Data & Analytics

By Girish Pai, AVP, Group Manager, Retail, CPG and Logistics for Infosys


Ali Baba is a literary character from the Arabian Nights stories known for his ability to get virtually anything he wants by shouting “Open Sesame!”

San Bruno, Calif. -- @WalmartLabs, the Silicon Valley-based tech R&D and innovation arm of Wal-Mart Stores, has acquired Stylr, a mobile fashion app that helps shoppers finds clothes in nearby stores. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Stylr is @WalmartLabs' 13th acquisition in the past three years.

Stylr will be shut down and removed from the iTunes App Store by the end of the month. Wal-Mart's own mobile app won't run Stylr, but the newly acquired technology will be used to develop future mobile innovations.

By Tom Bianculli, Senior Director of Emerging Business, Motorola Solutions

The Internet of Things opens the door to new technologies that will have a significant impact on brick-and-mortar stores. Everything and everyone in the store will be connected in real time and retailers will become as connected as their online counterparts. This will create a personalized environment not only for store associates and managers, but also for shoppers.

Beginning in July, Samsung intends to make a splash in retail stores with a high-tech appliance display called CenterStage. The new concept showcases Samsung’s portfolio of appliances in what it calls “an ultra-realistic and life-size display with an intuitive touch-screen interface.”

Who doesn’t have a website these days? Plenty of small business, according to Go Daddy, the domain name registrar looking to convince investors of its untapped growth potential ahead of a public stock offering.

Even though Go Daddy already has 57 million domain names under management and 12 million customers, the company contends only about half of the nation’s 28 million small businesses have a Web site. In addition, Go Daddy’s 57 million domain’s represent about 21% of the 270 million domain names registered world wide.

The Mayday button customer service feature Amazon introduced on its Kindle Fire HDX product last fall boasts an average response time of less than 10 seconds, roughly the time it takes other organizations’ automatic voice response system to say, “your call is very important to us….”

Many Americans take the safety of their food supply for granted, but that isn’t the case in China, a nation characterized by open air wet markets and a regulatory environment in which it can appear foreign companies are held to a higher standard.

Walmart added to its collection of Silicon Valley acquisitions with the purchase of mobile fashion app Stylr.

New York -- Instacart, the same-day grocery delivery service, has raised $44 million in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz.

The San Francisco startup currently operates in San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles and seven other U.S. cities. With its new funding, it Instacart expects to expand into 17 cities by the end of 2014.

Ann Arbor, Mich. -- Domino's Pizza, in conjunction with Nuance Communications, is launching voice ordering for its iPhone and Android apps.