When you think about Guess Inc. the odds are good that what comes to mind is fashion, not technology. After all the company, which is best known for its iconic jeans, does make clothing. Like all good companies in the digital age however, Guess Inc. has realize that if they want to stay in business then they need to embrace technology instead of fighting it. The company is taking several unique steps to use technology in order to learn more about its customers and give them more of what they want.The company has not only managed to embrace the trend toward mobile applications, with an app that works on a variety of mobile devices, but to grow its mobile commerce business into a substantial portion of its general e-commerce revenue. Right now about 15 percent of Guess Inc.'s overall e-commerce revenue is coming from mobile commerce business, a model many industries would like to be able to boast, as the market share of mobile devices grows daily and the opportunities to reach a potential client at the exact moment of decisions are near endless when your brand is literally in their pocket.

Mike Relich, a 2011 CIO of the Year Award recipient, brought this strategy to light during a presentation at the Retail Technology Conference, which took place this month. In a unique project the company has begun to take data from sources, such as the Facebook pages, of their shoppers in order to learn more about them and better understand the desires of its customers. For the time being the company is not commenting on what kind of data it collects, or how the company plans to protect consumer’s privacy once the data has been collected.