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Business Intelligence (BI)

  • How Can Retailers Thrive in Review-First Shopping?

    Online reviews have boomed in recent years. Once just another step in the customer decision-making process, they are now a pervasive part of daily life.  

  • Online giant serves up personalized homepages

    eBay is preparing to connect with each of its individual consumers — starting from the first minute they visit the site.   The company plans to do so with a new homepage that is “designed to inspire and engage with relevant, personalized content and highlighted deals,” according to the company.  

  • Nordstrom moves point-of-sale to the cloud

    As the retail experience becomes increasingly digitally-influenced, retailers need a flexible point-of-sale (POS) system that can deliver a consistent brand experience at store level.    Nordstrom is taking steps to make this happen through a partnership with Infor to run POS in the cloud. Having a POS system in the cloud will give Nordstrom the tools to be more accurate and consistent across multiple locations, attend to customers more quickly, and better manage and track information, according to Infor.   

  • Supermarket chain taps AI to improve automated replenishment

    Time-starved shoppers expect their favorite grocers to have the staples they need when they enter the store — and supermarkets are hard-pressed to deliver.  

  • Grocery giant partners with Uber to expand home delivery

    The Kroger Co. is testing a solution to solve “the last mile” of omnichannel retail — the post-purchase operations focused on getting merchandise into shoppers’ hands quickly and efficiently.   

  • Report: Retailers are running in place when it comes to IoT

    Retailers remain stuck when it comes to Internet of Things (IoT) initiatives, according to “The Internet of Things in Retail: Getting Beyond the Hype.”   The second annual report from RSR shows that retailers are increasingly aware of the impact of IoT on customer engagement and competitive advantage. Yet, they are still hesitant to invest in cutting edge technologies due to operational challenges and a lack of supporting infrastructure.  

  • Footwear retailer’s sales rise, but fall short on expectations

    DSW credits inventory management and more focused campaigns for its profit growth during the fourth quarter.   For the period ended January 28, 2017, the chain’s sales increased 0.4% to $674.6 million, including $27.9 million in revenues from Ebuys. This profit of 20 cents per share was four cents better than analysts were expecting for the quarter, however sales missed their estimates of $695.5 million.    Adjusted net income was $16.5 million, an increase of 43% over last year.

  • Discounter bolsters tech team through ‘acquihiring’

    Data and analytics is more than a business foundation — it is a key differentiator in an increasingly competitive marketplace, according to Target’s senior VP Paritosh Desai.   As a result, Target is making a big push to add top tech talent, from software engineers to data scientists — a move that pushed the chain to “acquihire” tech companies. In this practice, larger companies acquire smaller ones to obtain their technology and, essentially, hire their leadership and teams.  

  • Strategic partnership positioned to drive AI in retail

    A new partnership will help retailers make smarter business decisions faster.   Based on a new alliance between IBM Watson and Salesforce, the companies will seamlessly connect their solutions — a move that will enable a new level of intelligent customer engagement across sales, service, marketing, and commerce, among other operations.     

  • HSN steps up its game to engage remote employees

    It’s hard to drive camaraderie among a highly dispersed workforce — but HSN has found a way.   The entertainment and lifestyle retailer reaches 94 million households through 1,700 sales and service agents —most of which remotely work from home. Such a widely dispersed workforce makes it difficult to use conventional tactics to build healthy competitive spirit and camaraderie in group settings. This challenge forced the company to step up its employee engagement game.  
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