Artificial Intelligence

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.

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.

Hollywood, Calif. - Direct-to-consumer cosmetics retailer GlamOn Inc. is operating an automated beauty store at Harrah's Resort Southern California in Valley Center, California. The store is based on an automated retailing system from AVT Inc.

The system is the first of its kind that provides luxury beauty products, skin care, hair care, grooming items and gifts, from an automated retailing center. The selections are usually only sold in luxury stores, upscale dermatologist offices, and exclusive spas, as well as the GlamOn e-commerce site.

By Deena Coffman, IDT911 Consulting

Retailers working to improve their security posture have a new threat to consider: Backoff malware. Although its appearances have been traced back as early as October 2013, Backoff is still inflicting harm in the retail sector by actively targeting point-of-sale systems, and the United State is its favorite target, according to TrendMicro’s analysis.

Staples has enlisted Kenshoo, a global leader in predictive media optimization technology, and RevTrax, a promotions platform that drives and measures in-store sales through digital coupons, to help the company optimize omnichannel campaigns in Canada.

Chain Store Age is excited to announce a partnership with Sunnyvale, California-based business accelerator Plug and Play. Plug and Play’s Retail Accelerator has joined forces with leading brands and retailers in order to foster the growth of retail-focused startups during a 12-week startup program in Silicon Valley. A round table of corporations, venture capitalists and industry experts guide the direction of the program.

I’m excited to announce a new partnership Chain Store Age is launching with Plug and Play Tech Center, an innovative Silicon Valley tech startup investor whose mission is to connect promising tech startups with retail corporations in an attempt to help retailers transition into the technological age. From time to time, you will be seeing Plug and Play-related content on our site and in our magazine.