Last week’s biggest retail technology deals at a glance
RTIH rounds up the stand out retail systems deals, deployments and pilots from the past seven days. Featuring Asda, Amazon, Instacart, Alibaba Group, Carrefour UAE and Jokr.
Instacart has announced Publix’s virtual convenience offering, Publix Quick Picks.
Available across the latter’s entire seven US state footprint, this allows customers to shop from Publix’s assortment of fresh groceries, pantry and household essentials, meals, snacks and more, for delivery in as fast as 30 minutes with Instacart Priority Delivery.
Prénatal Retail Group has expanded its use of Aptos PLM (product lifecycle management) to include digital buying and ordering.
Asda has joined the Airtime Rewards loyalty platform.
Its customers will now be able to shop online and in-store and earn money off their phone bill.
Airtime Rewards says that it segmentation technology analyses extensive amounts of relevant transactional data for each retailer, allowing them to build targeted campaigns that can acquire, retain or win back customers.
It app recently surpassed 1.5 million members who make around 30 incentivised purchases every minute with over 100 partners.
Azteco reports that Brits can now purchase Bitcoin from over 700 retailers across the UK and Ireland.
To do so, they can download a “Wallet of Satoshi'' app on the App Store and Google Play, go to one of the aforementioned retailers and ask for an Azteco Bitcoin voucher at checkout. They then redeem the voucher and, hey presto, they have their cryptocurrency.
Amazon is gearing up to open an Amazon Fresh location in Holborn, London.
No news on the exact launch date. But we can reveal that this will be the e-commerce giant’s seventh such UK convenience store to feature Just Walk Out Shopping tech, which was pioneered at the Amazon Go offering in the States.
The other six are in Camden, Ealing, Wembley Park, White City, Canary Wharf and Dalston.
Asda has announced a partnership with RangeMe.
Through the latter’s global sourcing platform, the retailer is aiming to increase the number of new and innovative products available in stores as it seeks out emerging suppliers.
Asda is the first of the big four UK grocers to join RangeMe since the platform launched in the UK last month.
US-based RangeMe made its debut in 2014 and is used today by over 12,000 retail buyers in the UK, North America, and APAC region.
Majid Al Futtaim, which specialises in shopping mall, communities, retail, and leisure across the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia, is teaming with Russian tech giant Yandex to explore autonomous technology solutions that enhance Carrefour UAE’s last mile delivery capabilities.
This makes Carrefour the first omnichannel retailer to use self-driving robots for online order delivery in the region.
A pilot, involving customers in select neighbourhoods across the UAE, is set to launch in early 2022.
US-based startup Fast is launching its one click checkout offering in the UK with Revolution Beauty.
After entering their contact information and payment details as they normally would for their first purchase on a merchant’s site, buyers are automatically signed up and can use the solution at any online store with Fast Checkout.
Rapid grocery delivery startup Jokr has partnered with RELEX Solutions to implement demand forecasting, replenishment, space planning, and workload forecasting across its nearly 100 hubs worldwide.
Waitrose is set to become the first supermarket in the UK to trial a new generation of electric vehicles.
Groceries from its St Katherine’s Dock, London store will be delivered to customers entirely by electric vans equipped with wireless charging technology.
The move is part of an ambition to end the use of fossil fuels across Waitrose’s entire transport fleet by 2030.
By 2030, Waitrose will have electrified all cars, vans and light trucks, and for sectors where that is not currently possible, such as long distance heavy trucks, biomethane will be used.
Checkout-free technology venture, Grabango, has announced a roll-out across six Circle K stores in Arizona, USA.
American cinema giant AMC Theatres is currently updating its technology infrastructure to allow customers to pay online for gift cards with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Dogecoin.
And there could be more to come. In a Twitter post, Adam Aron, the company's CEO, asked if there was interest in also paying with Shiba Inu.
Metapack has been selected to run global shipping and returns services for Nespresso.
The partnership will see Metapack’s Delivery Manager, Delivery Options, Delivery Tracker, Delivery Intelligence and Returns Portal implemented across Nespresso markets.
Burger King is teaming up with investment platform Robinhood to offer US-based Royal Perks loyalty members the chance to win a "side of cryptocurrency”, including Dogecoin, Ethereum and Bitcoin.
Customers need to make a minimum $5.00 pre-tax Burger King food and/or beverage purchase, either online, using the fast food giant’s app, or at participating restaurants.
They will receive a prize code via email. This can be redeemed through the Robinhood Crypto trading app.
US-based Loyola Marymount University, LMU Dining and Kiwibot have partnered to deliver hot, fresh meals on campus via zero-emission robots.
Since launching a trial run in September, more than 500 deliveries have been completed.
Through the Sodexo Bite U app, Loyola Marymount students, faculty and visitors can order from two Sodexo serviced campus locations. The initiative will expand to additional locations in spring 2022.
M.Video-Eldorado Group, Russia’s largest consumer electronics retailer, has expanded its capacity for express delivery from stores and increased its courier delivery capacity by 50%.
M.Video and Eldorado stores will continue to operate in line with new region specific Covid restrictions, while focusing on online services.
They offer customers various delivery options ranging from one to two hours.
