Artificial Intelligence

It’s no secret that today’s teens and twenty-somethings have grown up on social media and see it as an extension of their everyday lives. But retailers who think they can just display a bunch of wares on a social media page and attract Millennial shoppers are sadly mistaken. A panel of five exceptionally bright and well-spoken Millennial consumers ages 16-21 (all offspring of prominent retail IT figures) at the recent Retail ROI “Super Saturday” event in New York gave some frank insight into how Millennials view social media.

Demand forecasting, inventory allocation and replenishment — the unsung building blocks of every successful retail enterprise — have gained a new level of respect with retailers striving to deliver the omnichannel experience shoppers demand.

Sport Chek has opened a flagship in the largest shopping mall in North America: West Edmonton Mall, Edmonton, Alberta (Canada). The sporting goods retailer has woven interactive technology and digital installations throughout the 80,000-sq.-ft. space, which is designed to offer a personalized shopping experience that connects consumers to the sports they are passionate about.

Toronto -- Hudson’s Bay and Lord & Taylor are offering True Fit’s fit personalization technology to consumers at TheBay.com and LordandTaylor.com. In less than 60 seconds, consumers can create a True Fit profile at either site, enabling them to get a personal fit rating and size recommendation for every style.

Aplharetta, Ga. - Catavolt, Inc., a provider of enterprise application mobility solutions, has launched the Catavolt for AirWatch app in the AirWatch Marketplace and Apple’s App Store. Catavolt’s cloud platform will enable AirWatch customers to rapidly and securely create new mobile apps that seamlessly integrate with existing enterprise systems.

Washington, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation on Monday urged Congress to take a comprehensive approach as it contemplates a national response to criminal cyber attacks in which millions of consumers’ credit and debit card numbers were stolen. NRF said retailers are willing to do their part to improve security, but that banks and card companies must also take major steps to shore up the current fraud-prone payments system.

By Rory Dennis, Amplience

Facebook just reported record levels of user engagement along with fourth quarter sales and profits that blew away forecasts, but a new study offers a more measured view of the social media network’s longer term prospects.

The director of the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future Jeffrey Coles and the research firm Bovitz conducted a survey last fall in which one third of respondents said they will be using Facebook less in five years.

San Francisco -- The trend of companies adopting recurring revenue surged in 2013, with brand names using new billing and pricing models to grow sales and deepen customer loyalty. Recurring revenue technology provider Aria Systems projects this surge will continue in 2014 as more companies adopt recurring revenue models because of their flexibility and convenience for customers.

Las Vegas – The new MicroStrategy Analytics app for iPad allows users to get an optimized mobile view of their organizations’ analytical insights, while the MicroStrategy Analytics app enables users to connect to their analytics applications, and securely browse through project folders of grids, graphs, visual insights, visualizations and dashboards.