Artificial Intelligence

It’s early evening in Chicago circa 2020. A courier company van sits in traffic, toting Target packages ordered from a customer’s phone at noon for delivery by end of the day (called AM/PM delivery). Nearby, a car contains a single mom who drives part-time for Deliv; she’s stressed because she may not make the time window selected by a Macy’s customer earlier that day.  

The latest posting from the McMillanDoolittle blog:

Target announced a partnership with Instacart in Target’s hometown of Minneapolis. This is Target’s first experiment with same-day delivery of products, and it coincides with the expansion of their grocery and fresh business.

Target Corp. has operated an innovation lab in San Francisco since 2013, but now the retailer is eyeing a more accelerated and outward-focused approach to innovation.

In collaboration with Boulder, Colorado-based startup accelerator Techstars, Target is creating a new retail accelerator program that will launch next year in Minneapolis.

Target Corp. is going high-tech with efforts to improve employee fitness. All 335,000 U.S. employees of Target will be offered free or subsidized wearable digital activity trackers from Fitbit Inc.

As part of the program, management will have a dashboard that can track individual employees by activities such as how many steps they take in a day. The basic FitBit Zip device will be provided free, or Target will help employees pay for a costlier FitBit wristband device.

Visual marketing platform provider Olapic, which turns consumer-generated photos and videos into brand assets for use in marketing, is teaming up with a major social network.

Olapic is now part of the Facebook Marketing Partner Program.

Online shoppers looking for a sofa in that perfect shade of leather will enjoy new technology being rolled out by Wayfair.

The leading furniture e-commerce retailer announced that, in partnership with tech solutions provider roOomy, high-resolution image renderings based on 3D product models will be available on DwellStudio and Birch Lane. Now, customers shopping on these sites will be able to experiment with multiple textures and fabrics, and see 360-degree views to find the perfect pieces of furniture for their home.

Silicon Valley’s Winchester House confounds visitors from around the world. An eccentric heiress spent decades adding endless rooms and hallways, doors that lead to nowhere, and random structural additions — turning a home into an inscrutable, imposing and meandering oddity.