Artificial Intelligence

Retailers employing variety of solutions to reinvent the checkout

The store is generally considered to represent the “last mile” of the retail supply chain. In recent years, retailers have focused on making this final, crucial step as easy and convenient for customers as possible.

I don’t mean for this column to become a running commentary on the latest goings-on at Amazon.com, but there’s no escaping the fact that after two decades, the e-commerce pioneer remains at the forefront of digital commerce innovation. One area where Amazon has particularly excelled is at creating new form factors for consuming its content and buying its goods, and the recent release of the Amazon Fire smartphone is the latest example.

Kahuna, a marketing automation company for mobile, is touting its new Conversion Campaigns as a “first-of-its-kind solution” that it says can translate consumer interest into “significant” mobile sales and revenue.

According to Kahuna, its customers, such as 1-800-Flowers and Karmaloop, have already experienced an 18 to 33% uplift in revenue from these mobile users thanks to Conversion Campaigns.

Scottsdale, Ariz. – Big Data pricing solution vendor Clear Demand is partnering with competitive price intelligence provider 360pi. Under this joint initiative, 360pi’s real-time price intelligence is fed into Clear Demand’s pricing platform, which in turn alerts retailers to competitive price changes, including compliance with product-line and pricing rules, and helps manage competitive price strategy.

New York – L’Oreal Paris is releasing Makeup Genius, a free mobile app that uses advanced facial mapping technology to turn the front-facing iPhone and iPad camera into a virtual mirror that allows women to try on products in real-time. Makeup Genius allows consumers to scan a L'Oreal Paris product or advertisement to detect a color match, virtually try on individual products or test out curated looks from expert makeup artists, and share with friends and family on Facebook.

New York -- Google announced that it has acquired video advertising provider mDialog.

In a post on Google+, the web giant said it will work with the mDialog team to incorporate their technology and expertise into its DoubleClick online advertising platform product suite.
 

L’Oréal Paris has unveiled a free mobile app called Makeup Genius that allows users to try on products in real time by using advanced facial mapping technology.

Users can also scan a L'Oréal Paris product or advertisement to detect a color match, virtually try on individual products or test out curated looks from expert makeup artists, and share with friends and family on Facebook.
 

Oakville, Canada – Tim Hortons is launching the TimmyMe app for Windows 8 devices. Unique to the TimmyMe App on Windows 8 phones is the addition of voice recognition software, which allows users to launch the mobile barcode payment screen on their TimmyMe app by saying, "TimmyMe pay."