Artificial Intelligence

Armonk, N.Y. -- In five years, buying local will beat online. That is one of five predictions that appear on IBM’s eight annual “IBM 5 in 5” forecast, which the company describes as a list of innovations that have the potential to change the way people work, live and interact during the next five years.

eBay has completed its previously announced acquisition of Braintree, a global payment platform powering the next generation of leading online and mobile-first startups.

In accordance with the terms of the acquisition agreement announced Sept. 26, eBay acquired Braintree for total consideration of approximately $800 million in cash.

Seattle -- Shoefitr, which provides improved fit and sizing information for customers buying shoes online, has partnered with Nordstrom to help customers shopping on Nordstrom.com find the right fit. As part of the partnership, Nordstrom has also made an investment in Shoefitr.

The capability is now live on Nordstrom.com and uses Shoefitr's 3-D imaging software to provide size and fit recommendations on some of the company's most popular shoe styles that the customer is interested in buying.

By Len Shneyder, Senior Marketing Manager, OtherLevels

The numbers are out and they don’t lie: Almost 40% of all online traffic during Black Friday was driven by mobile devices. That figure is up 34% from the previous year, according to IBM’s Holiday Benchmark. But what’s more impressive than that is that nearly one-fifth of all online sales during the holiday shopping bonanza came from mobile devices.

Austin, Texas -- Merchandise optimization solution-provider Revionics said that it has entered into a multi-year agreement with DIXY Group, one of Russia’s largest national retail operators in the food retail market, to provide Revionics price optimization solution to the company’s DIXY Neighborhood Stores, which includes 1,580 retail stores.

New York -- Analysis has uncovered a 46% increase in social networking referrals to top 500 retail websites during the most critical week of the year, just one of four key trends identified in a report by Experian Marketing Services.

The 2013 holiday marketing analysis from the holiday shopping season's peak week, the period beginning Thanksgiving and ending on Cyber Monday, cited the following four trends:

Pleasanton, Calif. -- Safeway has made its online grocery shopping website more accessible and usable for Safeway shoppers with visual impairments.

Safeway collaborated with its visually impaired customers to make the necessary changes to its website. As such, the company has adopted the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.0 level AA as its accessibility standard.

Boston – Eight-in-10 (77%) consumers would be willing to share their smartphone location data as long as they received enough value in return. A new study from in-store mobile marketing platform provider Swirl also revealed that consumers are much more likely to entrust their location information to their favorite retailers (65%) than to shopping/deals apps, Google or Facebook.

By Rajashree R, Tata Consultancy Services

Eight-in-10 (77%) consumers would be willing to share their smartphone location data as long as they received enough value in return.

A new study from in-store mobile marketing platform provider Swirl also revealed that consumers are much more likely to entrust their location information to their favorite retailers (65%) than to shopping/deals apps, Google or Facebook.