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, Monoprix, OFFICE, Grubhub, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer.
Asda is testing out new technology which aims to make it easier for blind and partially sighted customers to navigate their way around its Stevenage store.
To coincide with the UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities, from 3rd December Asda’s flagship technology store will be the first supermarket in the UK to be integrated into the GoodMaps smartphone app, specifically built for use amongst the blind and partially sighted.
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.
Premier League football club West Ham United has launched an online shop now, pay later facility in partnership with Klarna.
Supporters will be able to use Klarna on all orders from the UK and pay for purchases up to 30 days later, or split them into three instalments.
OFFICE has chosen Infor’s CloudSuite Fashion offering to align multiple business processes within a unified ERP system.
Delivered via multi-tenant cloud on Amazon Web Services (AWS), the solution will be deployed by Infor partner, Fortude, and will help OFFICE simplify processes across merchandising, warehousing, allocations, planning and inventory management..
Electric vehicle maker Rivian has selected Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its preferred cloud provider.
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.
JFKIAT, the operator of Terminal 4 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, has partnered with SSP America and Zippin to launch a contactless, frictionless retail concept leveraging artificial intelligence technology.
This is the first Zippin location in an air terminal.
Vyne’s Open Banking powered account-to-account payment method has gone live on the online checkouts of 10 THG (aka The Hut Group) brands, including Myprotein, Glossybox, ESPA and Zavvi.
It’s the first step in a partnership that will see Vyne’s solution offered as a payment method for 25 THG brands in total.
Consumers will be able to pay from their banking app, eliminating the need for card details.
Online and mobile food ordering and delivery marketplace, Grubhub, has teamed with Lolli to allow users to earn free Bitcoin back on every order.
Online delivery and returns company, InPost, has launched a campaign - Secret Senda - in partnership with homelessness charity Shelter.
The initiative, which will run until 31st December, enables people to use any one of InPost’s 2,500 lockers across the UK, to send charitable donations to Shelter for free.
Athletic performance brand Under Armour is rolling out Nedap’s iD Cloud inventory visibility platform.
This will be deployed throughout 400 of Under Armour’s owned and operated stores across the globe.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Digital tech and content studio Happy Finish has inked a two-year partnership with Marks & Spencer.
The tie up will see Happy Finish establish and implement a new roadmap for “rich customer experiences and content creation for M&S Home”.
The former’s studio team is charged with using a digital approach to solve challenges around displaying hidden innovations for all products, deploying augmented reality for product visualisation and creating scalable imagery across all Furniture & Upholstery areas.
Swedish e-tail pharmacy Apohem, part of the Axel Johnson Group, is teaming with RELEX Solutions to automate its forecasting, replenishment, and promotion forecasting.
The RELEX tech will service Apohem’s distribution centre in Sweden. The former’s solution is powered by AI and machine learning.
