Business Intelligence (BI)

New York -- A new index called the Price Perception Index provides insight into digital pricing strategies. The index, created by e-commerce startup Bommerang Commerce, measures how retailers optimize prices to attract buyers, compete with other retailers and build their business on a mix of profit margins and volume.

The first Price Perception Index looks at the complex competition between Amazon.com and Walmart.com.

Redlands, Calif. -- BJ’s Wholesale Club announced that it has adopted Esri’s location analytics solutions to aid in real estate research strategy and business insight analysis.

New York -- Grocer Heinen’s has teamed with Symphony EYC to adopt customer-driven retailing operations that stretch from shopper, throughout the store and back to the warehouse.

New York -- Sports retailer Academy Sports + Outdoors has implemented Oracle Retail solutions to support growth by streamlining merchandising and inventory operations.

The 185-store chain has targeted sales growth in-store and online and, according to Oracle, as retailers manage an increasingly more complex array of customer segments and channels, success hinges on simplifying and optimizing mission-critical operations such as pricing, inventory management and allocation.

Lincolnshire, Ill. --- Zebra Technologies Corporation released survey results that revealed nearly all retailers are ready to make the changes required to adopt the Internet of Things (IoT). The survey, conducted in October 2014 by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Zebra Technologies, also showed that a majority of retailers believe IoT will be the most important technological initiative of the decade.

Some of the key findings from the survey include:

New York -- Vestis Retail Group, which operates Bob’s Stores, Eastern Mountain Sports and Sport Chalet, has selected Epicor Software Corp.’s SaaS solutions to power its expanding retail sporting goods apparel and equipment business.

Atlanta -- 400-store French apparel retailer Kiabi has selected Predictix to implement a unified suite of merchandising and supply chain optimization solutions.

Predictix, which harnesses predictive and prescriptive analytics, and the unlimited computing power of the cloud to bring insights into consumer demand, will allow Kiabi to discover a deeper, richer understanding of what drives consumer demand and reach a new level of customer intimacy.

There have been many bold predictions about retail trends, but not as many predictions about trends when it comes to the future of retail payments in the digital age. Well, for PayPal, it seems as though the future is now.

Another January, another NRF “Big Show” in New York. The annual meeting officially kicks off on Sunday. Here’s my early take on what to expect from exhibitors at the show:

1. More Cooperation With Retailers

Cincinnati - Half Price Books has selected the PCMS Vision BeanStore POS system for its stores nationwide. PCMS is in the process of rolling out the system at all 117 Half Price Books stores.

Half Price Books selected PCMS over a number of competitive vendors due to the ability of PCMS to support the retailer’s unique inventory management requirements around the buying and selling of new and used books and other items.