Lots of people want to help retailers compete with Amazon. Swiftly Systems offers tools for online and instore promotions plus retail media networks. They just announced their second $100 million funding round in six months.
Ok, here’s a crazy coincidence: we have news from another CDP that specializes in telecom. Intent HQ has launched an AI-driven audience builder that finds hidden opportunities within a customer base. The tool doesn’t require data scientist support and lets marketers choose from a list of predictive indicators to model against. It uses other Intent HQ features to automatically ensure the audience data is privacy-compliant.
Instacart is also manning the anti-Amazon barricades. They just launched Connected Stores, an initiative that helps retailers compete with Amazon’s no-checkout technology. Clients also get an online component and lots of fresh customer data. Success isn’t guaranteed: Wegmans recently dropped a self-scanning program due to high shoplifting costs.
It’s one year since Google started showing ads in its now-familiar AI Overviews. They’ve now added them to AI Mode, a newer option that handles more complex queries. AI Mode will also offer a bespoke shopping experience, with agentic AI to track price and purchase when it fits your budget.