Artificial Intelligence

Some are familiar; others not so. Fast Company’s annual list of “The World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Retail” covers a lot of ground in its diversity. Here’s a recap:

1. Nike: Cited for its revolutionary new products and culture of “true believers.”

MCLEAN, Va. — Capital One has teamed up with ShopSavvy to deliver personalized deals from the Capital One deals program to ShopSavvy app users while they shop and search for deals.  By incorporating Capital One’s deals into ShopSavvy’s leading mobile shopping community, customers can receive targeted merchant offers when they matter most – while they shop.

WALTHAM, Mass. — Profitect, provider of software solutions for the retail industry, announced that Daniel Corsten has joined the company’s board of advisors. 

BOSTON — Braintree has been named as a finalist for a 2013 Innovator Award in the category of Most Disruptive by PYMNTS.com.

BOSTON — Merchant Warehouse, a leading innovator of payment technologies and merchant account services, has named Greg Cohen chief revenue and strategy officer. With extensive experience in implementing business strategies, as well as channel and value chain expansion across the payments industry, Cohen will be responsible for expanding partnership, payment and commerce opportunities within the Genius™ Customer Engagement Platform and accountability to ensuring the strength and growth of the company’s existing business.

ROSEVILLE, Calif. — Revionics, aprovider of end-to-end merchandise optimization solutions, has appointed Jeff Edwards as SVP and managing director of Asia Pacific. Edwards has been successfully serving as Revionics’ SVP sales and account management for the company’s North American efforts. In his new role, Edwards will be responsible for strategic sales and business development efforts across the entire Asia Pacific region.

President and CEO of Walmart Global eCommerce, Neil Ashe, made a cameo appearance during Walmart’s fourth quarter earnings presentation to shed light on omnichannel investments that caused the company to forecast 2013 profits below analysts’ estimates.

Walmart’s forecast first quarter earnings in the range of $1.11 to $1.16 and full year earnings in the range of $5.20 to $5.40. Embedded in those numbers are huge investments in ecommerce that will cost the company about nine cents a share.

MENLO PARK, Calif. — As mobile commerce grows in popularity, the need for IT professionals is rising, according to a new survey about IT risk factors for 2013 published by global consulting firm Protiviti. The 2013 IT Priorities Survey (www.protiviti.com/ITsurvey), designed to help IT departments classify areas in need of attention in order to better execute the function's strategic mandate, found that IT executives are struggling to manage the wide variety of technology risk, regulatory compliance and performance challenges that now face them.