Business Intelligence (BI)

Boston – City Sports is making things personal with its omnichannel customers. The specialty sporting goods retailer is leveraging technology from BlueConic to help the company offer a more personalized shopping experience across channels.

Hangzhou, China – If idle hands are the tool of the devil, then Chinese e-commerce platform Alibaba Holding Group Inc. has very righteous hands. Alibaba is staying busy with a new plan to protect cloud data and new cloud solutions, as well as partnerships to provide e-commerce logistics and online sourcing.

Neckarlsum, Germany — German discount grocer Lidl is applying business intelligence technology to its planned expansion into the U.S.

Lidl, which operates nearly 10,000 stores and 130 distribution centers across 26 countries, will use solutions based on the SAP HANA business intelligence platform to support its IT strategy for entering the U.S. market.

Hangzhou, China - Alibaba.com is moving to put concerns about the reliability of its suppliers to rest. The global e-commerce platform is upgrading its trade assurance program to give small-to-mid-sized businesses peace of mind when buying from overseas suppliers.

Conshohocken, Pa. – Ikea is taking a sunny approach to energy at its soon-to-open St. Louis store. The retailer has completed installation of solar panels atop its 380,000-sq.-ft. St. Louis store opening Sept. 30.

Neuhausen, Switzerland - Tyco Retail Solutions, the retail performance and security business of Tyco, has acquired U.K.-based retail intelligence technology provider FootFall for $560 million in cash. FootFall provides end-to-end technology, services and retail analytics solutions to collect, measure, and analyze customer traffic in their stores and property portfolios.  

Boasting a proprietary dynamic pricing algorithm, the new online shopping club Jet.com officially launched on July 21 with plans to reach a lofty sales milestone faster than other retailer.

Redwood Shores, Calif. – Oracle is focusing squarely on retail agility with the latest additions to its comprehensive set of retail cloud solutions. The new Oracle Retail Science Cloud Services and Oracle Retail Insights Cloud Services offer cloud-based access to Big Data analysis and expertise, scaled for retailers of all sizes.

Irving, Texas - Tango, a provider of store lifecycle management solutions and services, has received an investment of $30 million from Frontier Capital, a growth equity firm. The investment in the company’s software-as-a-service, consulting and managed services businesses will support Tango’s growth and demand for their store lifecycle management solution in the North American retail market.

New York – Dan Berthiaume, senior editor of Chain Store Age, recently participated in a one-hour panel discussion, “Today’s Retail CMO – A New Outlook,” sponsored by SAP as part of its “Coffee Break with Game-Changers” Internet radio series. The discussion, broadcast live on the VoiceAmerica Internet media service, focused on how advances in cloud and digital technology are transforming the role of the chief marketing officer in retail.