Artificial Intelligence

Giving consumers the power to negotiate can transform e-commerce
E-commerce has changed the way consumers purchase products, but until very recently, the basic structure of the transaction and sale itself hadn’t evolved much: People browse for products they want, compare prices across sites, maybe submit a code for a discount coupon if they have one and make a purchase. But a recent development points to a big change on the horizon for ecommerce, and the symptom is the massive sales growth achieved by major retailers who have embraced the new model.
Specialty retailer Sabon boosts digital holiday sales with Dynamic Yield personalization
New York – Omnichannel specialty bath and beauty product brand Sabon boosted its online sales 35% during Black Friday and Cyber Monday by implementing Dynamic Yield’s personalization engine. Sabon saw lifts across key metrics including user engagement, total page views, time spent on site and sales.

Facebook improves search with mobile emphasis

Menlo Park, Calif. – Facebook is improving its Facebook Search feature with emphasis on personalized results and mobile functionality. The social network has updated its internal search feature to provide uniquely targeted results designed to make it easy for users to find posts that have been shared with them.
IBM, Apple introduce MobileFirst retail apps

Armonk, N.Y. – IBM and Apple are releasing the first wave of their previously announced IBM MobileFirst for iOS solutions in a new class of made-for-business apps and supporting cloud services. IBM MobileFirst for iOS solutions are now available to enterprise customers in retail, among other industries.
Online Shoppers To Brick-and-Mortar Stores: Time for a Facelift

By Steve Jones What’s going to keep people coming back to physical store locations, as comfort levels with e-commerce rise every year? Savvy retailers are fighting technology with technology, refreshing the look and feel of their stores by integrating more gadgets, and using data in a more integrated way to inform strategy. In-store tech helps retailers beat e-tailers at their own game
Tech Guest Viewpoint - Proximity Marketing brings Shoppers to Stores

By Alex Romanov, iSign Media The holiday season is a time of family, food, and frenzied shopping. Consumers are bombarded by messages, promotions, discounts, and offers, and retailers have to be smart about how they reach out to their customers. Email blasts or paper coupons just won’t cut it. In this mobile-obsessed era, proximity marketing is a powerful way to break through the noise and bring shoppers into your store.
JDA Software launches innovation lab

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona - JDA Software announced the creation of JDA Labs – a research and development group assembled to drive game-changing innovation. This global team, headquartered in Montreal, will innovate new and existing products and deliver patents, best practices and entirely new products to the market. JDA Labs currently is driving research and innovation around three key areas: data science, user experience and product innovation.
New pricing model enables Amazon customers to negotiate prices in select categories

SEATTLE - Amazon.com has added a new feature, called ‘Make an Offer,’ that allows customers to negotiate lower prices on thousands of items. The new pricing feature allows customers to offer to buy items at even lower prices. If agreed upon, customers can then purchase the items at a savings from the listed price.
Food City lets customers do it themselves with self-checkout

Abingdon, Va. – Sometimes the best customer services comes from customers themselves. Food City, K-V-A-T Food Stores Inc. has completed a pilot test of the Fujistsu U-Scan Genesis II self-checkout solution.
Experts Speak Out: Bebe Data Breach

Adam Kujawa, head of Malware Intelligence at Malwarebytes Labs, research arm of the anti-malware company: “It looks like the payment systems for (Bebe’s) U.S. stores were attacked, meaning that most likely they were all using the same software/hardware that had the same vulnerability. Unfortunately, without additional technical explanations, exactly what was vulnerable on those systems will remain a secret and we can only hope that the same vulnerability isn’t going to be used against another retailer.”
Tech Guest Viewpoint: Shape Demand with Predictive Analytics

If you talk to retail industry stakeholders about their business priorities for 2015, you will likely hear about their continued focus on omnichannel. But the overall environment is starting to feel different than in years past. Words like “transformation” and “action” are being used to recap the 2014 business landscape. We’re moving past defining omnichannel and now focusing on implementation.
Salesforce: Consumers still like email

San Francisco – Although email is at the point it’s often considered a “legacy” technology, a slight majority of consumers still prefer it for holiday communication from retailers. According to a new consumer survey from Salesforce, 53% of respondents said that email is their preferred communication channel during the holidays.