Artificial Intelligence

While holiday forecasts are just starting to come out, most industry experts agree that retailers can expect mobile to command a bigger share of online shopping. Forrester projects $294 billion in e-commerce sales across 30 retail categories in 2014, with $87 billion of the total occurring on phones and tablets in 2014. A report by IBM forecasts that mobile will account for more than 20% of site sales and more than 43% of site traffic, by November 2014.

“Mobile should be a primary purchase channel within a few years,” said Bill Davis, director of MB&G Consulting.

AccuStore, a leading provider of site intelligence for retailers and multi-site operators, has added former ShopperTrak president and CEO Jan Davis to the board of AccuStore’s parent company, GSP.

San Francisco – Icix, a provider of supply chain risk management technology, is expanding its Audit Manager suite. Audit Manager applications help companies automate and streamline their audit programs to provide more insight and verification of trading partners’ practices and facilities.

The Icix Audit Manager Suite now includes:

Combining system controls in refrigeration, HVAC and lighting is key

Retail facility directors continually look for ways to drive down operational costs, but are limited in their efforts without a strong control system. Installation of a facility control system can provide savings and improve operations of a small-format retail store if adhered to well.

Why is it important to use controls to ensure store policies are being enforced?

Menlo Park, Calif. – Women’s online shopping marketplace Poshmark is launching PoshMatch, a social merchandising engine that combines community curation and algorithmic technology to match shoppers to merchandise based on their social activity in the app. With PoshMatch, each shopper is greeted with their own real-time storefront built from their personal fashion shopping network and their style preferences.

Houston - Luby’s, operator of the Luby’s and Fuddruckers casual dining brands, is expanding its use of the EyeQinsights system. The EyeQ solution learns about in-store shoppers and uses customer activity, demographics and preferences to enable retailers to instantly customize each shopper’s experience.

By Nicole Chen, brand outreach associate and Michael Olmstead, director, Plug and Play Retail

In today’s day and age, technology pervades into every aspect of our lives. With an emphasis on the fast and easy, nearly all of our day-to-day transactions are now being condensed and expressed through technological gateways. With new trends appearing in the startup space and technology industry every day, it is often difficult to choose what is a good investment and what may turn out to be a dud.

Cambridge, Mass. – More than three-quarters of digital marketers say loyalty program success depends on how well they do personalization. According to “Refresh Your Approach to 1:1 Marketing,” a new survey of digital marketers from Forrester Consulting on behalf of ExactTarget Marketing Cloud, about half (48%) of digital marketers say they face challenges in personalizing individual consumer interactions.