Check out this week's coolest retail technology reveals
RTIH Editor, Scott Thompson, brings you his top ‘future of retail systems’ deployments from the past seven days, including Snapchat stores, shoppable recipes, automated warehouses, and Bitcoin rewards programmes.
The Dalmore
The Dalmore Highland Single Malt has partnered with BlockBar, a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace for luxury wine and spirits, to offer a limited edition liquor NFT with a set of The Dalmore Decades No.4 Collection.
Grubhub
Online and mobile food ordering and delivery marketplace, Grubhub, has teamed with Lolli to allow users to earn free Bitcoin back on every order.
Foodstuffs
Northfork, a shoppable recipe platform for grocery retailers, has teamed with Foodstuffs in New Zealand to provide shoppable recipes through the latter’s New World stores.
New World has integrated Northfork’s technology to deliver recipes on its website, alongside meal planning functionality.
The firm’s tech is also used by Coop in Sweden and Denmark and in Walmart and Buzzfeed’s Tasty app in the US.
Monoprix
French retailer Monoprix has partnered with Critizr on a new VIP customer relationship programme.
As part of an overhaul of the Monoprix M' account programme, the brand has launched an Esprit Marché service, which is accessible only to top customers, and run directly by store managers through the Critizr Connection platform.
This allows customers to message and talk directly on a one-to-one basis with their local branch, giving store managers the capability to share offers, exclusives and one-off promotions.
ICA Gruppen
ICA Gruppen has gone live with an automated warehouse in Brunna, outside Stockholm, powered by Ocado Group technology.
ICA says that it is the first retailer in Sweden to open a facility that features an automated solution for online groceries.
The warehouse has a total area of 32,000 square metres. An e-commerce operation in Jordbro will be gradually transferred to the new facility.
LÜNING
Shoppers at the Edeka Center LÜNING Rietberg in Germany are now able to use Nomitri’s smartphone-based checkout system.
To do so, they attach their phone to a holder on their shopping cart. Items are then scanned via the smartphone’s camera. Nomitri’s computer vision powered app also detects incorrect scans.
At the end, customers present a barcode at a designated checkout and pay and leave.
Yango Deli UK
Yango Deli UK, the rapid grocery delivery arm of Russian tech giant Yandex, is offering Christmas trees along with its usual mix of groceries and household staples.
The 5ft Norway spruce trees will be delivered within 15 minutes.
They are supplied by Pines and Needles, which was founded by brothers Josh and Sam Lyle in Scotland and made headlines when they provided a tree for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2016.
Sainsbury’s
Last month, we reported that Sainsbury’s was set to open a cashierless store in London during late November, using Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology.
This, we noted at the time, would make it the first customer outside the US for the tech that powers Amazon Go and Fresh stores.
Said SmartShop Pick & Go store opened to the public this week, after being tested out by Sainsbury’s staff members.
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O2 has opened an ‘AR Store of the Future’ on Snapchat as part of its Black Friday activity.
In what is pitched as a UK telco first, from Black Friday until 8th December, Snapchatters will be able to visit the store and shop products by clicking on them to explore in more detail.
They can also buy through a Shop Now button present throughout the lens experience.
Douglas
European beauty platform Douglas kicked off a pilot project this week with rapid delivery startup Gorillas.
“Gorillas will bring our products to your home within a few minutes,” Vanessa Stützle, Group CDO Douglas and Member of the Management Board, said in a LinkedIn post.
“As part of the pilot project, which is set to run until the end of the year, we are offering 25 exclusive beauty and lifestyle products from our range via the Gorillas app, with a focus on gift items as well as everyday products.”
She concluded: “In the current development and the increasing demand for fast delivery services this is the ideal time for us to serve our customers via quick commerce with beauty.”
