Artificial Intelligence

New York -- Aimee Soft, a Tel Aviv-based software company, has become an affiliate member of The O Alliance, adding a service that helps brands identify products most likely to result in online transactions.

Sunnyvale, Calif. -- Boomerang Commerce, a provider of omnichannel pricing technology, announced that Office Depot, Sears, and Groupon have deployed Boomerang’s Price Perception Index and rapid pricing testing platform.

Boomerang enables revenue growth and protects margins by rapidly analyzing, testing and deploying smart pricing, inventory and assortment strategies.

In addition, Boomerang unveiled two executive hires to help scale the team and the company’s global sales and marketing efforts.

St. Louis -- Build-A-Bear Workshop said its total revenue fell 5% in the first quarter amid harsh winter weather between Valentine’s Day and Easter in North America.  

The chain’s profit for the quarter, ended March 29, totaled a better-than-expected $8.3 million, compared with from $5.1 million in the year-ago period.

Total revenues were $93.4 million, less than expected, compared to $97.9 million in year-ago period. Revenue was also negatively impacted by fiscal 2014 having a 53rd week, the company said.

Minneapolis -- Quantum Retail Technology, a provider of merchandise optimization and inventory solutions for retail, announced that The Children's Place has selected Quantum's Q Analytics for Size and Pack Optimization. The solution joins The Children's Place's implementation of Quantum's Q for Allocation and Replenishment, due to go live this year, and their planned implementation of Quantum's Q for Order Planning.

East Cleveland, Ohio -- GE Lighting and Qualcomm Atheros, a subsidiary of Qualcomm Inc., have announced a collaboration to bring indoor positioning technology to retailers, allowing the retailers to pinpoint shoppers’ locations and use mobile apps to personalize the in-store experience.

Only 53% of executives believe the EMV chip and pin will protect against a data breach, despite claims that it is more secure, according to a new study.

Toronto - Canadian Tire Corp. is opening its new “'Digital Garage” in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, in Canada's “Silicon Valley North.” The new facility is the second digital innovation lab for Canadian Tire, situated near its Communitech lab, and will allow the company's top digital innovators to develop new in-store and online technologies at a faster pace.

San Francisco - Visa Inc. is expanding its technology research capabilities globally and appointing Min Wang to senior VP of Visa Research Labs. Wang joins Visa from Google Research, where she was a senior staff research scientist focused on data mining.

She also held senior staff research roles at HP Labs China and at the Unified Data Analytics Department at the IBM Watson Research Center.