Five more big retail tech plays in 2019
These innovative retail tech initiatives should be on your radar right now. At the end of the year, we will be putting together a shortlist of the coolest tech plays in 2019 and asking our judging panel to vote for their favourites across various categories. Stay tuned for more info on that.
1. Westfield London partners with Nextatlas on ‘store of the future’
Westfield London recently opened the doors to The Trending Store, pitched as the UK’s first ever AI powered fashion boutique.
2. Nestlé reveals blockchain, supply chain transparency pilot
Nestlé has announced plans to track its products along the supply chain with blockchain technology.
3. Lazada onboard with HotNow Evergleam Hill crypto game
Thailand-based retail marketing platform HotNow has announced the soft launch of Evergleam Hill, the flagship game for its proprietary in-game advertising solution, HotPlay, that leverages a native cryptocurrency (the HOT token) to provide players with discounts, vouchers and giveaways.
The company says that Evergleam Hill has seen over 3,000 downloads across the US and Thailand Android Google Play and Apple App Stores without marketing efforts. The game has also just onboarded Southeast Asian e-commerce giant Lazada and Thai coffee chain D’Oro Coffee. They line up alongside such existing merchant partners as Baskin-Robbins and Mister Donut.
4. Microsoft Azure now cloud platform of choice for Coles
Australian grocer Coles has inked a strategic partnership with Microsoft. This will see the retailer, which is looking to achieve A$1 billion ($685.40 million) in cost savings by financial year 2023, move all its applications to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.
Its use of Azure AI, meanwhile, will “improve the ability to use consumer insights to drive decision making and better meet customer needs. The partnership will provide team members with new tools to transform how they work, such as removing manual tasks for repetitive activities like stock management and price markdowns”
5. Ocado to open Old Street tech hub
Ocado is expanding its network of development hubs to London, creating around 300 new jobs in the process.