Artificial Intelligence

In an era of Big Data, retailers are finding new ways to leverage that information to improve processes and consumer engagement. However, there’s one area where Big Data can have a big impact that companies in the retail space may be missing: real estate.

Mark Ledbetter, global VP retail strategy for SAP, recently spoke with Chain Store Age about the promise of Big Data for retail real estate, and how retailers can best take advantage of it.

Where does retail real estate data originate?

New York -- The White House on Thursday called on Congress to pass legislation to create a national standard that would alert consumers when their data has been hacked. It one-of-six policy recommendations that comes after a 90-day review of data and privacy.

"As organizations store more information about individuals, Americans have a right to know if that information has been stolen or otherwise improperly exposed," said the report, led by John Podesta, a top advisor to President Barack Obama.

nGage Labs, a leading provider of personalized mobile engagement solutions, has named Kyle Hollaway as chief technology officer.

As CTO, Hollaway will lead the nGage Labs Analytics Innovation team in developing real-time personalization analytics that differentiates the company's mobile customer engagement solutions. He leads an entire team of architects, analysts, modelers, and developers in continuing to create deeper levels of individual customer insights and actionable intelligence.

360pi, a leader in retail price and product intelligence, has unveiled the latest generation of its 360comparables solution targeted to address the unique challenges and opportunities presented by private label brands.

San Francisco – Stock compensation expenses helped produce a net loss of $132.4 million at Twitter Inc. during the first quarter of 2014, compared to a net loss of $27 million in the same quarter of the previous year. Twitter attributed part of the net loss to $126 million in stock compensation expense.

Sport Chalet is turning 55 this year and to mark its anniversary, the retailer is taking a look at some of the biggest fitness trends and milestones from the past five decades, and forecasting trends consumers can expect in the decade to come.

In 1959, Norbert and Irene Olberz opened an intimate ski shop in La Canada Flintridge, Calif. Now there are 51 stores in four states, featuring the industry's top brands across a variety of sports and fitness activities.  

Chicago -- Mobile (including tablet), marketing and personalization were the top three issues that retailers will devote the most time to in 2014, according to the e-tailing group’s 13th Annual Merchant Survey. Omni-channel and platform rounded out the top five concerns.

New York – Analytics solutions provider Ugam is enhancing its pricing intelligence solution with a new pricing engine that delivers real-time, on-demand pricing data for millions of products. The pricing engine monitors online retail prices and consumer signals, and combines that information with proprietary and third-party data to enable retailers to dynamically price items.