Artificial Intelligence

New York -- Amazon.com narrowed its loss in the third quarter and posted a better-than-expected 25% increase in sales. The online giant reported a net loss of $41 million, down from $274 million in the year-ago period, in line with expectations.

Amazon reported revenue of $17.1 billion, beating expectations by about 2% on strong sales growth, particularly in the U.S. market.

Amazon.com continued to lose money during its third quarter, although considerably less than a year ago, as its sales advanced 24% to more than $17 billion.

After the market closed on Thursday, Amazon reported a net loss of $41 million, or nine cents a share, during the quarter ended September 30, versus a net loss the prior year of $274 million, or 60 cents a share. The reduced loss coupled with sales of $17. 1 billion which exceeded analysts’ estimate of $16.8 billion caused shares to surge in after hours trading.

Chico, Calif. – Online home improvement retailer Build.com has successfully deployed 360price, 360pi’s exact match solution, to monitor pricing for more than a billion permutations and combinations of products, categories and competitors. Build.com seeks to leverage real-time price intelligence to drive conversions, revenues and margins.
 

Coupons.com has appointed former Safeway executive Mir Aamir as the company’s CFO and COO.

Pritzker Group Venture Capital, formerly New World Ventures, has invested $45 million in Chicago-based SMS Assist, a leading mobile and cloud-based facilities maintenance technology company.  
 

Online retailer Rue La La will be leveraging Artisan Mobile’s Artisan Optimize platform to enhance its mobile technology.

"We are excited to be working with Artisan Optimize to directly impact the results of our mobile app," said Gerry McGoldrick, VP, Marketing, Rue La La. "Through their technology we are learning what drives conversions and, more importantly, we are able to make changes quickly and easily to keep consumers engaged."

Framingham, Mass. – IDC Retail Insights research director Leslie Hand has been named to the 2013 Top 50 Retail Influencers list developed by point-of-sale, inventory and customer loyalty software provider Vend. Hand has spent the last 25-plus years in the retail technology industry, and prior to joining IDC Retail Insights was the director of global RIFD strategy for Ahold.

More stores will be open on Thanksgiving, which is also the first full day of Hanukkah

Those who fail to plan, plan to fail. It's hard to believe that September is already here — time for retailers to attend to the holiday shopping season. We at ShopperTrak recommend the following ways to prepare for the coming busy months.

> Maximize opportunities during the shorter selling season.