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Artificial Intelligence

  • Twitter features fun — not transactional — bot program

    A social media giant is getting in on the chatbot wave.    Twitter launched a new, customizable Direct Message Card that brands can use to promote and share bots and other customer experiences built in its Direct Messages tool. Direct Messages helps companies create personalized ads and interactions — ranging from customer acquisition programs to engaging bots.  

  • Online giant on the hunt for 'innovative' store designer

    Amazon is beefing up the team responsible for its grocery store concept.    According to a job description on LinkedIn, the company is looking for an "innovative" store designer to join its Amazon Go ACE (Architecture, Construction & Engineering) team. The ideal candidate, according to the posting, is a "self-starter who thrives in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment and has a deep passion for innovative retail design."  

  • CBRE airs retail innovation videos

    CBRE’s Melina Cordero, an expert in consumer behavior, has produced a series of videos to instruct brick-and-mortar retailers in how to get more results at the point-of-sale.   The first three of these can be viewed on CBRE’s new retail innovation website.   

  • Study: More pet owners are shopping online

    Online retailing is changing the game for pet parents.   Specifically, 40% of pet owners are opting to buy pet products online, up from 37% the previous year, and notably higher than results from 2014, according to U.S. Pet Market Outlook, 2017-2018. The report, from research firm Packaged Facts, highlights mergers and acquisitions, retail channel trends, and pet owner demographics and spending habits.  

  • Lowe’s VR app spurs project planning

    A home improvement chain is helping shoppers better envision how to design and build their homes.   Though a partnership with Google, Lowe’s launched the Lowe's Vision app. Powered by Tango, a 3D technology developed by Google, the app leverages augmented and virtual reality to enable shoppers to begin planning their renovation needs before they even set foot inside a store.  

  • Amazon’s drone delivery efforts are for the birds

    There’s more to drone-based deliveries than just dropping parcels — at least it is for Amazon.   The online giant is developing an air-traffic control system to manage its fleet of drones as they fly from warehouses to customers’ doors — a move that will ensure the devices don’t collide with “non-collaborative flying objects” during delivery, Bloomberg reported. These include buildings, trees, other drones and — the most unpredictable — birds.   

  • Study: Innovation will drive the unified shopping experience

    E-commerce or brick-and-mortar retail environments continue to merge, and retailers are in the hot seat to optimize the customer experience.   As a result, the need to adopt innovative technologies to engage shoppers has never been stronger. This was according to the “2017 Customer Experience/Unified Commerce Benchmark Survey” from Boston Retail Partners.   

  • Study: Automation puts millions of U.S. retail jobs at risk

    Automation may be mission-critical to operational longevity in the retail industry, but it could be creating a significant pool of “stranded workers.”   Six million to 7.5 million retail jobs likely will be automated out of existence in the coming years, leaving a large portion of the retail workforce at risk of becoming “stranded workers.” Retail cashiers are at highest risk for automation technologies, and women hold 73% of these positions.  
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