Last week’s retail technology deals at a glance

RTIH rounds up the stand out retail systems deals, deployments and pilots from the past seven days, including Sports Direct, Boohoo Group, Amazon and Carrefour Group.

Virtual shopping platform, HERO, has launched a new product, Stories, pitched as as an alternative to livestreaming events.

Currently being used by the likes of Ted Baker, size?, Faherty, and Innersense Beauty, this aims to make it easy for brands to create shoppable, short-form One-To-Many videos that bring products to life, and share them directly on their online store. 

Majid  Al  Futtaim, which owns and operates shopping malls, retail, and leisure establishments in the Middle East and North Africa, has announced a partnership with RELEX Solutions.

RELEX’s automated planogramming solution will be implemented at Carrefour’s 350 stores across 17 countries that are part of Majid Al Futtaim Retail’s portfolio.

Initially, the tech will be rolled out to stores in the United Arab Emirates. It will be expanded to Majid Al Futtaim’s other markets as the project continues.

Purina has partnered with Perch to launch an in-store product engagement platform at 200 supermarket locations in the US midwest. 

Tapping Perch’s lift and learn technology, interactive end caps in the pet section incorporate a digital screen that automatically senses what products shoppers touch to respond with videos and information about said products.

Sports Direct has reopened its London Oxford Street flagship store, following a £10 million retail tech centric makeover. 

The retailer says that the 50,000 sq. ft location will host the most LED, digital and interactive technology on Oxford Street.

Russian consumer electronic retail chain M.Video has launched a virtual assistant called Alyona.

Voice processing technologies have, it says, enabled the company to reduce the workload of its contact centre staff, reduce response times and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Sports betting and online gaming brand, William Hill, has chosen Contentstack as its core content experience platform.

A rebuilt online portfolio of William Hill properties will be available in June as a part of the refresh of William Hill Vegas. 

Sportswear brand ASRV has gone live with Fit Analytics’ Fit Finder online sizing solution.

Amazon’s cashierless Just Walk Out technology is now available in a full size grocery store for the first time.

A new 25,000 square foot Amazon Fresh store lines up alongside the 10,400 square foot Amazon Go Grocery that debuted last year, and the standard 1,200 and 2,300 square feet Go locations.

It is Amazon’s 14th Fresh location in the US and can be found in Bellevue, Washington.

Boohoo Group has deployed the AI powered Bloomreach Engagement customer data and experience platform across its 13 online brands, including boohoo, PrettyLittleThing, and Debenhams

Urban Outfitters is deploying the Qlik Sense platform for in-store reporting, expanding access to near real-time data for store managers and associates in its 650+ locations across the United States and EMEA.

LVMH and Google Cloud have kicked off a strategic partnership.

According to a press release, the pair are teaming up to empower LVMH’s Maisons, the company’s individual luxury brands, to create “new, personalised customer experiences that foster long-term growth”. 

As AI will increasingly touch every part of the value chain at LVMH, from product development to supply chain, to the interfaces with employees, partners, and customers, LVMH will leverage Google Cloud’s cloud technology and AI/ML tools to enable the development of new business use cases at scale.

Carrefour Group has unveiled a new data and retail media strategy with the launch of its Carrefour Links platform. This taps technology developed by Criteo, Google and LiveRamp.

The Very Group, operator of online retailers Very.co.uk and Littlewoods.com, has announced a three-year renewal of its partnership with DemandTec and the company’s Markdown Optimisation solution. 

Coca-Cola HBC Ireland and Northern Ireland has partnered with Manna for a drone delivery service in Oranmore, Galway.

This is pitched as the largest commercial drone delivery trial of its kind in the world, with plans for further roll-out to Irish towns in the coming months.

Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Fanta, Sprite and the Schweppes range will be available via the Manna platform.

The Hut Group’s proprietary e-commerce platform THG Ingenuity is set to offer the Open Banking powered Mode solution as a payment option for customers.

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