IBM keeps offering new retail capabilities

IBM aims to let retailers get more personal with their customers. As part of a general release of new cloud-based industry platforms, IBM is introducing a Retail Consumer Experience platform.

The platform is designed to allow retailers to deploy increasingly sophisticated and personalized engagement capabilities. These capabilities will be based on contextual, relevant, multi-channel, end-to-end personalization designed around the customer’s unique interests. Also of potential interest to retailers is a new “Insights for a Connected World” platform designed to collect and process Internet of Things data from connected devices.

As part of this initiative, IBM announced the opening of the first IBM Cloud Business Innovation Center inBangalore, India. Cloud Business Innovation Centers allow global clients to work side-by-side with IBM solution consultants, researchers, digital marketing and experience design experts to personalize the industry platforms to their specific needs.

IBM has been busy lately in offering new solutions and labs for retailers. On Sept. 24, IBM opened a new global headquarters for IBM Commerce and new hub for its Watson artificial intelligence platform in San Francisco.



In addition, IBM is partnering with The Fung Group on a new large-scale laboratory for rapid experimentation with omnichannel retail technologies, which opened in Shanghai, China on Sept. 24. The willingness of a global technology leader like IBM to invest so much in offerings that directly or indirectly serve the needs of retailers is another sign retail technology is moving from a niche area of IT to a central focus.