Artificial Intelligence

By Jeff Warren

The theme of SAP’s annual Sapphire conference, in Orlando, Florida, was “Run Simple.” SAP focused on how its HANA business intelligence platform and growing number of HANA-powered applications can assist companies with the complicated task of creating simple enterprises that run on real-time data.

However, underneath the SAP-specific information was a lot of more general insight into how IT is disrupting the way businesses operate and engage their customers. Following are three insights with particular relevance for retailers.

Tyler, Texas – Millennials are gaining buying power, and a substantial shift to Millennials in the retail marketplace will occur by 2020. For 152-store supermarket retailer Brookshire Grocery Co., the time to start reacting to this developing change is now.

“We needed to figure out how to market to this customer base and make it relevant to them,” said John D’Anna, senior VP and CIO of Brookshire Grocery.

Armonk, N.Y. -- IBM and Facebook on Wednesday announced they are teaming up to help retailers and other brands provide more personalization in their marketing efforts on the social network.

The two companies said they are now working together to integrate Facebook’s existing ad technologies, such as Custom Audiences, into IBM’s array of tools and services for retailers.

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has a vast and complicated corporate infrastructure, but that doesn’t stop the world’s largest retailer from pursuing fast, fact-based decisions based on technology innovation. During a keynote address at the SAP SAPPHIRE conference in Orlando, Florida, Wal-Mart CIO Karenann Terrell described Wal-Mart’s approach to decisions and data.

Reston, Va. -- Nearly one-half (44%) of retailers used more than five mobile business applications in 2014, while 82% of retailers were able to build a mobile business app in one day or less, according to the “2nd Annual Mobile Business Application Survey” of business and IT decision makers by Canvas.

Among the key survey findings:

St. Louis -- Build-A-Bear Workshop said its total revenue fell 5% in the first quarter amid harsh winter weather between Valentine’s Day and Easter in North America.  

The chain’s profit for the quarter, ended March 29, totaled a better-than-expected $8.3 million, compared with from $5.1 million in the year-ago period.

Total revenues were $93.4 million, less than expected, compared to $97.9 million in year-ago period. Revenue was also negatively impacted by fiscal 2014 having a 53rd week, the company said.

New York -- Global beauty sales, already a nearly $400 billion market, is on the verge of explosive growth from emerging markets, but will see an industry in flux as consolidation and technology disrupt channels of distribution, according to Fung Business Intelligence Centre’s just-released Global Beauty Report.

New York -- Aimee Soft, a Tel Aviv-based software company, has become an affiliate member of The O Alliance, adding a service that helps brands identify products most likely to result in online transactions.

Sunnyvale, Calif. -- Boomerang Commerce, a provider of omnichannel pricing technology, announced that Office Depot, Sears, and Groupon have deployed Boomerang’s Price Perception Index and rapid pricing testing platform.

Boomerang enables revenue growth and protects margins by rapidly analyzing, testing and deploying smart pricing, inventory and assortment strategies.

In addition, Boomerang unveiled two executive hires to help scale the team and the company’s global sales and marketing efforts.