Business Intelligence (BI)

Slowly but surely, consumers are becoming open to the idea of switching from leather wallets to an electronic version.

After two years of development, Walmart’s OneOps cloud management and application lifecycle platform is being made available to the open source community in a move that highlights a sharp distinction with Amazon Web Services.
 

Walmart is launching a new open source cloud platform that seems aimed at hurting Amazon Web Services (AWS) as much as helping retailers.

The cloud management and application lifecycle management platform, known as OneOps, has been under development at the @WalmartLabs innovation center for two years. Walmart has used OneOps internally to support efforts such as improving its website and deploying online grocery features.

How good is your data?

Seventy-five percent of retailers believe inaccurate data is undermining their ability to provide an excellent customer experience, according to a study by Experian Data Quality.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) is now accepting applications for its Retail Asset Protection Innovation awards ahead of its annual conference this spring.

Abandoned carts get plenty of attention. Retailers run reports on lost revenue from abandons. Email campaigns start hitting customers as soon as an hour after they abandon. A day later, another email comes.

Targeting cart abandoners is definitely effective. Statistics show that as much as 25% of lost revenue can be regained via abandoned cart emails. But what if you didn't lose that revenue in the first place?

We'll never live in a zero abandonment world. But we can definitely limit the chances of abandonment.

Modell’s Sporting Goods is playing to win when it comes to network security.

Operating more than 150 stores throughout the East Coast, New York-based Modell’s is protecting customer data and personal information residing within its infrastructure. Modell’s us using a software-based network security solution from Cyphort to actively monitor and detect suspicious activity.

A new approach to managing the store is taking flight at grocery chain Giant Eagle.

Wal-Mart Stores’ online push continues.

The retailer will merge its Bentonville-based information systems division with its Silicon Valley-based technology unit, zWalmartLabs, next month, Reuters reported.

The merger will create a new group called Walmart Technology.

The chain’s CIO, Karenann Terrell, and chief technical officer, Jeremy King, will continue to lead the information systems group and zWalmartLabs, respectively. Both will report to Neil Ashe, head of the chain e-commerce division, the report said.

Sally Beauty Supply is applying analytics to the literal consumer touchpoint where revenues are made -- the point of sale.

Sally Beauty is teaming up with prescriptive analytics provider Profitect Inc. to analyze sales and other data recorded at its in-store POS terminals. After a two-week implementation, Sally Beauty now has better insight into trends and patterns associated with areas of leaking profit, including shrink, damage, costing errors, waste, process mistakes, and lack of training.