Artificial Intelligence

To simplify retailers’ IT environments while helping them deliver the commerce anywhere experience consumers expect, Oracle unveiled enhancements to its retail portfolio with the launch of Oracle Retail Release14.1. This release builds on Oracle’s strategy for the combination of Oracle and MICROS, as well as its retail offerings in the cloud.

Another January, another NRF “Big Show” in New York. The annual meeting officially kicks off on Sunday. Here’s my early take on what to expect from exhibitors at the show:

1. More Cooperation With Retailers

Karenann Terrell, Walmart’s Chief Information Officer, is among a distinguished group of female executives singled out by Retailing Today sister publication Chain Store Age as The Top 10 Women in Tech.

This is the age of the empowered consumer. Energized by the rapidly accelerating global growth of mobile devices, shoppers now have immediate access to data on products, prices and competitive services. In addition to shifting the balance of power away from retailers and manufacturers, the spread of information and the growth of technologically sophisticated pure-play retailers have contributed to rapidly rising expectations about just how personalized and participatory the shopping experience can be.

Dallas – “Table commerce” (or perhaps “t-commerce”) is not a widely recognized channel of customer engagement, but The Neiman Marcus Group just may change that. Neiman Marcus is piloting three interactive tables from T1Visions in its Austin, Chicago, and Topanga, California, locations.

Lowe’s has a new partner in its pursuit of the connected home market and the lofty goal of making customers’ homes and lives smarter.

The nation’s second largest home improvement retailer will sell new smart home devices in 2015 certified by Icontrol Networks, the company behind the most widely used connected home platform in the industry.

Mooresville, N.C. – Lowe’s is taking its Iris smart home program and trying to make it even smarter, with help from connected home platform provider Icontrol Networks. Starting in early 2015, many Lowe's Iris smart home devices will be certified through Icontrol's OpenHome Developer Program, allowing these devices to work seamlessly with Icontrol-powered solutions.

Omnichannel access to the best merchandise in the world is the objective behind a new digital initiative at Neiman Marcus that has the retail embedding high resolution screen in shoe department tables.

The upscale department store operator worked with touchscreen technology provider T1Visions to create the interactive retail tables which are now live at Neiman’s Austin, Chicago and Los Angeles area stores.