Last week’s biggest retail technology plays
RTIH rounds up the stand out retail systems deals, deployments and pilots from the past seven days. Featuring Asda, Giant Eagle, McDonald’s and Majid Al Futtaim.
US retailer Giant Eagle is working with Grabango on the installation of autonomous shopping technology at four more of its GetGo Cafe+Market convenience stores in the Pittsburgh area.
This builds on its initial deployment of Grabango's tech at a single GetGo location last year.
Asda is testing out a new loyalty app called Asda Rewards for staff at 16 of its stores in the West Midlands and West Yorkshire.
Buy now, pay later venture Laybuy has teamed with LA-based multimedia artist Donna Adi for an ‘Instagrammable’ mural located on Thomas Street in Manchester’s Northern Quarter.
Celebrating the introduction of hundreds of new brands to Laybuy’s app, this features a model surrounded by various items, from lipstick to shoes.
When people scan QR codes, both in person and online, the piece of interactive street art will offer them the chance to get their hands on said items, along with products from such brands as Asos, Net-a-Porter, Charlotte Tilbury and Nike.
Hot Topic, a specialty retailer for music and pop culture fans, has relaunched mobile apps across its brands, Hot Topic and BoxLunch.
The California-based brand tapped poq’s mobile app platform and Salesforce Commerce Cloud for the project.
Checkout free stores startup Zippin is powering a new American Express store at the USTA Billie Jean King Center.
PAL Robotics’ StockBot inventory tracking and data collection solution has been selected for roll-out across Decathlon stores in multiple countries.
This was first implemented in Decathlon Singapore, and then France, The Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Ireland, Italy, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.
McDonald’s is now accepting payments in Bitcoin through Lightning Network. But only in El Salvador.
Crypto journalist Aaron van Wirdum broke the news this week after he visited a McDonald’s restaurant in the country and was presented with a printed QR code directing him to an invoice page on Lightning Network.
After launching in Go stores and then larger Fresh supermarkets, Amazon’s cashierless Just Walk Out technology is set to be deployed in two Whole Foods locations Stateside.
The service is coming to Washington DC and Sherman Oaks, California next year.
GXO Logistics has launched an automation pilot at its fashion e-commerce warehouse in Tilburg, the Netherlands.
Its Pick-it-Easy Robot station is tailored for a key, unnamed customer, in collaboration with tech provider KNAPP.
The AI-based vision system recognises each product and identifies the optimal gripping point and gripping speed, while the arm places items into a pocket conveyor for sorting, grouping and routing to packing stations.
Amazon has opened an Amazon Fresh location in Dalston, London.
Situated at 28-31 Kingsland High Street, it is the sixth such UK convenience store to feature Just Walk Out Shopping tech.
The other five are in Camden, Ealing, Wembley Park, White City and Canary Wharf.
Fashion retailer, Benetton Group, is to roll-out Cegid’s cloud-based unified commerce and PoS platform across its global store estate following a deployment in 29 locations in Italy.
UK-based brewery and pub chain, BrewDog, has signed on with buy now, pay later venture Clearpay.
The company is launching exclusively with an advent calendar, offering shoppers the option to pay in four interest free instalments.
Nordic cosmetics and beauty product retailer, KICKS, has expanded its partnership with RELEX Solutions to include space planning and automation as well mobile access to the latter’s system.
The RELEX Living Retail Platform will service KICKS’ 200+ stores throughout Sweden, Norway, and Finland by unifying supply chain and space planning processes.
KICKS has been using RELEX’s supply chain solution since 2018. Prior to the space planning operations partnership, it used a legacy system that required very manual, time consuming processes.
Majid Al Futtaim, which owns and operates shopping malls, retail, and leisure establishments in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, has announced the launch of checkout free store, Carrefour City+.
A first for Carrefour worldwide and opening today in Mall of the Emirates, this taps artificial intelligence technology.
Store access and shopping payment is enabled via the MAF Carrefour app. Once inside Carrefour City+, every item picked up by customers is automatically added to a digital shopping basket and the purchase is completed by walking out.
Ted Baker has partnered with Secret Sales to launch its first ‘always on’ UK digital outlet, enabling it to sell aged stock away from the brand’s main website.
Currently listing around 800 non full price lines, Ted Baker has selected Secret Sales to be its sole off-price marketplace channel.
It has connected its supply chain and inventory systems to the platform to trade in real-time, without the need to physically move stock to a third-party seller.
Cimcorp has implemented an automated solution for Spanish grocery retailer Mercadona.
This is the first of four systems ordered by the supermarket giant. Installed in Mercadona’s new distribution centre in Zaragoza, the solution handles the distribution of fresh fruits, vegetables, and packed meat products.
Belcorp, a beauty company which is home to the ésika, L’Bel and Cyzone brands, has deployed Perfect Corp.’s artificial intelligence and augmented reality powered virtual try-on technology.
Belcorp plans to integrate this across Latin America, and has already launched the tech in Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, and Panama.
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Southeastern Grocers, parent company of Fresco y Más, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie grocery stores, is deployi… https://t.co/Q5En8j6cEc -
Check out the week's coolest retail technology plays, including @obsessVR @OcadoGroup @AEON_JAPAN @braincorp… https://t.co/RH2BIf6Jol
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RTIH presents the retail technology week in numbers, including @CovariantAI @RetailTechShow @DennysDiner… https://t.co/WURUUgdCr0
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Our Editor @ScottThomps74 rounds up the biggest retail tech stories from the past week including @BootsUK… https://t.co/IWj7BebUB1