Artificial Intelligence

HBC Department Store Group has deployed the Swirl in-store beacon marketing platform to deliver digital experiences to consumers' smartphones while they shop in the company's department stores in Canada and the U.S.

Using beacons installed in merchandising areas throughout its stores, Hudson's Bay and Lord & Taylor will automatically deliver branded content and personalized offers to in-store shoppers through an array of company-owned and third-party mobile apps.

Brisbane, Calif. – Bebe Stores Inc. plans to roll out the digital experience management platform from Qubit. Qubit's technology helps marketers gain a deeper understanding of customer data to optimize the customer experience based on insights and intelligence.

Visa has rolled out Visa Digital Solutions, a comprehensive suite of offerings that facilitate secure payments across a broad range of Internet-connected devices and wearables.

Visa Digital Solutions fall into two main categories of supporting new payment models and protecting consumers and supporting innovation: Support for New Payment Methods and Technology That Protects Consumers and Supports Industry Innovation.

Foster City, Calif. – Visa Inc. is introducing Visa Digital Solutions, a comprehensive suite of offerings that facilitate secure payments across a broad range of Internet-connected devices and wearables.

Visa Digital Solutions fall into two main categories of supporting new payment models and protecting consumers and supporting innovation.

Cambridge, U.K. -- Grafton Shopping Centre, Cambridge, is hoping to dazzle shoppers with a “virtual” employee who greets customers when they enter the mall. The shopping center is using the Tensator Virtual Assistant, innovative technology which projects a life-like image of a person.

The display interacts with customers, answering common questions and promoting mall offers. This is the very first use of the technology in a United Kingdom shopping mall.

Redwood City, Calif. -- Oracle Corp. announced it is opening a cloud development center in Seattle, its first such center outside of California. The company, which plans to hire about 100 engineers to start, said it chose Seattle to take advantage of the “deep expertise” in cloud computing available in the city’s rapidly growing technical community.

Boston – Revenue optimization services provider Extraprise is rebranding as QuickPivot and launching a new real-time, cross-channel marketing platform to support lifecycle marketing. The new QuickPivot platform enables marketers to derive customer insight, listen to brand interactions and then adapt campaigns with highly optimized messages and offers to create seamless buying experiences.

Redwood City, Calif. - YottaMark Inc. has enhanced its ShopWell food nutrition app with weekly healthy eating advice from registered dietitians, personalized to the user's dietary goals. In response to member feedback, the ShopWell scoring algorithm has also been enhanced to include support for shoppers with vegetarian and vegan diets, and individuals trying to avoid corn.  

New York -- Sainsbury’s has entered into a unique arrangement that closes the loop on food recycling. Its store in Cannock, Staffordshire, England, has come off the country’s national power grid for day-to-day electricity consumption and is running on power generated solely from food waste from Sainsbury’s supermarkets across the United Kingdom.

The new power supply was built in partnership with waste recycling company Biffa, and uses Biffa’s advanced anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities and a unique power link up.  

Revenue optimization services provider Extraprise is rebranding as QuickPivot and launching a new real-time, cross-channel marketing platform to support lifecycle marketing.

The new QuickPivot platform enables marketers to derive customer insight, listen to brand interactions and then adapt campaigns with highly optimized messages and offers to create seamless buying experiences.