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. Walmart Chile
Chinese venture Geek+ has announced a robotics project with Walmart Chile, the largest supermarket chain in the country, with 345 stores under the Liders Hiper, Lider Express, Superbodega Acuenta and Central Mayorista banners.
2. Alimentation Couche-Tard
Alimentation Couche-Tard, which operates close to 14,500 convenience stores worldwide, including under the Circle K brand, has selected Standard Cognition to pilot autonomous checkout technology.
The two are laying claim to the world’s first convenience store retrofitted with AI technology, located in the Phoenix, AZ area, with other ones to follow. Customers will be able to walk in, select items, and walk out, without having to scan anything or wait in line to pay.
3. Kroger
The Kroger Co. has announced that its Kroger Ship platform will now include an extended ship-to-home assortment through a marketplace offering of third-party sellers powered by Mirakl.
4. Coca-Cola European Partners
Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP) has signed a multi-year agreement with IBM as it looks to accelerate its transformation to an open hybrid cloud environment using Red Hat OpenShift and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
The move is designed to reduce its operational expenses, increase IT resiliency and leverage analytics and artificial intelligence in its daily operations to bring enhanced business insights and deliver greater service to its customers.
5. Walmart
Walmart is partnering with Instacart to offer same-day delivery in the US as it looks to take on Amazon and its network of Whole Foods stores and Prime offering. The tie up is currently in a pilot phase in four markets across California and in Oklahoma.
6. Aldi UK
Aldi UK has worked with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) to test out the addition of audio prompts (beeps) to its traffic light entry system.
The aim here is to help blind and partially sighted customers safely enter its stores and maintain social distancing.
