Artificial Intelligence

NEW YORK — Members-only luxury retailer Gilt Groupe announced that it is launching a new standalone website for men. According to the company, Park & Bond (www.parkandbond.com) merges a curated selection of the world's best brands with a continuously updated mix of editorial content designed to give guys the inspiration and advice they need to look their best.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — MyBuys, a leader in cross-channel personalization for retailers, announced that Neil Patil has joined the company as SVP marketing.

The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) is taking place this week (July 10 – 14) in Los Angeles, with some 15,000 from around the globe in attendance at the Staples Center. It’s a huge event, with over 100 breakout sessions each day, 22 regional keynotes and country breakouts. To kick-off the show, CEO Steve Ballmer said that, thanks to partners, Windows 7 has sold more than 400 million licenses in less than two years, and is still the fastest-selling operating system in history.

Here are some  other interesting tidbits from the conference:

By Daniel Burrus, burrus.com

Retail site selection is not just a matter of available real estate. It’s an analytical challenge that requires sophisticated statistical modeling and a thorough understanding of the market potential of a location. Devon Wolfe, managing director of Americas Strategy & Analytics, Troy, N.Y.- based Pitney Bowes Business Insight, discusses the Top 10 most common mistakes that seem to repeatedly plague businesses and hinder their success:

1. Assuming you can build a model for all situations

New York City -- An overwhelming majority (72%) of retailers report having a “great deal” of cash on their balance sheets and nearly half of them plan to invest some of it on information technology going forward, according to a survey by KPMG. At the same time, the executives’ assessment of the overall business outlook reflects only modest improvements in revenue and hiring in 2012.

Palo Alto, Calif. -- Seventy percent of retailers are empowering their employees with technology-enabled touch points to help their businesses to differentiate and evolve, according to a recent RSR Research report cosponsored by HP.

The study finds that by arming their associates with a range of technologies that provide relevant and timely information -- such as digital signage, self-service kiosks, mobile devices and advanced point-of-sale systems -- retailers can increase productivity and boost multichannel selling opportunities.

New York City -- British retail giant Tesco Ltd. has broken new ground, creating virtual stores in subway stations in Seoul, South Korea, as a way to make grocery shopping more convenient for the city’s busy urban residents. Tesco launched the unique venture for its Homeplus chain, which operates 115 stores in South Korea. The virtual stores were created by Cheil Worldwide of Korea.