Here are this week's coolest retail technology reveals
RTIH Editor, Scott Thompson, brings you his top ten ‘future of retail systems’ deployments from the past seven days, including grocery delivery within 10 minutes, stockless fulfilment models, robots on the rise, and NFT platforms.
Ted Baker
Ted Baker is making its first foray into the clothing gaming market. This month it will showcase its autumn/winter brand campaign and clothing collections within its own universe on Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
The lifestyle brand says that it is “experimenting with new and innovative digital formats in a bid to develop its cultural capital and capture market share from a Millennial audience”.
ACI Worldwide and RocketFuel
Starship Technologies
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and its food services provider, Sodexo, have partnered with Starship Technologies to roll-out a delivery service via autonomous robots.
Starship’s fleet of 20 robots will deliver from three campus eateries: Qdoba, 1891 Bistro and the new Paavo’s Pizza with the goal to add extra retail locations by next spring.
A&T’s students, faculty and staff can now use its app to order food and drinks to be delivered on campus, within minutes.
Zalando
European fashion platform Zalando has extended its Magazino TORU robot fleet at its logistics site in Lahr, Germany.
The existing fleet of eight will be joined by 20 additional robots, some of which will support the picking of shoes ordered online during Cyber Week 2021.
The working area of the robots in the facility will also increase from 4,000 to 16,000 square metres.
Very
Online retailer Very, which is operated by The Very Group, has launched a stockless fulfilment model with adidas and Reebok.
The integration, which means some products will be shipped directly from adidas and Reebok to Very customers, delivered the retailer’s biggest ever drop of new product lines.
Plans are afoot to scale up this model over the next few months to cover more brands including Quiz, Lacoste, Kickers, Berghaus, Speedo and Ann Summers.
This would involve implementing new in-house technology platforms, integrated with external platforms, including Oracle Retail Merchandising Cloud Service and IBM’s Sterling Order Management, which are built on an open API integration framework.
REWE
REWE has opened its first Trigo powered hybrid autonomous store in Cologne, Germany.
The move marks Israel-based computer vision startup Trigo’s entry into the German market.
GameStop
GameStop is putting together a team of blockchain and nonfungible token (NFT) experts to work on an upcoming NFT platform.
“GameStop is looking for a unique individual who can help accelerate the future of gaming and commerce. In this future, games are the places to go, and play is driven by the things you bring. Future creators won’t just build games but also the components, characters, and equipment. Blockchains will power the commerce underneath,” a job listing reads.
Amazon Canada
Amazon has opened YUL9, pitched as the e-commerce giant’s most advanced sort centre in Canada, in Coteau-du-Lac, Quebec.
The 720,000 square foot YUL9 facility will be the first sort centre in Canada to implement Amazon Robotics' mobile robotic order fulfilment systems.
The move will enable faster order fulfilment to communities in Eastern Canada.
Tesco
Tesco is launching a pilot with rapid grocery delivery venture Gorillas.
Starting this week, the retailer’s customers will be able to order Tesco products to their doors, within 10 minutes, via the Gorillas app.
The latter will set up micro-fulfilment sites at five large Tesco stores to handle the deliveries.
The first store to be involved in the partnership is in Thornton Heath, London.
Sofology
Sofology has launched a tool which aims to inspire shoppers and help them make more informed purchasing decisions.
‘Create Your Look’, powered by Hullabalook, allows people to build their own interior designs and visualise how sofas will look at home.
They can explore the retailer’s product catalogue and add their favourite products to a canvas.
The canvas is customisable; shoppers can change the wall and floor colours and move the products around to replicate their own spaces.
