Business Intelligence (BI)

Fraudsters are giving retailers another issue to contend with — and many aren’t prepared.    In 2017, there was a 200% increase in credit card testing, a tactic used by fraudsters where they test stolen credit card numbers with small incremental purchases before making large-dollar purchases on the card. This was an increase compared to the same quarter in 2016, according to new data from Radial.   

Companies are adopting more solutions to gain a 360-degree view of each customer.   While 88% of companies believe their investments help their organization understand customer needs, only 61% of consumers agree — a gap that is costing retailers $62 billion a year, according to research from Talend. The provider of cloud and big data integration software surveyed 361 IT leaders and 1,094 consumers in the United States, the U.K., France, and Germany.   

Omnichannel promised to integrate physical and digital channels, allowing retailers to deliver a seamless shopping experience. But in reality, because of stand-alone, legacy systems, many of these channels operate in silos, making it difficult to achieve full transparency and causing missed opportunities.   

Harnessing customer-specific data is paramount for RueLaLa to engage shoppers and foster long-term customer relationships.  

April's consumer confidence metric didn't live up to the new benchmark established in March, when consumer confidence reached a 16-year high.   This month, the Index declined to 120.3 from 124.9 in March.  

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly topping IT wish lists as a means of improving business decisions and providing personalization.   That’s according to a new report from PwC, “Bot.Me: A Revolutionary Partnership.” The study, surveyed consumers and business decision makers on AI’s impact in the business world, the evolution of AI acceptance by consumers and AI’s changing role in addressing socioeconomic issues.   

As recently as the 1990s, the only real form of text-based communication with customers was via email. Today, consumers have a range of social platforms they use to effortlessly communicate — and they expect their shopping experiences to be effortless and, more importantly, seamless across channels as well.    

Senior executives must be ready to tackle the legal and business risks associated with cyberthreats — even before they happen.   This means companies must establish enterprise-wide tactics to identify risks, appraise response metrics and apply company-specific risk mitigation strategies, according to the “2017 Data Security Incident Response Report,” from BakerHostetler. The study analyzed more than 450 cyber incidents that the firm handled last year.   

VF Corp. is getting a new technology leader.   Martin Schneider, the company’s VP and CIO will retire at the end of 2017. Sandra Harris, VP, global business technology, will succeed Schneider as VP and CIO, effective Jan. 1, 2018. Harris also has been appointed to VF’s senior leadership team.  

UPS is taking steps to improve order accuracy.   A new program called Preload Smart Scan notifies workers if they have placed an item in the wrong delivery vehicle. Historically, these snafus forced drivers to travel miles out of their way to correct the mistakes.