Six innovative retail technology initiatives

These retailers and brands are leading the way in providing technology and experiences that are one step ahead of their customers’ expectations.

1. Sam’s Club China

VeChain has partnered with Walmart China subsidiary Sam’s Club to increase supply chain transparency for its food products.

PricewaterhouseCoopers will participate in the Blockchain Traceability Platform project.

2. Dunelm

Dunelm is testing out virtual shopping appointments during the coronavirus outbreak.

Powered by JRNI, the new service is being offered via its Redditch and Erdington stores and is available to customers across the UK. The aim is to make it easy for customers to browse in-store from their homes via a video call with a staff member.

3. H&M

Swedish startup Bambuser has entered into a pilot agreement worth SEK 350,000 with H&M.

This gives the retailer the right to use Bambuser’s Live Video Shopping service for one of its brands in one market during the pilot phase, which will last for three months.

“It’s great to see Live Video Shopping being used by yet another world leading group. We see the pilot agreement as a natural first step in what will hopefully be a very strategic and long-term partnership, something that would take us to new heights,” says Maryam Ghahremani, CEO at Bambuser.

4. LVMH Group

LVMH Group has released the shortlist for the fourth edition of its Innovation Award initiative.

The event has undergone a digital makeover as the coronavirus outbreak continues to bite. Thirty startups have been shortlisted, including Personify XP, OneStock and Go Instore.

5. Alibaba Group

Alibaba Group's cloud computing division will hire 5,000 technology staff over the course of the next 10 months.

Jobs will be created in such areas as networks, databases, servers, chips and artificial intelligence.

6. Flipkart

Walmart-owned Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart is rolling out an AI powered voice assistant feature to its platform.

This currently supports the venture’s grocery store, called Supermart, although the plan is to extend it to other verticals. The feature began rolling out to Android users this week and Flipkart is also looking to bring it to its iOS app.