October is done and dusted, November is up and running, so let’s kick back and reflect on another eventful month for the retail technology space. Here's your briefing on the most important stories from October, including Morrisons, Instacart, DoorDash, Holland & Barrett, Ikea UK, Duvo, Muffato Group, Sensei, Enactor, Jysk, and StrongPoint.

1. Holland & Barrett announces €17.5 million investment across digital and retail fulfilment in Ireland

UK health and wellness retailer, Holland and Barrett, has announced a €17.5 million investment across digital and retail fulfilment in Ireland over the next three years.

From 1st November, fulfilment of its Irish online orders will move from the UK to Ireland through an expanded three-year partnership with Kildare-based Road Truck Services (RTS), building on an eight-year relationship spanning import, customs, warehousing and distribution.

The move will see €8.2 million invested in a new digital fulfilment model, alongside €9.3 million relating to existing retail fulfilment operations with RTS, bringing the total investment to €17.5 million over the next three years. 

Around €1.5 million of additional stock will be held locally, bringing Holland & Barrett’s total Irish stockholding to approximately €4.7 million. Around 328,000 orders and 1.8 million units are expected to flow through the Irish logistics network each year. 

The expanded partnership is also expected to support around 20 additional RTS roles, alongside agency support during peak periods and a further 6-10 indirect roles, with recruitment focused on Kildare town and surrounding areas. 

For customers, the move will mean greater choices on online orders from 1st November, with the existing 5kg weight limit lifted and additional products from 34 Irish brands available online. Next-day delivery is planned to launch from 1st December. 

The investment comes as Holland & Barrett grows its presence in Ireland. Approximately 2.8 million customers shopped with the business over the past year, and it now operates 70 stores and employs 419 colleagues across the country.

2. Morrisons bins Instacart AI powered Caper Carts trial amid DoorDash acquisition talks

In July, we reported that Morrisons had launched Instacart’s Caper Cart smart trolleys at a Preston supermarket, marking North American firm Instacart’s first retail partnership in the UK for its AI powered solution.

Three months later, however, the retailer is pulling the trial as DoorDash gets set to acquire Instacart in a deal that values the grocery technology specialist at around $17 billion. 

Separately, Instacart said in a regulatory filing that it would wind down its Caper Cart business by the end of the second quarter of 2027, expecting pre-tax charges of $55 million to $80 million related to the move.

The plan is to reinvest any savings into strategic growth initiatives, which includes other in-store solutions like smart price tags and computer vision technology to help grocers track in-store inventory.

Responding to the news, retail analyst Steve Dresser said on LinkedIn: "Not one to mock innovation, it's vital. But this was always overplayed and seemed to be a chance for people to get their name in lights, rather than a meaningful trial to scale."

3. Quorso and VoCoVo among 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Best Retailer/Technology Supplier Relationship finalists

We’re pleased to announce the shortlist for the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Best Retailer/Technology Supplier Relationship category. We received a record number of entries this year and many fantastic examples of technology excellence driving transformative change across the global retail sector.  

Check out a rundown of our 2026 shortlists and finalists here.

Congratulations to all those who made it through the initial submission process! Our winners will be announced at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London.   

The event will be held on Wednesday, 4th November and consist of a drinks reception, three course meal, awards ceremony presided over by award winning stand-up comedian, presenter, actor and broadcaster, Aurie Styla, and after party until 1am.  

Click here to book your place at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, 4th November.

4. Ikea stumps up £31.5 million as it looks to make UK fulfilment more efficient and reduce packaging waste

Ikea UK is investing £31.5 million across its Peterborough and Doncaster customer distribution centres (CDC) as the retailer aims to make online fulfilment more efficient and sustainable.

In Peterborough, new technology is packaging customer orders to size and reducing material usage by up to 30%, by preventing waste from oversized boxes and filling paper. In Doncaster, Ikea is trialling a new regional fulfilment capability, serving customers in the north and Scotland from a closer location to them.

The investments will strengthen Ikea’s UK fulfilment network as online sales account for 43.3% of total UK sales in financial year 2026. It is investing £30 million in new technology for its Peterborough CDC, with the upgrades taking place over a two-year period. As part of this, it has launched new PackSize technology to prevent waste from oversized cardboard boxes and filling materials by packaging customer orders to size. On average, the technology reduces material usage by up to 30% and void fill by up to 60%.

The technology is expected to increase the share of parcels processed through automation at the Peterborough CDC from 47% today to 75% in 2027, helping the fulfilment team prepare orders for delivery more efficiently. These additional orders would otherwise have been packaged by manually creating a packing carton which includes having to measure the article then creating the cartons to fit the order. Three drones and nests were introduced at the site in January to support inventory management. They scan each aisle in short cycles, helping Ikea to keep stock in the right place and meet customer demand.

Ikea is investing £1.5 million in trialling a new fulfilment capability at its Doncaster CDC. The site now fulfils orders for customers in the Gateshead, Edinburgh and Glasgow areas, with plans for Sheffield to follow. By fulfilling these orders from Doncaster rather than Peterborough, Ikea expects to reduce emissions from delivery journeys by an estimated 280 tonnes of CO2 annually. The new capability has created an additional 80 jobs at the Doncaster site.

5. Sensei looks to take retail intelligence beyond the store checkout as it teams with Brazil’s Muffato Group

Sensei has deployed its technology in a new Muffato Go store in Curitiba, Brazil. This has been developed in partnership with supermarket specialist Grupo Muffato.

While Sensei first became known for its autonomous store technology, it says that the intelligence behind those stores has always been designed to address a broader challenge: giving physical retail the ability and the data to understand and automate its own operations in real-time.

The new Muffato Go, according to those involved, will put that capability into practice, showing how the same underlying technology can improve shelf availability, detect losses, automate checkout, manage fresh products and support online order fulfillment.

Headquartered in Portugal and operating across Europe and Brazil, Sensei has deployed its technology in more than 100 autonomous points of sale, including the world's largest autonomous store, opened in Leiria, Portugal, in 2025. 

“The new Muffato Go shows what AI can already do in a physical store. Shoppers get a faster, simpler way to buy, but that is only the visible part. Our models recognise products and shopper interactions as they happen, and store teams get the right task at the right time," says Vasco Portugal, CEO and Co-founder at Sensei.

"The real value is turning what happens in the store into intelligence that supports the entire business, from the shop floor to the head office. That is what we mean by Conscious Spaces: physical spaces that see, understand and act."

6. Enactor powered unified commerce Jysk roll-out progresses at pace across retailer's UK and Ireland stores

Danish home furnishing retailer Jysk reports that the first of its UK and Ireland stores are now live with its Enactor powered unified commerce platform. 

In a LinkedIn post, Patrick Gretsch, Retail Operations Expert at Jysk, said: "Two more countries have taken their first steps towards a new way of working, with the first stores in the UK and Ireland now successfully running on our unified commerce platform."

"I had the pleasure of joining the team at our Sallynoggin store in Ireland to experience one of these first transitions firsthand. What stood out was the excellent preparation and collaboration across all departments involved. The result? A smooth and efficient changeover, completed while the store remained open and continued serving customers."

He added: "And this is just the beginning. The roll-out is progressing at pace, with all Jysk stores in both countries expected to be running on the new platform by mid-November. So, what does this mean for our colleagues and customers? For our store teams, unified commerce means simpler processes and new opportunities to serve customers directly on the shop floor. With mobile PoS, colleagues can process payments right where the customer interaction takes place, making the shopping experience more convenient and personal."

"For our customers, it opens the door to additional services. They can, for example, order products in a store and have them delivered directly coming from our warehouse straight to their doorstep. This is what makes unified commerce so exciting: it’s not just about introducing a new platform. It’s about improving the way we work and creating new opportunities to serve our customers."

7. Morrisons partners with StrongPoint ALS and VoCoVo on Click & Collect pilot at Skipton store

Morrisons has launched a pilot of StrongPoint ALS’s temperature controlled Click & Collect lockers at the retailer’s Skipton store in North Yorkshire.

The aim here is to provide a convenient and flexible way to collect ambient, chilled and frozen groceries.

In a LinkedIn post, Christopher Evison, Senior Productivity Manager at Morrisons, said: “This is a great step forward for Click & Collect at Morrisons. It brings faster pickups - orders are pre-packed in paper bags and loaded into the lockers in advance. Simply enter your unique six-digit code when you arrive and go. And more flexibility - the lockers are helping us extend operating hours by two hours a day, giving customers even more options for when they collect. Freshness is guaranteed - the multi-temperature lockers can accommodate ambient, chilled and frozen products, whether customers are picking up a few essentials or their full weekly shop.”

He added: “There is also support when you need it - integrated VoCoVo headsets provide a direct two-way connection to store colleagues, making it easy to get assistance or complete any required ID checks."

"Huge thank you to all that have supported from both StrongPoint and Vocovo. It’s another great step forward in investing in our online proposition while keeping customer convenience at the heart of what we do. A huge well done to everyone involved in getting the launch over the line - a fantastic team effort. We’re really looking forward to seeing customers using the lockers and continuing to drive our online propostion forward.”

8. Currys ramps up social activity as it goes live on TikTok Shop

Currys has launched on TikTok Shop with a curated range of products, from health and beauty and coffee to seasonal and audio.

Building on the retailer’s TikTok activity, with its page having bagged over ten million ‘likes’, it will partner with content creators to showcase products to new audiences, and will host TikTok Live shopping events, bringing real-time product demos and instant purchasing to customers' feeds.

This will start as a trial in partnership with THG Commerce who will provide strategy, trading, shop management, weekly live streams and affiliate management services. As an official TikTok Shop partner, THG Commerce says it has generated over £44 million in GMV for its partners by providing a complete solution that covers everything from initial storefront setup and compliance to content creation, global fulfilment and customer services, managed under one roof.

9. Miniso set to replace HMV on London's Oxford Street with opening of 19,000 sq ft flagship store

Miniso is gearing up to open its first Miniso Land store in the UK. The 19,000 sq ft flagship will be located at 363 Oxford Street, London, currently occupied by HMV, and will line up alongside the retailer’s other flagship stores, which includes New York’s Times Square and Paris’s Champs-Élysées, alongside over 8,300 stores globally.

Sam Foyle, Co-head of Global Retail at Savills, which acted for the landlord, says: “We’re seeing continued interest from brands for space on Oxford Street. Pedestrianisation plans have really fuelled momentum over the past year and, as the street enters a more mature stage of recovery, we expect this appetite to continue.”

“Oxford Street is a microcosm of the UK high street, where brands are increasingly focused on creating memorable, experience led destinations. Miniso Land is a great example of that trend, bringing an innovative flagship concept to one of the world’s most recognisable retail locations. Its decision to open at 363 Oxford Street is a strong vote of confidence in London and reinforces Oxford Street’s appeal as a destination for ambitious global brands.”

A Miniso spokesperson says: “London is an important part of our international growth, and bringing Miniso Land to Oxford Street marks an exciting next step. The flagship reflects our long-term commitment to the UK and our ambition to connect people with the characters and stories they love and bring joy to everyday life.”

Earlier this month, HMV announced it intended to vacate the site in March 2027 after three years. It first launched the Oxford Street site in 1921 and reopened it in late 2023 following a four-year absence.

10. Tomáš Čupr bags $32 million for Duvo, an AI platform born from challenges he encountered while building Rohlik

Duvo, an automation platform that gives teams an AI workforce for their day-to-day operations, has announced a $32 million Series A led by Balderton Capital, with participation from existing investors Index Ventures, Northzone and Credo Ventures. The round brings its total funding to $48 million and will fund its expansion, starting with retailers and CPG companies.

Michael Green is also joining from Databricks as Senior Vice President, Go-to-Market. He previously served as a Senior Vice President at Salesforce. Spencer Insolia recently came onboard as Managing Director, US. He was previously President at Kmart and a Managing Director at Accenture. Christoph Schwaiger, former CEO at Aldi South Holdings, has also signed on as Senior Advisor for Europe. 

"For a while I measured AI in heads, counting how many people an agent could replace. It's the wrong unit," says Tomáš Čupr, Co-founder and CEO at Duvo and Founder and Group CEO at Rohlik Group.

"At Rohlik, the gains I'd point to came from work nobody had the hours for. Our planners used to check about eight at-risk products a day per market for shortages. Now every signal gets checked, around the clock. We think of it as raising the GDP of every employee: more value from the people a company has, not the same value from fewer of them."