Mall of America, Fashion Island get AI boost from IBM, Satisfi

Mall of America is debuting Experiential List Formulator (ELF) just in time to help visitors manage their holiday shopping and other activities, while Fashion Island is rolling out a mobile concierge called At Your Service.

By Dan O'Shea • Dec. 12, 2016

QVC puts Sprinkle on top of IT organization

Todd Sprinkle led the earlier development of the shopping network's iPad app, and will now focus on further developing the company's multi platform strategy, which last year grew to encompass online flash sale site Zulily.

By Dan O'Shea • Dec. 11, 2016

Explore the Trendline➔

How artificial intelligence is shaping retail

More retailers are leaning on AI as a tool, tapping into the tech to improve customer service and support supply chain functions.

By Retail Dive staff

Nordstrom launches its first chatbot for holiday push

Chatbot users will be prompted with questions about gift criteria and the chatbot will reply with multiple shopping ideas.

By Dan O'Shea • Dec. 11, 2016

Neiman Marcus enhances beauty counter services with Memory Mirrors

Memory Mirror video capture technology offers a 360-degree video of shoppers modeling a particular outfit or cosmetics, allowing them to see themselves from all angles, as well as save and share the video.

By Dan O'Shea • Dec. 8, 2016

Hudson's Bay set to extend robotic fulfillment system to US

The move is aimed at accelerating and improving fulfillment processes for HBC's Lord & Taylor and Saks Off 5th retail units.

By Dan O'Shea • Dec. 8, 2016

Sears, Uber expand Shop Your Way rewards partnership to 23 more markets

Since the program rolled out in New York City and Chicago in late September, more than 10,000 Shop Your Way members have linked their accounts to the Uber app, collectively earning more than $250,000 in points.

By Dan O'Shea • Dec. 8, 2016

Starbucks embraces conversational commerce, boosts personalization

The forthcoming My Starbucks Barista conversational ordering feature allows customers to place orders via voice command or messaging to improve efficiency and encourage stronger customer loyalty and engagement.

By Dan O'Shea • Dec. 7, 2016

MasterCard, Wells Fargo team on service for merchants to send money to customers

Merchants can leverage the global personal payments platform to send customer rebates, e-marketplace payouts, shared economy payouts to sellers and more.

By Dan O'Shea • Dec. 6, 2016

Wayfair app lets shoppers visualize decor in their own homes

View in Room allows customers to envision furniture and other Wayfair items inside their own living spaces.

By Dan O'Shea • Dec. 6, 2016

Shopify acquires mobile app design house Tiny Hearts

The two companies previously worked together to create a pop-up shop called Popify, as well as Shopify apps Frenzy and Skopkey.

By Dan O'Shea • Dec. 5, 2016

Amazon unveils futuristic checkout-free grocery store

The Seattle store, currently in a beta test open only to Amazon employees, upends the definition of the word “convenient.”

By Daphne Howland • Dec. 5, 2016

Mall of America gets new interactive info kiosks from Express Image

The kiosks feature a search function, step-by-step directions, dynamic pop-ups and text-to-phone features.

By Dan O'Shea • Dec. 4, 2016

Amazon, Intel partner to enable more Alexa-driven devices, smart homes

The companies have teamed up on a form factor reference design to make it easier to create products leveraging the e-commerce giant's Alexa virtual assistant technology platform.

By Dan O'Shea • Dec. 4, 2016

Visa to acquire payment authenticator CardinalCommerce

The deal will enable Visa to expand Cardinal’s products and services globally and to boost fraud protection as digital payments expand to additional channels.

By Daphne Howland • Dec. 2, 2016

Amazon announces Alexa Accelerator to boost conversational commerce startups

The program, supported by startup accelerator Techstars, will help developers targeting speech technology advances and voice application innovation.

By Dan O'Shea • Dec. 1, 2016

MasterCard, Verifone team to offer instant financing at point of sale

Mastercard Installments, built on the open, cloud-based Verifone Commerce Platform, allows shoppers to activate an installment payment plan while at checkout.

By Dan O'Shea • Dec. 1, 2016

Amazon releases core AI technology to developers via new platform

The move gives developers access to some of Amazon's most significant artificial intelligence technology tools as the company looks to become a key driver of the global, multi-industry AI movement.

By Dan O'Shea • Nov. 30, 2016

MasterCard rolls out AI-based fraud detection and decision service

The value of false credit card declines is more than 13 times the total amount lost to actual card fraud, researchers estimate.

By Dan O'Shea • Nov. 30, 2016

Digital's role on Black Friday ramps up across mobile search, prospecting and retargeting

Two sets of data reinforce shopping’s omnichannel evolution. 

By Chantal Tode • Nov. 30, 2016

How retailers can protect themselves against cyber threats this holiday season

Retailers face a range of security threats, including point-of-sale issues, distributed denial-of-service attacks, inferior IT infrastructure and lax information security procedures. Here's how they can mitigate losses.

By Brian Dunphy • Nov. 30, 2016

EBay pop-up uses biometrics to ease gift-buying stress

A study from eBay and analytics firm Lightwave suggests the pressure of holiday shopping stress is akin to running a marathon, and that 60% of shoppers hit a "wall of disenchantment" after only about 32 minutes, feeling too fatigued to go on.

By Dan O'Shea • Nov. 29, 2016

Shopping via mobile popular on Black Friday, paying by mobile definitely wasn't

Mobile payments were used for only 0.6% of in-store purchases nationwide, according to data from payments firm Cayan.

By Dan O'Shea • Nov. 29, 2016

Under Armour app tracks how much people ate — and exercised — on Thanksgiving Day

MyFitnessPal app users across the country burned more calories on Turkey Day than on an average non-holiday Thursday, the athletic gear retailer found.

By Dan O'Shea • Nov. 28, 2016

Dick's Sporting Goods' latest software acquisition is a GameChanger

The mobile scoring app gives users live updates on player performance and instant game recaps for 165,000 amateur baseball and softball teams.

By Dan O'Shea • Nov. 28, 2016

Forecast: Mobile payments to reach $314B by 2020, boosted by broad retail acceptance

Average annual spending per user employing proximity mobile payments is expected to increase from $721 this year to more than $1,230 next year, exceeding $4,133 by 2020, a new report suggests.

By Dan O'Shea • Nov. 27, 2016