Artificial Intelligence

2Checkout, a global online payments provider, has appointed Shawn Budde as CEO. The hire caps a months-long executive search headed by former CEO Tom Dailey, who continues to serve on the board of directors and is an active investor in 2Checkout.

Canadian Tire plans to manufacture digital innovation at a new “App Factory,” that is part of the retailer’s recently open Cloud Nine Digital Innovation Centre.

Located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the 28,000-sq.-ft.- facility serves as the core digital hub for the Canadian Tire family of companies and a store network of roughly 1,700 locations. The center will possess 20 times more computing power and 10 times more network bandwidth than the company’s existing technology infrastructure.

As retail executives, our people come first: finding, training, mentoring, helping them grow to get to the next level and realize a fulfilling career in an industry we love. Our people are absolutely crucial to delivering on customer expectations. And, as we all know, those expectations only continue to rise.

Armonk, N.Y. -- IBM said Tuesday that its Watson unit has invested in Fluid, a digital commerce firm, to develop personalized shopping applications using IBM’s cognitive computing tools.

New York – Nine basic attack patterns that vary from industry to industry are the source of 92% of the 100,000 security incidents analyzed by Verizon since 2004.

Kroger has unveiled a bold initiative to digitize every aspect of its physical store in an effort to measure a breadth of operational metrics to enhance the shopper experience.

Back in October, I commemorated my six-month anniversary as technology editor of Chain Store Age with a column looking at how retail IT has been disrupted in recent years. Now that I have a full year under my belt, I thought it would be interesting to look at how customer expectations of retail IT have been disrupted in recent years (and don’t worry, there will be no 18-month anniversary piece). Three paradigm-shifting changes in how retailers must now engage with customers using technology stand out.

Every Man is an Island

Whole Foods is experimenting with transforming food waste generated at stores into organic fertilizer by using a piece of equipment called the WISErg Harvester.

The Harvester is a piece of equipment with a footprint about the size of a typical pallet that promises to change the way retailers dispose of food waste. The Harvester unit ingests food scraps from overripe produce and unsold prepared foods and converts them into a liquid that can be made into an organic fertilizer.

By Mark Bower, Voltage Security

Luxury brand Burberry has opened a new, tech-savvy flagship in Shanghai, its largest in China to date. Inspired by Burberry’s Regent Street flagship in London, the three-level store seamlessly blends digital and physical displays, immersing customers in the Burberry brand.