Artificial Intelligence

Franklin, Tenn. -- Software companies Square and Epicor lead the fast growing Mobile POS software market in North America according to new research from IHL Group, a global retail research and advisory firm.  

Mobile POS installs are expected to grow by 110% this year as more retailers replace electronic cash registers and POS terminals with mobile devices.

Alburtsland, Denmark – Danish grocery retailer Coop Denmark A/S is implementing the Galleria Retail Technology Solutions Behavioral Cluster Planner. Coop Denmark will use Galleria’s behavioral clustering solution to understand how categories are being shopped.

Deerfield, Ill. -- Walgreens is conducting a developer contest to encourage integration of its Balance Rewards application program interface (API). It allows users of other apps to earn Balance Rewards loyalty program points for making healthy choices, with rewards points redeemed for merchandise in-store or online.
 

Palo Alto, Calif. -- Curbside, a new startup that specializes in same-day pickup from local stores, launched its service on Monday with several retailers on board, including a pilot with Target Corp.

The new service is currently available in 10 Target stores across the greater San Francisco Bay area, including the retailer’s Metreon and Geary St. locations downtown.  

During a keynote at the recent Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco, Tim Theriault, senior VP/CIO of Walgreens, discussed his company’s ongoing efforts at IT innovation. Walgreens has been involved in a number of notable recent innovative technology implementations, but column looks at the underlying strategy that helps ensure the success of those rollouts.

Here are three takeaways other retailers can glean from Walgreens’ innovation strategy:

Dayton, Ohio - Nearly two-thirds (62%) of 400 digital marketers surveyed view improving customer satisfaction as the top reason to invest more in technology. Becoming more customer-centric is a top-two priority for 49% of respondent organizations.  

Scandit, a developer of software-based barcode scanning technology for smartphones, tablets and wearable devices, has released an integrated suite of mobile apps that aims to enhance the consumer shopping experience and retail operations.

Scandit’s Mobile App Suite for Retail provides a series of fully customizable, cross-platform mobile applications for retail employees and customers including: Clienteling, Mobile Point of Sale (mPOS), Mobile Shopping (mShopping), Self-Checkout, Shopping Lists and Procurement.
 

Vantiv, a leading provider of payment processing services and related technology for merchants and financial institutions, has appointed Larry Drury as its chief marketing officer. Drury will report directly to CEO Charles Drucker.

New York -- Twitter is giving over every message ever tweeted to the data scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s famed Media Lab. The social media giant is also giving $10 million (over five years) to fund the new Laboratory for Social Machines (LSM), which will be based at the Media Lab.

Greensboro, N.C. - Convenience store operator Mapco recently partnered with Gilbarco Veeder-Root to install the Impulse upselling platform across 220 sites by the end of 2014. Mapco, which operates 375 stores in the Southeast, is using the Impulse platform to drive dynamic digital content at both the point-of-sale and through their mobile application.