Top 10: last week’s most popular retail technology articles
These are the RTIH retail systems articles that caught your fancy last week, including Sainsbury’s, ICA Gruppen, Ocado Group, Shopify and Yango Deli UK.
Sainsbury's opens SmartShop Pick & Go store at Holborn Circus, London
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 last week, after being tested out by Sainsbury’s staff members.
ICA Gruppen opens Ocado powered automated online groceries warehouse
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.
Ten retail technology firms that have powered ahead in 2021
It’s been a pretty, pretty good year for these retail tech ventures who are innovating in such areas as checkout free stores, 3D commerce, rapid grocery delivery, e-commerce fulfilment and shoppertainment platforms.
Shopify notches up record breaking Black Friday
Canadian e-commerce platform giant Shopify has announced a record setting Black Friday with sales of nearly $2.9 billion from the start of Black Friday in New Zealand through the end of the event in California.
This represents a 21% increase over 2020 when sales by Shopify merchants surged 75% over 2019 driven by Covid-19 lockdowns, and is more than double their sales on 2019.
Amazon Fresh store opens at London's Holborn Chancery Lane
Last month, RTIH reported that Amazon was working away on an Amazon Fresh store at Holborn Chancery Lane in London.
Said store opened its doors to the public in late November.
This is the e-commerce giant’s eighth such UK convenience store to feature Just Walk Out Shopping tech.
The other seven are in Camden, Ealing, Wembley Park, White City, Canary Wharf, Dalston and East Sheen. Opening hours are from 7:00 am to 11:00 pm, seven days a week.
Outdated grocery stores must embrace innovative retail technology solutions
The grocery stores of today were designed for another era. The first one in the US opened in 1916, with very little having changed since then. And the best way forward is to deploy checkout free technology and micro-fulfilment centres.
That’s the view of supply chain consultant and former Amazon executive, Brittain Ladd.
Check out the 2021 RTIH Innovation Awards shortlists
Go Instore, Trigo, Simbe Robotics, Oracle, Mercaux, Standard AI and BigCommerce are among the nominees at RTIH’s 2021 retail technology awards.
Now into their third year, the awards are sponsored by PMC, StoreSpace, Critizr, Marxent, QVALON and Selazar.
Yango Deli UK offers Londoners Christmas tree delivery within 15 minutes
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.
The five biggest retail technology news stories of the month
Here's your briefing on the most important retail tech stories from November. Featuring Carrefour, Amazon, Starbucks, Nuro, Walmart and Twitter.
The retail technology space during the Covid pandemic
Retail Technology Innovation Hub rounds up recent key retail systems related Covid-19 developments, including the 2021 RTIH Innovation Awards, Christmas and Black Friday.
