Lowe’s Strengthens Tech Focus With Retail Analytics Acquisition

To sharpen its focus on retail technology, Lowe’s Companies, Inc. is acquiring Boomerang Commerce’s Retail Analytics platform. The technology will strengthen data-driven pricing and merchandise assortment decisions across the company’s businesses, Lowe’s said in an announcement.

Lowe’s Chief Information Officer Seemantini Godbole said in the announcement, “One of the key components of our transformation here at Lowe’s is to modernize our technology. Pricing and assortment planning have been identified as strategic areas in need of modernization. And when we find the right assets available to buy and advance our strategy, we’ll do that.” Godbole continued, “Adding this team and technology to our existing capabilities helps us leverage the right data quickly, effectively and successfully.”

The acquisition encompasses tools and technology for the Retail Analytics platform, which is proprietary, but doesn’t include customer contracts or related confidential information. Some associates from the Retail Analytics teams based in the United States and Bangalore will join the company. Following the acquisition, Boomerang Commerce’s CommerceIQ will serve as an independent business with the CommerceIQ.ai name. Boomerang Commerce, which is based in California, was founded in 2012 by Guru Hariharan.

In other technology news from Lowe’s, the home improvement retailer began tapping into augmented reality (AR) to address timeless consumer problems, per reports from last year. Lowe’s Innovation Lab Director of Lab Productions Josh Shabtai told PYMNTS in an interview at the time, “What we are doing is solving age-old customer problems, and oftentimes, in new ways.”

The primary cause of consumer frustration surrounding home improvement shopping, Shabtai said, is a lack of project visualization. “One of the biggest problems that anyone who has gone through a home improvement journey has experienced is the difficulty in visualizing something before you get started,” he said. Tools with AR technology can provide customers with an opportunity to see all kinds of products before committing to the purchase.