Levi's developed its BOOST engine to maximize efficiency and minimize the resources required to ship ecommerce orders. The system allows more orders to be fulfilled by stores, which expands inventory availability while reducing fulfillment costs. DoorDash is partnering with Relex Solutions to use machine learning to optimize inventory planning and restocking for its DashMart convenience stores. The partnership should allow the food delivery platform to avoid getting caught with excess perishable inventory, as well as tailor its product selection based on local demand. Levi's developed its BOOST engine to maximize efficiency and minimize the resources required to ship ecommerce orders.

Want to see better marketing results? You might want to jump on the artificial intelligence bandwagon. A February 2017 study of 200 businesses showed that retailers plan on expanding their marketing, particularly social media and mobile marketing, and incorporating artificial intelligence to better personalize the customer's journey as well as analyze results. The study was conducted by Sailthru, a cross-channel management platform company. When discussing what marketing channels best met marketing goals, 56 percent of businesses surveyed said their websites generate the most online revenue, with email marketing and mobile coming in next at 18 percent and 7 percent.

Amazon Inc. (AMZN) is on a roll. The world's biggest online retailer blew away analyst expecations Thursday with a 513 million profit, its fourth straight profitable quarter, sending its stock up nearly 12 percent after hours on the Nasdaq. The profit number for the first quarter of 2016 swung from a net loss of 57 million in the same quarter last year and nearly doubled an estimate of 272.6 million, according to analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. The e-commerce giant posted 29.13 billion in revenue, up by 28 percent from 22.7 billion a year ago, driven by growth in its product sales and cloud computing businesses. Those figures beat analyst expectations of 27.9 billion in revenue.