Last week’s retail technology deals at a glance
RTIH rounds up the stand out retail systems deals, deployments, initiatives and pilots from the past seven days, including X5 Group, Casino Group, Monoprix, Sainsbury’s, Kroger and ITV/Boots UK.
Fashion retailer Zara has launched its Store Mode technology across all UK stores, connecting its physical locations with its website and app.
Kroger is working with KNAPP to expand the capacity and enhance the capabilities of its Great Lakes distribution centre in Delaware, Ohio, USA.
The facility is currently being renovated to add new technology, including KNAPP's OSR Shuttle Evo and RUNPICK systems, with work set for completion this summer.
The DC – which opened in 2003 and currently services 115 stores in central and northwest Ohio, southeast Michigan and the Ohio River Valley region – will be expanded by 130,000 square feet.
Shekel Brainweigh has announced a second Paris-based autonomous store opening with Monoprix, part of French retailer Casino Group.
Located in Rue De Marseille, this features an autonomous section, which is part of a standard store during working hours, but once it closes, the section remains open with unique access control.
Shoppers use a mobile payment app to walk in, select their goods and walk out.
American luggage and handbag design brand Vera Bradley has selected Reflexis Appointments, enabling customers to select an in-person or virtual shopping session.
The solution also helps stores stay in compliance with evolving state and municipal mandates throughout the pandemic.
Customers can book time slots on Vera’s website to shop in-store or virtually from home, schedule curbside pickup and join on-site queues for walk-in service.
Sainsbury’s says that it is the first UK retailer to introduce fully electric refrigerated trailers to its delivery fleet.
New technology adds charge back into the battery by converting kinetic energy into electricity, keeping the onboard fridges cool and reducing energy consumption.
This is part of Sainsbury’s plans to invest £1 billion, over the next 20 years, into its operations, with the aim of eliminating carbon emissions and significantly reducing energy costs.
Location tech company what3words has entered into a staycation focused partnership with Airbnb.
The aim is to make it easier for people who want to take advantage of a sharp rise in staycation bookings as coronavirus restrictions are phased out, such as those based in remote locations in the Scottish lowlands or around any one of the UK’s 15 national parks.
BBQ retailer Turn Up The Heat has opted for the combination of Brightpearl and Shopify as it looks to boost its online strategy.
La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries, PROCAM, Fabergé, KEF and Aftershock PC Australia are among the brands onboard with new buy now, pay later offering, Splitit InStore.
This brings Splitit’s instalment payments to in-store retail locations worldwide, and also includes Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Retail sales associate can initiate it for those people making larger value purchases, such as home furnishings, jewellery, luxury retail and sporting goods.
Casino Group has announced a digital strategy acceleration partnership with Accenture and Google Cloud.
The aim here is to enhance the retailer’s customer experience and operational capabilities through the development and implementation of data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning based solutions.
It is also looking to support the growth of its B2B activities, in particular RelevanC, the Group's retail media property, with technological and commercial back up from the partners.
Russian tech giant Yandex and online food delivery venture Grubhub have announced a multi-year partnership pitched at college campuses in the US.
Yandex autonomous delivery robots will join Grubhub’s platform, with the service set to be available at select college campuses this autumn. GrubHub partners with more than 250 college campuses across the US.
ITV is set to unveil Shoppable TV, enabling viewers to search and shop for show products from their sofa.
This will launch during an episode of Love Island on ITV2.
Russian food retailer, X5 Group, has launched a media platform called Food.ru.
Consisting of a website, mobile app and social media accounts, this will focus on the likes of recipes, healthy eating, cooking classes, and offers from X5.
Ocado Solutions has teamed with Auchan Retail owned Spanish grocer Alcampo to develop the latter’s online business using the Ocado Smart Platform (OSP).
The pair will initially build a customer fulfilment centre (CFC) to serve the Madrid region from 2024, with additional CFCs to be announced at future dates.
Alcampo will also leverage Ocado’s In-Store Fulfilment (ISF) software across its hypermarkets nationwide to enable more efficient picking from stores.
UK online retailer, Feel Good Contacts, is tapping Emarsys engagement and data analytics tools to provide customers with more personalised experiences.
Tesco is gearing up to deploy its Trigo powered version of Amazon’s Just Walk Out offering in a second UK location: High Holborn, London.
Tapping AI and computer vision technology, the Easyout solution enables shoppers to walk into a store, check in via a QR code, select items for purchase and leave without having to bother with pesky checkouts.
Carrefour has launched a Healthy Map on Fortnite, enabling players to heal themselves and gain more energy by eating fruit, vegetables and fish.
This places them in an eco-friendly Carrefour store of the future: a supermarket with an electric recharging station, trucks running on biomethane, a responsible fishing zone, fields of organic fruit and fresh vegetables, and a farm respecting animal welfare.
Item rental marketplace Fat Llama is launching a new enterprise platform, allowing retail partners, including John Lewis and Sofology, to lend their products to customers.
During an eight week trial, Fat Llama Enterprise enabled John Lewis to sell out its entire rental inventory in the first 48 hours. The tie up allowed customers to rent the likes of bedside tables, beds, shelving units and cabinets.
The partnership with Sofology, meanwhile, for its Loop initiative, allows customers to rent the brand’s new Virtue range of sofas, armchairs and footstools.
Online retailer musicMagpie has partnered with delivery tech venture Sorted.
A trial of the latter’s REACT solution was implemented in April for the return journey on the customer trade-in side of its business.
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