Artificial Intelligence

By Bret Cunningham, president, BestFit Mobile

Charlottesville, Va. – Crutchfield Corp. has adopted the new integrated 360pi-Displaydata solution to realize in-store dynamic pricing. 360pi is working with Displaydata to incorporate Electronic Shelf Labeling (ESL) to give physical stores the ability to employ dynamic pricing.

The new solution is designed to provide retailers with the ability to automate and increase the frequency of in-store price updates without the cost, time, effort and error associated with manual price changes

Seattle – Amazon.com’s net income soared 32% during the first quarter of fiscal 2014, climbing to $108 million from $82 million the same quarter a year earlier. Net sales increased 23% to $19.74 billion in the first quarter, compared with $16.07 billion in first quarter 2013.

New York - Dynamic retail marketing agency TPN is hiring analytics industry veteran Taymour Matin as managing director, data and analytics, a newly created position. Previously, analytics folded into TPN's planning and perspectives team, but as part of TPN's growth strategy, the new department has been created to better capitalize on the agency's proprietary research and technology-driven retail analytical capabilities.

Austin, Texas – Performance marketing solutions provider iProspect has launched "Search-Powered Social, a hosted service that utilizes data captured via paid search through Facebook's Website Custom Audiences offering. This allows marketers to build lookalike audiences on Facebook, which target segments resembling a brand's most loyal consumers.

Aria Systems, a leading innovator in recurring revenue management, has appointed Adeeb Shanaa to VP of products as part of the company's global expansion initiative. Shanaa will report directly to Aria Systems CEO Tom Dibble.

Amazon continues to power ahead with record first quarter sales, solid bottom line improvement and intriguing new initiatives to drive future performance.

Sales increased 23% to $19.7 billion during the quarter ended March 31, compared to $16 billion the prior year. The sales figure was comprised of product sales which grew 18.3% to $15.7 billion and service sales which grew 44% to slightly more than $4 billion. The company’s fulfillment costs increased 29% to $2.3 billion.

Waconia, Minn. - Mackenthun's Fine Foods is rolling out a suite of nutrition tools through a partnership with ShopWell, a personalized nutrition app. Shoppers in Mackenthun's will be able to learn about the health benefits of foods, find healthier alternatives for their nutrition goals, and avoid allergens.