Ten retail technology investments that should be on your radar
These companies are leading the way in providing innovative retail systems powered customer experiences, including Shopify, Glovo, Newegg and Pizza Hut.
1. DPD
Oxford has become delivery firm DPD's first electric vehicles only city, with nine further UK locations set to be confirmed this year.
Vision 25 is DPD's pledge to deliver ‘green' to 25 major UK towns and cities, covering 25% of the UK population by 2025, and is backed by a £111 million investment in electric vehicles.
2. Shopify
Shopify has made it possible for eligible merchants to sell NFTs (non-fungible tokens) through their e-commerce stores.
One of the first out of the traps is the NBA’s Chicago Bulls.
3. Glovo
On demand delivery venture Glovo has launched Glovo Concepts, a portfolio of delivery only food brands.
These are designed by Glovo and operated by restaurant partners.
More than 300 restaurants, in Glovo’s largest markets of Spain and Italy, are already using Glovo Concepts, with plans to expand and have 1,000+ onboard by the end of 2021, across Romania, Georgia, Croatia, Portugal and Poland.
4. fonQ
Hullabalook has released data from its partnership with Dutch furniture retailer fonQ.
The company’s Stickers technology converts retailers’ products into 2D ‘stickers’, which shoppers can select and move around a blank canvas.
Users can explore the full product catalogue, design their space and then checkout with all of their favourite products in one click.
5. The Very Group
The Very Group, operator of online retailer Very.co.uk, has completed the migration of all clothing and footwear returns to Skygate, its 850,000 square foot automated fulfilment centre in the East Midlands.
It has processed more than 750,000 returned items at Skygate since the three month long migration from Raven Mill in Chadderton, Greater Manchester, operated by Clipper Logistics, began in April.
Non-fashion items like electrical appliances and tech products, which generally have low return rates and require specialist inspection, will continue to be processed in Greater Manchester.
6. Newegg
Newegg has become the first major online retailer to accept the Litecoin (LTC) cryptocurrency as a payment method, via the BitPay platform.
Customers will have the option of paying with LTC using the BitPay Wallet app.
“Newegg has always been able to quickly implement new technologies to offer its customers innovative new ways to pay for products and services purchased through its platform,” says Stephen Pair, CEO at BitPay.
“As the enthusiasm and excitement around the use of cryptocurrency continue to grow, it demonstrates once again that it’s committed to making it easy for customers to shop their way with a growing array of payment options that also cater to crypto fans.”
7. Central England Co-op
Ubamarket has rolled out its mobile technology in a new Central England Co-op store at Warsop, Mansfield.
This takes Ubamarket into its fourth partnered store with the retailer.
8. Pizza Hut
Contentsquare has announced a partnership with Pizza Hut involving customer experiences across the retailer’s digital channels.
The Digital Ventures team at Pizza Hut has leveraged Contentsquare’s customer behaviour insights to learn how consumers interact with certain areas of their website.
Since adopting the platform, the team says that it has identified several opportunities to drive experimentation, tailor personalisation, and optimise customer journeys across the site.
9. PizzaExpress
PizzaExpress has deployed Qlik Cloud to give UK employees access to real-time data for improved decision making.
It first deployed Qlik in 2018, providing its teams with an overview of restaurant data. This included datasets for sales, inventory and labour.
It is now transitioning to analytics through Qlik’s hosted and managed cloud infrastructure, which enables it to centralise data management and distribution.
10. M.Video
M.Video, part of Russian consumer electronics retailer M.Video-Eldorado Group, has launched AI powered personalised pricing for users of its mobile platform.
Customers who have signed into the app get guaranteed discounts based on their purchase history and available bonuses.
Personalised pricing for M.Video website customers will be launched in the near future.
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