Artificial Intelligence

Google is reportedly looking to beef up its professional apps offering by purchasing a well-known provider of hosted online retail services. According to Re/Code, Google is considering purchasing Shopify. The Canadian provider of cloud-based e-commerce tools is a public company valued at $2.25 billion. [Re/Code]

Photo: Amazon Dash

More powerful than a smartphone and more portable than a laptop, tablet computers offer retail design and construction professionals some unique opportunities.

In a session at Chain Store Age’s SPECS 2016 conference at Hilton Anatole in Dallas, March 13-15, “Tablets Unlocked,” Bart Waldeck, CMO and senior VP of product strategy for Tango, identified the top five opportunities tablets offer the store development process.

Target Corp. is expanding the management of its technology organization with two new executive hires.

Tom Kadlec will join Target as senior VP of infrastructure and operations. He will be tasked with leading efforts to modernize and enhance Target’s technology foundation. The company also announced the hiring of Joel Crabb as VP of architecture, with responsibility for enterprise architecture, agile practices and Application Program Interfaces (APIs).

Best Buy Co. Inc. is expanding a series of programs and partnerships designed to ensure the availability of a crucial IT component – human talent.

As part of this ongoing initiative, in spring 2016, the Best Buy Teen Tech Center network will open four new centers that offer year-round after-school programming. And from May through September, more than 6,000 students will attend free Geek Squad Academy (GSA) two-day sessions in communities around the country.

Consumers have spoken, and there is a definite number of retailer emails that crosses the line.

According to a new survey of more than 1,000 U.S. shoppers from customer targeting technology provider First Insight, the average consumer subscribes to 2.3 retailer email lists and receives 13.1 emails a week from these lists.

Technology-themed sessions were in abundance at Chain Store Age’s 52nd annual SPECS conference, which was held March 13-15 at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas. The conference focuses on store planning/design, equipment, construction and facility services, and IT is slowly but surely becoming a much bigger part of this end of the retail enterprise.

Here are three technology-related learnings from the conference.

Buildings get smart

Technology-themed sessions were in abundance at Chain Store Age’s 52nd annual SPECS conference, which was held March 13-15 at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas.

The conference focuses on store planning/design, equipment, construction and facility services, and IT is slowly but surely becoming a much bigger part of this end of the retail enterprise.