Artificial Intelligence

Selfies are taking on a new role when it comes to driving the guest experience at Ulta Beauty.   With e-commerce sales jumping 59.1% for the third quarter — on top of 56.3% growth last year — the beauty retailer is pulling out all of the stops when it comes to evolving and upgrading the guest experience. Once of the company’s newest initiatives is its Glam Lab.  

At a time when consumers have been trained to hold out for the sale, lingerie retailer Etam has entered into a partnership with First Insights designed to empower the brand to get the product and price right the first time.       

Mall of America is debuting new wayfinding kiosks that expand the concept of the typical mall directory.         The mall recently installed six interactive wayfinding kiosks, from Express Image, that provide shoppers with customized assistance in as little as 10-20 seconds.   

Visa’s new acquisition promises consumers more digital security when making payments on their laptop, mobile app, or connected device.   Visa is acquiring e-commerce payment authentication provider CardinalCommerce, a move that will enable the card issuer to deliver shoppers more secure, seamless digital payments, and help accelerate digital commerce. While Visa did not disclose financial terms of the transaction, the deal is expected to close in Visa’s second fiscal quarter 2017.  

This holiday season shoppers will see many new high-tech and digital advancements in stores, from self-service kiosks and free Wi-Fi to mobile pay and retail apps. In the coming years, shoppers may even find robots helping them face-to-face.  

The need for digital transformation, more integrated IT and operations, business security, and rethinking the future of work are among the themes that dominate IDC Retail Insight’s top 10 predictions for worldwide retail 2017.   While the predictions largely focus on the near- to mid-term (2017–2020), the impact, in some instances, will be felt for years to come, according to IDC. Most of the predictions refer to a continuum of change within the wider ecosystem of the retail industry and global economy.

Ashley Furniture is jumping into virtual and augmented reality to help shoppers visualize how furnishings can fit into a space more accurately.    The retailer is launching a company-wide virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) initiative that is designed to enable consumers to create interior layouts and experience living spaces in 3D. Ashley Furniture will create and scale its product catalogue for AR and VR, and publish new 3D product experiences, with a platform from augmented reality and virtual reality provider Marxent.