More than ever before, brands are turning to the power of technology in an effort to attract, engage and retain customers in new and innovative ways.

With more consumers now attracted to the convenience of mobile and online shopping, the pressure is on bricks-and-mortar retail stores to find innovative ways to leverage technology to enhance the in-store customer experience and detract shoppers from simply ‘showrooming.’

Mobile app Shazam announced it partnered with Nestlé as part of a new marketing campaign enabling customers to visually interact with their KITKAT chocolate bars.

This week's top martech and ad tech news stories from Oracle, Touchpoint Group, Act-On software, Open Text, Mobify, Plattar, MediaMath, Eyeota, Grapeshot, Lotame and Segmint.

UK department store, John Lewis, has tried and tested multiple innovation tactics in order to disrupt itself and meet the needs of the modern customer-led, omnichannel environment. And it’s gained international kudos as a result.

L'Oréal’s in-store click to buy functionality in its augmented reality app, Makeup Genius, is now live, offering customers to purchase cosmetics directly via Priceline online.

A startup called Eyefluence aims to improve virtual and augmented reality with its eye-tracking technology. After an early glimpse at what the company's tech can do, it seems like a must-have for future headsets.

A new augmented reality app is hoping to shake-up the omni-channel retail industry by allowing consumers to view furniture and decor products in 3D in the context of their own homes.

Oculus VR revealed the final version of its Rift virtual reality headset on Thursday, but the partnership between the Facebook-owned company and Microsoft may have raised some eyebrows.

Augmented reality (AR) is no longer reserved for gamers and gimmicks, it has become a powerful marketing tool, offering the ability to literally reshape the way brands interact with, monitor and track customer engagement.

Music identifying app, Shazam, says its new visual recognition functionality transforming static images into dynamic pieces of content will help brands better engage with mobile consumers.

From drones playing football (for Pepsi) to augmented reality driving glasses (for Mini), Richard Dodgson takes us through his favourite inventive uses of tech in ad campaigns.

Sunny Queen Farms has launched a new limited edition collectible range of augmented reality cards using the latest in animation technology.

With the online fashion space saturated with content, the pressure is on retailers to find innovative ways to engage effectively with consumers. One e-commerce site, Stylematch, has adopted a ground-breaking way to leverage content aggregation, curation as well as customer engagement.

L’Oréal has launched what it claims is the first-of-its-kind app allowing women to virtually try on its cosmetics products using augmented reality technology.

The technology has been around for quite some time, but like so many other fringe smartphone features, augmented reality has yet to present itself as a must-have for consumers.