Artificial Intelligence

By Gregg Clark, [email protected]

ATLANTA — Supply chain solutions company Predictix has appointed Ronald P. Menich, Ph.D., as its new EVP and chief scientist. 

Predictix provides retailers and brands with platforms and tools that enable them to drive competitive advantage and market differentiation. 

St. Louis -- Build-A-Bear Workshop said Monday that it will open 20 to 25 stores in 2013, all under the newly introduced store design.

The retailer opened six stores under the new design in fall 2012, and said the success of the stores prompted an escalated rollout.

The first three stores to open in 2013 are at the Mall of Georgia in Atlanta on April 26; at Orland Square in Chicago on May 3; and at Northshore Mall in Peabody, Mass. on May 10.

New York -- Walmart is eyeing greater energy efficiency and less reliance on fossil fuels as key drivers of its low cost, low price business model.

The torrent of customer feedback unleashed by e-commerce and social media is a good thing, as long as companies are able to mine the data to identify problems and improve operations.

To help retailers and consumer packaged goods companies address that challenge Empathica, a customer experience management solutions provider, and Semantria, a provider of multi-lingual text analytics, have joined forces to offer new natural language processing capabilities.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Tempur-Pedic has partnered with HGTV to feature a wide range of sleep products in the first-ever HGTV Smart Home, which showcases the latest products in home technology, coupled with eco-friendly features. 

Built by HGTV in the community of Paradise Key South Beach in Jacksonville Beach, Fla., the high-tech home will be awarded to a winner on June 13, as part of an HGTV Smart Home Giveaway.

London -- Brooks Brothers will adopt eCommera’s decision intelligence tool, DynamicAction. Designed to turn big retail data into prioritized actions, the solution integrates siloed data into a commerce-specific cloud solution which will allow the retailer to identify optimization opportunities to improve its overall online commerce performance.
 

Timothy Breene, former chief strategy and corporate development officer and founder and CEO of Accenture Interactive – the fast growing digital media and marketing analytics business – has joined Orchestro’s board of directors to help enable brands worldwide to act with the speed and agility needed to win every inch in today’s tightly matched market.

By Mark Ledbetter, [email protected]

There's a season for everything, and that's no less true for retailers. Merchants have historically enjoyed a central position in the retail universe, driving everything from pricing to availability. How quickly things have changed. Today, try telling a 19-year-old that she can't get a discount on the slightly frayed jeans she found on the discount rack. She'll buy a similar pair online and Tweet about it so fast, it will make your head spin!

New York -- Digital sizing station company Me-Ality said Monday that Bloomingdale’s has partnered with Me-Ality to provide enhanced denim services by installing digital sizing stations in five Bloomingdale’s stores.