Retail tech deals and deployments: February at a glance
RTIH brings you the stand out retail technology deals, deployments and pilots from last month.
adidas has opened its first ever flagship store in Dubai.
The 16,000 sq ft space, which opened yesterday, has 60 digital touchpoints, along with the MakerLab offering for bespoke creation and design of products, CrepProtect, a free shoe cleaning service and a Bring It To Me app feature.
The location also features smart mirrors, tapping RFID technology that provides information about products on the mirror.
Following a trial, John Lewis & Partners is rolling out 3D visualisation technology from Marxent for home design appointments.
Bestseller brands Name It and Vero Moda have entered into a live shopping partnership with Bambuser
Russian food retailer, X5 Retail Group, has announced that Perekrestok shoppers can use the supermarket chain’s mobile app to opt out of paper receipts.
They will instead receive e-receipts as part of X5’s Zero Waste initiative.
WorldLine and Amadis have completed a multi-country payment solution roll-out for Subway.
Urban Outfitters has been using JRNI Appointments across its Anthropologie and BHLDN brands to deliver new ways of connecting with customers during the coronavirus pandemic.
Home Depot has opened a 1.5 million square foot automated fulfilment centre in Dallas, as part of the retailer's $1.2 billion supply chain investment announced in 2017.
BT has inked a multi-year agreement with Walgreens Boots Alliance to continue to be the company’s network partner in the UK and Republic of Ireland.
Majid Al Futtaim, which owns and operates shopping malls, retail, and leisure establishments in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, has joined IBM Food Trust, a blockchain-enabled initiative run on IBM Cloud.
As a result, Carrefour UAE, which the aforementioned company owns and operates, will, according to a press release, become “the first retailer in the region to offer new levels of insight and transparency to its customers about the provenance of their food via end-to-end visibility on products throughout its supply chain”.
Mars Wrigley and Wakefern Food Corp. are partnering with Savioke to test out a robotic kiosk that delivers products to shoppers at a ShopRite store in Monroe, New York.
The pilot is part of Mars Wrigley's Launchpad programme, which was established in 2017 and has delivered 60 pilots with over 300 startups.
Crocs has deployed Aptos’ cloud-based customer engagement and merchandise management solutions.
The project spans 11 countries (United States, Canada, Singapore, Australia, France, Austria, Netherlands, Germany, South Korea, Japan and China).
After deploying its first Simbe Robotics’ Tally robot in 2019, Carrefour UAE is now adding 11 more across select stores to support with stock management and control.
DICK’S Sporting Goods has selected Adyen as primary payments provider for its US transaction volume.
This will cover online, in-store, and in-app purchases.
Ahold Delhaize, the third largest grocery retailer in the US, is to build an automated e-commerce fulfilment centre in Philadelphia, leveraging AutoStore microfulfilment technology via a Swisslog solution.
Heineken is to implement Blue Yonder’s artificial intelligence and machine learning powered demand planning solution.
M&S has launched a video chat service for online shoppers, linking them to sofa experts in-store.
It partnered with Go InStore and Appointedd on this.
Norwegian grocery retailer, NorgesGruppen, is to deploy Pricer’s electronic shelf labels system across 350 of its stores.
Frictionless shopping startup Zippin’s Japan partner, Fujitsu, has worked with Koyo Group to implement what is pitched as the world’s first checkout-free store within a hotel.
Situated in the Yokohama Techno Tower Hotel, it is also the first store in Japan open to the general public that uses biometric authentication technology to verify customers’ identities.
Holland & Barrett has completed the roll-out of its built from the ground up Bumblebee till system.
Tesco Ireland has become the first Irish retailer to create a recycling solution for soft plastics.
Using technology developed by startup Paltech, these will be flaked and prepared for processing into construction materials to be used in the Tesco Ireland network for new stores, and in store maintenance and refits including buildings, car park barriers and signage.
Amazon is expanding its Amazon One palm reading biometric identification system to three more Amazon Go stores in Seattle.
Imagr's SmartCarts have gone live at an Oasis supermarket store in Nakanoshima, Osaka, Japan.
The intelligent shopping trolley taps computer vision and AI technologies.
Customers can pair their phone with a cart, do their shopping and leave without scanning any barcodes.
Walmart is set to install micro-fulfilment centres next to and inside some of its stores.
These will use autonomous robots to fetch the likes of boxed and frozen food for online orders.
Human workers will handle more complex tasks such as choosing fresh produce or larger items. Orders will then be picked up at the store by customers or delivery workers.
Edeka Rhein-Ruhr, part of Germany’s largest supermarket chain, Edeka, is equipping its new distribution centre, located in Oberhausen-Waldteich, with a robotic order picking system from Cimcorp.
