Predictive Analytics

By Greg Arnette, CTO, Sonian

In the age of digital transactions, modern retailers have more data at their fingertips than ever before, right in their point-of-sale (POS) systems. In many cases, however, businesses are using POS data solely to process sales and update inventory levels. Instead, businesses could be leveraging the purchase data to learn much more about their customers and make actionable decisions that drive bottom-line results.

Listen Closely

Armonk, N.Y. – IBM plans to commit more than $1.2 billion to significantly expand its global cloud footprint. This investment includes a network of data centers designed to bring clients greater flexibility, transparency and control of how they manage their data, run their businesses and deploy their IT operations in the cloud.

Big data, the cloud and cognitive systems that learn are transforming the future of retail and IBM chairman, president and CEO Ginni Rometty explained during a stimulating and insightful presentation at the National Retail Federation’s annual convention.

“We’ve clearly entered a world that is mobile first,” Rometty said. “It is easy to say, but hard to do.”

San Francisco -- With an average global click-through rate of 2.33% and an average global conversion rate of 4.07%, retailers achieved a six-to-one return on ad spend (ROAS) for paid search during the 2013 holiday season. According to a new report from digital marketing technology provider Kenshoo, during the 2013 holiday season, mobile devices accounted for one of every three paid search clicks, up nearly 28% year-over-year (YoY).

Sao Paulo, Brazil – Brazilian fashion retailer Marisa has selected a range of integrated Oracle Retail Merchandise Planning and Optimization solutions including Assortment Planning, Merchandise Financial Planning, Item Planning, Demand Forecasting, Size Profile Optimization, Clearance Optimization Engine and Allocation to assist the company in targeting assortments based on market opportunities and customer preferences.

Camdenton, Mo. – The Cellular Connection, a 300-unit national operator of Verizon Wireless stores, has selected RetailNext to develop staffing models, help with store design by analyzing customer’s path to purchase, and monitor traffic and conversion rates to help gauge the success of advertising campaigns. This will include testing and optimizing store layouts and product placements for their interactive touch screens, device wall, KidZone, and smart accessories (e.g. headsets, speakers, etc.) in order to offer customers the best in-store experience.

Sears and Kmart are the first companies to engage with the Pikato platform and have already seen mobile engagement rates soar 1,100%, according to Pikato.

Pikato’s retail mobile marketing solution personalizes the customer shopping experience to increase consumer engagement and deliver measurable results.

By Gerard Loosschilder and Juan Tello, Skim

New York – Nicolas Franchet, head of e-commerce global vertical marketing at Facebook, said that compression of screen sizes as consumers switch to mobile devices is the biggest upcoming challenge retailers will face during a session titled “Data the Matters: The Future of Personalization” at the NRF 2014 Conference & Exposition on Sunday, Jan. 12.

New York -- Consumers engage with retailers on Facebook more than they do on the retailers’ own websites. Nine-in-10 consumers say how much they spend is impacted by their social media engagement with a brand. These are some of the findings of a study by Infosys, a leader in consulting, technology and outsourcing.