Artificial Intelligence

The term “impulse buy” has a negative connotation to many. Picking up that guilty pleasure snack in the checkout line at the supermarket, that gadget you don’t really need, or those shoes that are on sale all qualify.

Global technology platform and payments provider PayPal Holding, Inc. has appointed VP of global payments infrastructure (GPI) Sri Shivananda as the company’s new senior VP and CTO, effective April 1.

Shivananda’s appointment follows the decision by current CTO James Barrese, to step down to take time off. Barrese will remain with PayPal for a period of time to support a smooth transition period.

Some of the biggest names in e-commerce are part of a new investor index designed to track the performance of the online retail market.

San Diego-based EQM Indexes LLC, created the index (ticker symbol: IBUYXT) to track the combined performance of 40 to 50 global stocks that derive at least 70% of their revenue from online retail and virtual commerce including the online retail, online marketplace and online travel market segments. The companies that make up the index can be seen here.

Pitney Bowes isn’t the first name that comes to mind when thinking of e-commerce, but the global technology company is out to change that perception by doing something for the first time in two decades.

In the face of an increasingly complex retail real estate investment environment, and a world where constantly evolving technology enables us to be connected 24/7 with both current and potential partners, as well as have access to real-time market and property data and analytics at our fingertips, retailers and commercial real estate professionals are being increasingly challenged to be more nimble, flexible and connected than ever before — and to find new ways to maximize efficiency and productivity in the non-stop deal-making environment.

We often talk about how to avoid, deter and block bots. But much opportunity lies in figuring out how to distinguish between good and bad bots, and to understand how the distinctions change across applications and environments, especially within the retail industry.

Dating websites exploit data relationships to find great matches and the same approach can help retailers make a love connection with their customers.

Online dating is a huge success story. Estimated to be a $2 billion global business, about one in every ten Americans is using an online site or mobile dating app to look for love today.

For all their talk about the customer, most retailers have yet to evolve to a business model that is truly customer-centric.

That’s the conclusion of a new industry study by strategic consulting firm The O Alliance that was created in partnership with Revmetri.