RTIH Editor, Scott Thompson, brings you his top ten ‘future of retail systems’ deployments from the past seven days, including McDonald’s, Yango Deli, Kroger/Ocado Group and Marks and Spencer.

McDonald’s

McDonald's has released a set of 188 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to celebrate its 31st anniversary in the Chinese market.

THG Ingenuity and Mode

UK-based FinTech venture Mode has launched its Open Banking payments and Bitcoin rewards solution with The Hut Group’s THG Ingenuity tech platform.

The integration can now be found on all 30+ THG brands at checkout, including Lookfantastic, Myprotein and The Hut.

Kroger/Ocado Group

America's largest grocery retailer, Kroger, is set to offer more people Kroger Delivery through the addition of five new customer fulfilment centres powered by Ocado Group.

It is planning to enter the northeast market and expand in California and Florida.

NEW: 🇺🇸 An exciting day for our partnership with @KrogerNews- more milestones, more markets, more missions served as we go coast to coast in the USA! Also introducing our first international 'Zoom' immediacy site! Full release w/ details on the news here: https://t.co/IaD5obgNTR pic.twitter.com/NbirkMjdus
— Luke Jensen (@LukeJensenOcado) October 12, 2021

Glenfiddich

Glenfiddich has partnered with BlockBar to launch a series of 15 limited edition liquor NFTs.

Each one corresponds to a physical bottle of a 1973 46 year old Armagnac cask finish Single Malt Scotch Whisky that is sold by Glenfiddich.

The tokens are offered exclusively through BlockBar’s NFT platform, which enables Glenfiddich to digitise and sell exclusive spirits products as NFTs directly to consumers, whether for personal consumption, collecting, or investment purposes.

Marks and Spencer

This week is #DigiFest2021, celebrating all things Digital & Data at M&S. We've got lots of activities going on, culminating in our famous hackathon where teams have 24 hours to solve real business problems & ideas that will help drive forward our transformation. pic.twitter.com/JBhNzmOV6r
— M&S News (@MandSnews) October 13, 2021

X5 Retail

Russian food retailer X5 Group has opened a new Vprok.ru Perekrestok dark store with a total area of 37,000 sq m.

Located in Salaryevo, Novomoskovsky District, it is the online hypermarket's third such facility in Moscow and the fifth and largest in Russia. The dark store has increased Vprok.ru Perekrestok's total capacity in the Moscow region by 40%.

X5 has opened the largest #darkstore for its online hypermarket https://t.co/O0KRJpiA0C Perekrestok in Moscow. The 37,000 sqm facility will eventually process up to 8,000 orders/day https://t.co/MKDN1IaqcV pic.twitter.com/uOceOJ1IwK
— X5 Group (@X5_RetailGroup) October 13, 2021

Instacart and 99 Cents Only Stores

Instacart has partnered with discount retailer 99 Cents Only Stores to deliver from more than 300 store locations across California, Arizona, Nevada and Texas.

This builds on a 23 store pilot launched in May.

Alongside the Marketplace expansion, Instacart has also launched a new white label storefront for the 99, built and powered by its enterprise technology.

Boots

Super excited to be involved in making this happen, how to use tech to improve customer experience in a way that is convenient to them and makes a difference to lives day in and day out. @BootsUK https://t.co/DS3MEwfWgj
— Rich Corbridge (@R1chardatron) October 14, 2021

Standard AI and Circle K

US-based autonomous checkout solution provider, Standard AI (formerly known as Standard Cognition) has worked with Circle K to open its offering in a store in Arizona.

Using AI powered cameras throughout the store, the system identifies the products shoppers pick up and automatically records the purchases on the Circle K mobile app, eliminating time spent at traditional checkout areas.