Check out this week's coolest retail technology reveals
RTIH Editor, Scott Thompson, brings you his top ten ‘future of retail systems’ deployments from the past week, including drone-based deliveries, augmented reality vouchers, checkout-free stores and shoppable livestream Halloween events.
Walmart
Walmart's Global Tech and Store No. 8 teams are testing out a text to shop tool in select areas.
No news on when exactly the feature will be released to everyone, but, in a press release, Dominique Essig, Vice President of Conversational Commerce at Store No. 8, said it will be “more widely available in the future."
AiFi
US-based autonomous shopping venture AiFi has launched four Zappka stores in Poznan, Krakow, and Warsaw in Poland, all micro-markets in high traffic areas and open 24/7.
In the States, meanwhile, building on BottleRock (3rd-5th September, Napa Valley), AiFi continues to activate autonomous shopping at music festivals, in partnership with Verizon 5G.
This includes Sea.Hear.Now (18th-19th September, Asbury Park) and Governor’s Ball (24th-25th September, New York).
Pacers Sports & Entertainment and Zippin
Pacers Sports & Entertainment and Zippin have teamed up to give Gainbridge Fieldhouse guests a checkout-free food and beverage experience.
Gainbridge Fieldhouse is an indoor arena located in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.
It is the home of the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association and the Indiana Fever of the Women's National Basketball Association. It also hosts college basketball games, indoor concerts, and ice hockey.
Heinz and Firework
Kraft Heinz, in partnership with Publicis and Evolve Media, has worked with shoppertainment specialist Firework to power a shoppable livestream event at its Halloween pop-up store in Santa Monica, CA, as part of its Tomato Blood Ketchup campaign.
The event allows for direct purchases and is carried on the Heinz Halloween website and simulcast on Facebook and YouTube.
Tesco
Tesco has launched its first high street checkout-free store.
As we reported in July, named GetGo, this can be found in High Holborn, on the edge of the City of London.
Kevin Tindall, Managing Director at Tesco Convenience, says: "We are constantly looking for ways to improve the shopping experience and our latest innovation offers a seamless checkout for customers on the go, helping them to save a bit more time.”
"This is currently just a one store trial, but we're looking forward to seeing how our customers respond."
Jisp and Nisa Retail
UK startup Jisp says that it has reached 10,000 scans, 5,000 taps and 2,000 redemptions in five weeks of a Scan & Save trial with 14 Nisa stores.
The company has been working with such brands as Kellogg’s, Red Bull and Nomad Foods to offer savings on certain products using augmented reality vouchers.
Amazon and Starbucks
Amazon and Starbucks have discussed the creation of co-branded coffee shops featuring the former’s Just Walk Out technology.
According to a report by Business Insider: “The initial layout of the store shows Amazon Go’s food section within a cafe that has a lounge seating area.”
“Customers would have to use separate apps for pay - Starbucks’s app for drinks and Amazon’s app for food - though the companies eventually want to build an integrated solution. The store was expected to have a newly created brand.”
The tie up might not happen, however, with the aforementioned report noting that it includes roll-out milestones that thus far haven’t been met.
Spotify and Shopify
Musicians can now sell directly to their fans on Spotify using the Shopify e-commerce platform.
By connecting their Spotify for Artists accounts with their Shopify online stores, artists can sync their product catalogues and showcase products of their choice directly on their Spotify profiles.
Ellie Goulding and Jax Jones are among the first UK artists and Shopify merchants to take advantage of this new channel.
Carrefour and Critizr
Customer interaction management specialist, Critizr, has announced the launch of WhatsApp within its Critizr Connection platform.
Responding to the growing need of brands to build proximity between store managers and their customers, the new feature will be rolled out for Critizr Connection’s 60,000+ retail users across Europe.
The functionality will initially be deployed in all hypermarkets for Critizr's flagship customer, Carrefour.
Walgreens
Alphabet said this week that Walgreens is partnering with Wing to bring drone-based deliveries to a portion of Texas’s Dallas-Forth Worth region.
Walgreens will be the first to tap a new rapid drone deployment system being unveiled by the Alphabet subsidy.
