Technologies that strengthen retail: some 200 delighted participants at the personalization & pricing summit 2018

The personalization & pricing summit, the leading event for the earnings-enhancing application of artificial intelligence (AI) in retail, ended at nhow Berlin on June 27. Over 90% of attendees rated the event as good or very good.

Around 200 guests attended the two-day personalization & pricing summit (or pps for short), staged under the motto “Reinforcing Retail”. The highlights of the event included the many Best Practice presentations, the varied supporting program and award of the DATA MINING CUP 2018 to the winning teams. The verdict: Over 90 % of attendees rated the event as good or very good. 88% of attendees would recommend the pps to others.

The focus of the pps was the current challenges facing the retail industry: What personalized customer approach scenarios reinforce customer loyalty? How is it possible to adapt thousands of item prices in the framework of a specific pricing strategy via automation? And how can AI optimize a company’s processes? Answers to these questions were provided by speakers for example from IKEA, 11teamsports, 1-2-3.tv, and GK Software. Attendees were offered insights into topics such as markdown pricing, price bundling, print personalization, intelligent campaigns, visual search or customization with Alexa.
The “Omnichannel Hub” also allowed visitors to try out innovative scenarios involving personalization and dynamic pricing on the spot.

The presentations of the two keynote speakers likewise proved very popular with attendees. Commerce specialist Prof. Dr. Gerrit Heinemann discussed the “Rediscovery of over-the-counter retailing”, while futurologist Joachim Graf explained “Why the digital transformation is neither digital, nor a transformation”.

At the party on the evening of the first day of the event, the attendees made acquaintance with the data mining experts of tomorrow. prudsys AG held its awards ceremony for the best teams of this year’s DATA MINING CUP. Of the 200 or so international teams which entered, it was the students from ETH Zurich who beat off the competition to take first and third place, while the University of Mannheim came second here.