Artificial Intelligence

Minneapolis – Target Corp. is working with content discovery app Shazam to make print and TV ads shoppable through customer phones. The retailer is participating in the initial launch of Shazam’s new visual recognition functionality, which extends its mobile engagement platform allowing everything from packaged goods to print media and more are transformed from static images into dynamic pieces of content.

We live in interesting times when it comes to all the ways we can pay and complete purchases, times when you can now order food for delivery without ever leaving your search engine. More convenient and secure ways of making payments are advancing on a number of interesting fronts, including computer chip enabled EMV credit and debit cards that are soon to replace magnetic stripe cards in the United States, and mobile phone-based digital wallets like Apple Pay and CurrentC (not to mention the digital currency bitcoin, which admittedly we’re pulling for).

Armonk, N.Y. – IBM has released new industry-specific solutions with pre-built predictive analytics capabilities for industries including retail, to uncover and act on critical business insights. IBM is working with retail signature design partners including Urban Outfitters.

San Francisco -- Westfield Corp. and Forest City Enterprises on Thursday unveiled Bespoke, a coworking, event and tech-demo space designed to foster a retail-tech community and support retail innovation at Westfield San Francisco Centre. Bespoke is designed as a space where entrepreneurs, brands and retailers can come together to research, create, collaborate, refine, showcase and debut work within the confines of the shopping center, which features more than 200 retailers and restaurants.

Boston – The stereotype of the beleaguered customer service representative who can’t keep up may have some truth to it. A recent study from Glance Networks, a provider of visual engagement, found that 73% of customer service professionals have difficulty meeting their performance metric goals.

New York -- The Kate Spade New York brand has entered into a partnership with True Fit, a fit personalization service, to provide personalized fit and size recommendations for the brand’s apparel and footwear on Katespade.com.

The site will also feature True Fit’s new shoe user experience that delivers accurate fit ratings and size recommendations to consumers while also communicating the nuance of each shoe style.

Dublin, Ohio – The Wendy’s Company is the latest retail chain to open a dedicated technology center. Wendy’s has launched 90 Degrees Labs near the campus of The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

A new wave of consumers is quickly becoming the most powerful economic force in retail, and it is causing retailers to refine plans on how to meet the needs of this new generation.

While some retailers may see Millennials as a unique group that forces massive change, GameStop sees them as well-informed, independent consumers who are causing us to rise to an even higher level of service.