Check out this week's coolest retail technology plays
RTIH Editor, Scott Thompson, brings you his top ‘future of retail systems’ deployments from the past week, including automated distribution centres, stores of the future, and smart cart platforms.
Amazon
Amazon is prepping a new Amazon Go convenience store format aimed at suburban shoppers and powered by the e-commerce giant’s Just Walk Out frictionless checkout technology.
The first of these locations, which will offer grab and go foods, beverages and everyday essentials, is set to open in the near future in the Seattle suburb of Mill Creek, Washington.
Amazon will then target the Los Angeles region.
The new stores will line up alongside Amazon's existing fleet of smaller, urban focused Go outlets.
Nourish + Bloom Market
Autonomous grocery store Nourish + Bloom Market has opened to the public in Fayetteville, Georgia, USA.
Nourish + Bloom Market is the first store of its kind with robotic delivery in the United States and the first African American owned autonomous grocery location in the world.
Husband and wife entrepreneurs Jamie and Jilea Hemmings started the venture to offer over 1,000 locally sourced, healthy food products, including produce, meats, baked goods, dairy and prepared meals.
The new store features Shekel's solutions for real-time identification of shelf products.
Shekel's technology will combine with Hitachi's consumer tracking technology.
Customers will use a N+B app, developed by UST, make their purchases, and be charged via their payment systems, eliminating the need for checkouts. An e-receipt will be sent to the app.
Decathlon
Geek+, a specialist in AI robotics technology, and sporting goods retailer Decathlon have announced the deployment of hundreds of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) in three of the latter’s European distribution centres.
The DCs, located in Castelnau, France, Łódź, Poland, and Campania, Italy, are leveraging Geek+’s AMR technology to enable Decathlon to increase its storage capacity, streamline its logistics processes, and better serve its expanding online customer base across those countries.
Cartken and Mitsubishi Electric
San Francisco-based Cartken’s Model C robots have been chosen by Mitsubishi Electric for a pilot project at AEON MALL Tokoname, Japan.
Beginning this month, the latter will oversee a pilot where customers can use the Starbucks app to select their food and beverage order. A Cartken robot will meet the customer at one of the delivery points inside or outside the mall.
Mitsubishi Electric is also looking at other use cases.
Flying Tiger Copenhagen
Flying Tiger Copenhagen is rolling out MishiPay’s mobile self-checkout solution to its UK stores.
This follows a trial across stores in Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
The Scan, Pay & Go technology was deployed across 30 stores in the Nordic region, enabling customers to scan and pay for items in-store without having to queue or download an app.
By scanning a QR code with their smartphone, people could access MishiPay on their phone’s browser, scan product barcodes and pay with the tap of a button, while in-store staff could view purchase activity and analytics in real-time.
Cust2Mate
A2Z Smart Technologies Corp. has introduced its Cust2Mate smart cart platform in the US and Israel.
Cust2Mate is installing carts in the New York City chain Morton Williams Supermarkets.
And a chain in Israel, Yochananof, has also deployed a number of carts. Evergreen, with stores in New York and New Jersey, will conduct a pilot beginning in February.
Other pilots by different companies will be announced throughout 2022.
StreetDrone/wilko
Autonomous technology company, StreetDrone, has released new images of a solution that British high street chain wilko’s CEO, Jerome Saint-Marc, labels ‘guilt free’ direct-to-consumer shopping.
The driverless Pix-E vehicle is in development following wilko’s investment in StreetDrone last year.
“This form of technology will allow small independents to compete on a level playing field with large online retailers by reducing the cost of home delivery and giving communities more ways to access their neighbourhood shops,” says Saint-Marc.
“But critically as the volume of doorstep deliveries increases, it is incumbent on everyone to design solutions that enhance, not detract from our neighbourhoods. That’s why we invested in StreetDrone to explore and test the exciting possibilities Pix-E presents.”
Majid Al Futtaim
Majid Al Futtaim owned and operated Mall of the Emirates has worked with Cisco to launch the ‘Store of the Future’.
The first retailer to take over the space is THAT Concept Store.
An immersive, digitalised, and personalised shopping experience has been created through five of Cisco’s core technology features: Digital Display Canvas, Lift & Learn, Magic Mirror, Beauty Mirror, and Store Analytics.
Ocado Group
Nike
After venturing in to the virtual world of Roblox in November, Nike is now bringing its Nikeland experience to the brand’s New York City store on Fifth Avenue.
Throughout January, the Kids space - 1F floor of Nike NYC, House of Innovation - will feature visual elements decked out in the theme, while augmented reality features through Snapchat Lenses offer avatars and games.
