July: retail technology deals and deployments at a glance
RTIH rounds up the stand out retail systems deals, deployments and pilots from July, including Walmart, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Kroger and Casino Group.
Walmart has announced a supply chain automation partnership with Symbotic.
The two will deploy robotics tech at 25 regional Walmart distribution centres, with roll-out set to take several years to complete.
This builds on a 2017 pilot that brought Symbotic’s autonomous robotics platform to Walmart’s Brooksville, Florida distribution centre in a bid to increase freight sorting, stocking and unloading.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Morrisons is testing out a store with no checkouts or staff, known internally as Project Sarah, at its Bradford head office.
Britain's fourth largest supermarket, which is currently at the centre of a takeover battle, is working with US venture AiFi on the initiative.
Customers (or Morrisons staff members in the case of this trial) download an app on to their smartphone which must be scanned on entry.
Digital cameras then track where people are in the store and record which items they place in their bags.
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.
Topo Solutions is developing a new digital supply chain management platform for REWE Far East, the sourcing arm of food retailer REWE Group in Asia.
The solution uses visual interfaces and drag and drop features, replacing the need for extensive coding.
Instacart has announced plans to offer automated fulfilment as a service to grocers in North America, and it has inked a multi-year deal with Fabric as part of the initiative.
The service will combine Fabric’s software and robotics with Instacart’s proprietary technology and gig shoppers for fulfilment inside dedicated warehouses and existing retailer locations.
Instacart plans to kick off early stage concept pilots in partnership with grocery retail partners over the coming year. This is the company’s first move beyond its legacy store-based fulfilment offering.
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.
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