Smart carts, holograms, and spatial computing: check out this week's coolest retail technology plays

RTIH Editor, Scott Thompson, brings you his top ‘future of retail’ systems launches and deployments from the past week, including SYKY, Aldi Süd, Sam’s Club, Best Buy, Asos, Weis Markets, Parklife Festival, Co-op, Ikea, and Tesco.

Aldi Süd

Aldi Süd is testing out a smart shopping trolley from Caper, which was acquired by Instacart in 2021, at its Austrian country unit HOFER Österreich.

This has been taking place in Sattledt (HOFER’s headquarters) since 1st July.

Products are scanned via the shopping cart. Users can select a product on the screen, which will then be weighed in the shopping cart and the price calculated. They then pay at a screen at the exit.

Products can be removed, by scanning them out.

15 Caper carts are available for use, with the trial set to run until 31st December.

Sam’s Club

Walmart owned Sam’s Club reports that its Member Access Platform (MAP) is launching display ads in the retailer’s mobile app’s Scan & Go experience to help members easily find more products while they shop in-club.

This unlocks a new way to measure member shopping behaviour and ad performance in-club with MAP’s closed-loop attribution.

The capability will help advertisers reach more Sam’s Club members and deliver a more engaging experience, as part of Sam’s Club’s broader approach to digital engagement.

Sam’s Club MAP is pitched as the first and only retail media platform to integrate ads in a mobile, self-checkout app experience.

Scan & Go allows members shopping in-club to use their mobile devices to scan items as they shop, complete payment and skip the checkout line entirely.

Members who opt-in will see display ads on the cart page that dynamically refresh after each new product scan, enhancing their shopping experience and helping them discover products as they check out with Scan & Go.

Toyota and Coca-Cola

Toyota has started testing a new hydrogen fuelled truck with Coca-Cola as part of the drinks company’s supply operations.

The truck’s fuel cell system uses modules which combine hydrogen and oxygen molecules to produce water, simultaneously generating electricity. As a result, water is the only tailpipe emission. The system offers the further benefit of fast refuelling.

Air Liquide is supplying the project with hydrogen sourced from renewables.

Toyota aims to support the decarbonisation of heavy duty road transport with its hydrogen truck projects.

Heavy duty haulage accounts for a quarter of Europe’s freight transport, based on tonnes-per-kilometre carried. Commercial trucks’ usage patterns and their demand for large volumes of hydrogen make them key contributors to the development of sustainable hydrogen infrastructures.

Eric Desbonnets, Vice President Paris 2024 Operations, Coca-Cola, says: “We are pleased to partner with Toyota and Air Liquide to test hydrogen solutions for our long distance logistics operations. We want to learn from this experience as we continue to work towards reducing our carbon footprint.”

Best Buy

As part of a brand refresh, Best Buy has unveiled a new hologram spokesperson named Gram.

Gram, the retailer says, “will quickly become a familiar character in our ads,” and is part of its new back to school marketing effort across TV, online and social media platforms.

Parklife Festival and Boxbar Tech

Boxbar Tech and Parklife Festival have announced the results of a recent partnership.

This followed on from a Boxbar installation at The Warehouse Project events series in the autumn and winter of 2023.

Parklife Festival is one of the UK’s leading music festivals.

Organised and promoter by The Warehouse Project and Live Nation, the Manchester festival started life in Platt Fields Park, before moving to Heaton Park in north Manchester where it has become the largest metropolitan festival in the UK.

The 2024 edition saw the likes of Doja Cat, Disclosure, Becky Hill and Kaytranada perform across the weekend of 8th and 9th June.

Boxbar's deployment at the event made Parklife the first music festival in the world to dispense a complete drinks menu utilising automated self-service technology.

Weis Markets

US food retailer Weis Markets is deploying SymphonyAI’s CINDE AI solution.

Weis Markets has partnered with SymphonyAI since 2018. When the project is complete, its category management team will have an integrated, category wide view with AI-based insights.

Using CINDE AI, category managers can discern customer behaviours and interpret the drivers of performance company wide down to specific stores, while also providing insights into opportunities for growing customer loyalty. 

In addition, CINDE AI’s granular, data driven analytics will enable more strategic collaboration with Weis’ CPG suppliers to make informed, AI-based decisions to optimise category performance.

Nibble and Asos

Nibble reports that it has hit one million automated negotiations through its platform.

In a LinkedIn post, Jamie Ettedgui, Co-Founder at Nibble, said: “This milestone is one of, if not the largest, human-to-computer negotiation datasets out there, and I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved.”

“Nibble is a long way from the original PDF it started out as. Here’s to many more milestones ahead!”

He added: “A massive thank you to our amazing customers for believing in our technology and trusting it to negotiate with their customers. Your support has made this achievement possible.”

Fast fashion giant Asos, meanwhile, has brought back its Sample Sale website, with brands including Pull & Bear, Topshop and French Association.

This previously proved to be a big hit with shoppers in October of last year and April of this year.

Everything is priced at £5 and for the first time ever it was possible to haggle over prices using Nibble.

Vayu Robotics

Vayu Robotics has announced the release of what is pitched as the world’s first on-road delivery robot that combines AI foundation models with lidar less, low cost passive sensors. 

This operates autonomously without pre-mapping the roads it intends to drive on and is capable of navigating inside stores, on city streets, and unloading packages on driveways or porches, carrying up to 100 lbs at under 20mph.

Vayu was co-founded by three veterans from the robotics and mobility industry, Anand Gopalan, former CEO who took lidar supplier Velodyne public in 2020, Mahesh Krishnamurthi, formerly of Apple SPG and Lyft, and Nitish Srivastava, also from Apple SPG and Geoffrey Hinton’s AI lab in the University of Toronto.

Hinton is also an advisor to the company.

Co-op

Co-op has partnered with Bunzl Retail Supplies to help tackle shopfloor waste and save 132 tonnes of plastic annually in its 2,400 stores.

In what is pitched as a retailer first move, it is rolling out new shroud coverings for existing backhaul waste cages.

This will see Co-op moving away from single use stretch-wrap plastic film typically used for cages, which hold shopfloor waste, such as packaging and cardboard. 

The reusable shrouds, which have an expected lifespan of up to five years, are made from recycled plastic and are wrapped around the waste cages via Velcro straps to hold all the contents securely, without the possibility of loose waste falling from the cages.

By removing the need for plastic film wrap and cardboard inner tubes, the solution is expected to save 132 tonnes of plastic and 19 tonnes of paper in its first year, increasing in year two to 176 tonnes of plastic and 19 tonnes of paper saved.

Lincolnshire Co-op

Lincolnshire Co-op has signed a seven-year agreement with Xiatech.

Lincolnshire Co-op, one of the UK’s largest Co-operatives with 300,000 members and more than 220 outlets in Lincolnshire and surrounding counties, will use Xfuze, Xiatech’s MACH certified composable integration, data and analytics platform, to modernise its legacy system landscape and create a single view of all operational data and provide AI powered analytics.  

“Lincolnshire Co-op is on an exciting transformation journey as part of our investment in our Purpose Beyond Profit 2023 strategy that will have a lasting impact on the lives of our members,” says Andy Warman, Head of Strategy and Transformation, Lincolnshire Co-op.

“We are excited to have chosen Xiatech as our strategic integration, data management and analytics partner.  In just a short time, Xiatech’s team of experts has delivered value through its innovative Xfuze platform.”

Xiatech has deployed Xfuze to initially create a single analytical view of sales for Lincolnshire Co-op’s funeral business with future system integration, data and analytics work moving into Food, Pharmacy and Membership.

For Lincolnshire Co-op’s food business, Xiatech will create a single view of customer/member, sales and stock that will enable new insights and data led decision making.

Ikea and Tesco

Ikea has opened its 100th mobile pick-up point, following a UK wide roll-out. The service is free of charge for orders over £100 and costs £5 for orders below that amount.

The expansion comes as the retailer reports that almost 40% of its total sales are made through online purchases.

Customers can use the offering at Tesco stores by placing their order on Ikea.com, through the retailer’s app or with the assistance of an Ikea co-worker, either remotely or in-store.

Orders are available from next-day and can be collected at a customer’s local participating Tesco store within one of two daily collection windows.

The scheme was initially piloted in 2022 before a national roll-out began late last year.

Ikea now plans to open an additional 100 pick-up points, with half of them due to open this year.

Gopuff

Gopuff has launched an in-house ads platform.

The quick commerce giant says that, with artificial intelligence and machine learning models accounting for more than 1,000 real-time variables and ten years of historical customer data, the platform features intelligent and predictive tools for objective-based buying, personalised audience targeting recommendations, bid optimisation and more.

It takes into account each customer’s shopping behaviour, their previous purchases, the time of day, localised product popularity and 1,000 other data points to surface the most relevant advertisement and product for that individual.

“We believe everyone wins when we match the right advertiser to the right customer at the right time - it’s what makes ad placements feel like content," says Daniel Folkman, SVP of Business at Gopuff.

“With the new Gopuff Ads Platform, brands can easily reach shoppers with the most relevant content to create authentic experiences and inspire customers to engage.”

“We’re thrilled to offer advertisers greater access to the Gopuff platform and data with intelligent, new tools and look forward to continuing to drive innovation as the industry evolves.”

SYKY

Luxury fashion platform SYKY, the brainchild of Alice Delahunt, former Chief Digital and Content Officer at Ralph Lauren & Global Director of Digital & Social at Burberry, has announced the launch of a fashion experience on Apple Vision Pro.

Debuting with a showcase from avant-garde Japanese label Anrealage, the SYKY app offers a way for fashion enthusiasts to enter and explore the worlds of legendary designers and fashion houses.

Pitched as a bridge between digital and physical fashion, it creates a spatial environment that immerses visitors in an interactive world.

According to SYKY, hyper-real depth, textures and storytelling components create levels of immersion that have only been possible through physical fashion experiences, like runway shows, until now.

“We believe that the fashion industry is entering a period of remarkable change as realities merge and digital fashion experiences blend with the physical world,” says Delahunt.

“We’re excited to continue leading this new frontier with the launch of our Apple Vision Pro app, where we will transport consumers to the front row of the fashion industry, offering them access to impeccable design and inspiration with the ultimate luxury fashion experience.”