October: top ten coolest retail technology reveals
RTIH Editor, Scott Thompson, brings you his stand out ‘future of retail’ systems deployments from the past month, including autonomous stores, robot fleets, rapid grocery delivery and augmented reality.
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.
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.
Tesco
Tesco is launching a pilot with rapid grocery delivery venture Gorillas.
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.
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.
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.
Ocado Group
Ocado Group has announced a partnership with and £10 million investment in startup Wayve as it looks to accelerate the development of autonomous grocery deliveries for complex urban environments.
This closely follows Asda’s tie up with Wayve.
The collaboration includes an autonomous delivery trial that will see Wayve’s deep learning and camera-based technology technology fitted onto a selection of Ocado vans and tested out on urban routes for 12 months.
A portion of Ocado’s existing delivery fleet will also be outfitted with Wayve’s data collection devices to provide data for training and validating Wayve’s technology.
Nespresso
Nespresso has debuted its new experiential boutique concept in the UK at the Bluewater, Kent shopping centre.
The aim is to meet shoppers’ changing needs by offering immersive, localised and personalised experiences.
The store includes an interactive ‘Taste & Discover’ area, where customers can explore and create their own coffee recipes using iPad tutorials and Nespresso machines.
An augmented reality experience, meanwhile, gives people the opportunity to immerse themselves in the stories, heritage and expertise behind Nespresso coffees and understand how capsules are recycled.
AZ Factory
As part of a Love Brings Love tribute to late founder Alber Elbaz, fashion startup AZ Factory has launched a range of limited edition t-shirts that will each come with a unique NFT.
The five organic cotton t-shirt styles feature a specific quote from the designer, as well as signature grosgrain ribbon embroidery and hand drawn prints.
Each one is linked to its own NFT of an original Elbaz drawing. As there will be a limited number of NFTs produced for each shirt, the drawings will also show its original identification number, helping to verify and track ownership.
Amazon
Amazon has opened the doors to the first Amazon 4-star store outside of the US.
Situated in Bluewater, this offers a range of products that are rated four stars and above, are top sellers, or are trending on Amazon’s UK site, including consumer electronics, toys, games, books, kitchen, and home.
Customers can purchase online and collect orders at the store as soon as the next day. It also offers parcel free, label free returns for items purchased both in store and online.
Digital price tags are located alongside each product with the item price, average star rating, and the number of customer reviews.
Amazon account holders will pay the price as they would on the UK site. Prime members will receive exclusive perks and deals throughout the store.
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.
