Last week’s biggest retail technology plays — Retail Technology Innovation Hub

RTIH rounds up the stand out retail systems deals, deployments and pilots from the past seven days. Featuring StubHub, Farfetch, Target, Urban Outfitters and The Very Group.

Checkpoint Systems has announced a new three-year RFID solutions partnership with Dutch fashion retailer Scotch & Soda.

Scotch & Soda, which operates 166 stores in more than 70 countries, has been using Checkpoint Systems' clothing labels for more than 10 years.

The latter will now tag, on average, 10 million of its garments with RFID labels per year.

Following the introduction of Simbe Robotics’ autonomous robot Tally in select stores, Schnuck Markets has announced a multi-year, full scale roll-out at 111 locations across the US.

It says that this makes it the first grocer in the world to utilise AI powered inventory management technology at scale.

Farfetch has marked the launch of pre-order collections on its e-commerce platform by partnering with fashion startup DRESSX to digitally dress its global community of influencers and produce virtual editorial shoots, for the first time ever.

Marxent has partnered with Joybird to bring ‘Inspired by Pinterest Trends’ to the online furniture retailer’s 3D Space Planner.

This comes as part of Joybird’s larger partnership with Pinterest, while Marxent says that its 3D Cloud powered 3D Space Planner provides users with the only tool that features content inspired directly by the social media platform.

The new feature allows shoppers to browse photos that reflect current Pinterest Trends data within the Joybird 3D Space Planner tool, then customise the scene in 3D to reflect their real life floorplan, without searching through catalogues or product pages to find the look that inspired them.

German drugstore chain Müller is expanding its partnership with RELEX Solutions to include replenishment of its four distribution centres in Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, and Spain.

The deal will also cover smooth delivery flows for goods receiving, thereby increasing product availability, particularly during seasons with high business volumes.

Müller had already been using RELEX for both demand forecasting and store replenishment in its 879 stores throughout Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, and Spain.

Amazon is partnering with Affirm for its first ever buy now, pay later option on the e-commerce site.

This is now available to certain Amazon customers in the US, with a broader roll-out set for the coming months. The tie up will let people split purchases of $50 or more into smaller, monthly instalments.

Target plans to open four new sortation centres this autumn in the Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia and Lawrenceville, Georgia markets, the retailer has announced.

Removing the sortation process from the backroom and stores and moving it to a dedicated facility will help free up space and time within retail locations, it says.

The centres, which are powered by technology from Grand Junction and Deliv, will get deliveries from stores and sort them for delivery partners like Shipt.

US startup Lolli has announced a partnership with ticket marketplace StubHub.

This gives people the ability to earn up to 6% Bitcoin back on tickets for the likes of sporting events, theatre, and concerts.

StubHub joins 1,000+ other retailers offering Bitcoin rewards with Lolli, including Microsoft, Sephora, Kroger, and Best Buy.

Urban Outfitters is set to launch a marketplace for secondhand goods.

Nuuly Thrift, which was built in house, will be available as an iPhone app later this year.

It will be a sister platform to Urban Outfitters’ subscription rental programme, Nuuly Rent, and will allow customers to sell and buy items from any brand, not just in-house products.

Walmart has launched a white label service, Walmart GoLocal, that uses its logistics network to deliver products for other retailers.

“In an era where customers have come to expect speed and reliability, it’s more important than ever for businesses to work with a service provider that understands a merchant’s needs,” says John Furner, President and CEO, Walmart U.S.

“We have spent years building and scaling commerce capabilities that support our network of more than 4,700 stores and we look forward to helping other businesses have access to the same reliable, quality and low cost services.”

Studio Moderna, an omnichannel retailer of home and wellness brands across Central and Eastern Europe, has chosen Shippeo to power new parcel track and trace capabilities for customers.

UK independent country store, Millbry Hill, has automated post purchase operations using Brightpearl.

After going live in 150 days, it now has access to a retail operations platform that integrates ‘out of the box’ with Shopify Plus.

The Very Group, operator of online retailers Very.co.uk and Littlewoods.com, has extended the next day delivery cut off for customer orders from 7pm to 10pm, thanks to automated technology at Skygate, its East Midlands fulfilment centre.

Skygate’s automated sortation, selection, picking and single or multi-order packaging technology has orders ready for dispatch within 30 minutes, compared to around four hours at Very’s previous fulfilment centres.

Selecta Group, a self-service retailer offering coffee and convenience food solutions in the workplace and in public spaces, has announced a cashless payments partnership with Fiserv.

Roll-out of the latter’s ONE Selecta technology solution began this summer, with the aim of supporting payments with global and local card schemes and mobile apps at the point of sale.

Selecta is also evaluating a mobile payment app, which will include access to a loyalty programme.

Perfect Corp., developer of the YouCam Makeup app, has partnered with Avon México.

Avon is an early adopter of Perfect Corp’s AI and AR tech within its digital shopping experience, providing virtual try-on and shade matching for a selection of Avon PowerStay products across foundations, eye makeup, and lip categories, as well as its Advanced Techniques hair colour collection.

The service is available to over 400,000 Avon representatives across the Mexican territory.

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