Two for Trigo: Check out the six biggest retail technology news stories of the week
It’s Friday, the weekend is almost upon us, so let’s kick back and reflect on another eventful week for the retail systems space. Here's your briefing on the most important stories from the past five days, including Tesco, Aldi Nord, Trigo, Zapp, Uber Eats, and the 2022 RTIH Innovation Awards.
1. Currys invests in robotic suits to help deliver for Black Friday and holiday season
UK tech retailer, Currys, says it has invested over £250,000 in a fleet of robotic exoskeleton suits to help colleagues from logistics partner, GXO, work safely and efficiently through the festive period.
The suits, which are being used at Currys’ facility in Newark, will help people carry out their physical day to day tasks, with the aim of putting less pressure on their joints and muscles while lifting heavy loads.
The Newark site will help deliver 8.7 million units of stock to all 309 of its stores this Black Friday period.
The robotic suits are worn like a small backpack and give colleagues at least 10 tonnes of relief over the course of a typical working shift — with up to 30kg of assistance to the lower back per lift.
Made with ultralight carbon fibre, the waterproof exoskeleton incorporates the AI-based Smart Safety Companion ergonomics early warning system to alert of signs of poor posture and incorrect lifting practices in real-time.
2. All eyes on Fulham as Tesco opens another Trigo powered London checkout free store
Tesco has announced the opening of a fourth Trigo powered store in London.
The hybrid autonomous store is located in the Fulham Reach real estate development.
While still in the capital, it has shoppers with different needs than the on the go shopper which is typical of
Tesco’s other Trigo powered locations in Central London High Holborn and Chiswell.
The grocery giant says that it is catering to a new subset of customers who use the location for their weekly shopping trips, with larger basket sizes.
3. Simon Wherry to head up delivery of tech related projects and programmes at Halfords
Halfords has announced the appointment of Simon Wherry as Delivery Director.
He joins from management consultancy firm, CapGemini, where he was a Programme Director working in the defence manufacturing arena.
Prior to this, Wherry held numerous roles in which he has worked with or for major retailers across Europe.
This includes Kingfisher, owner of B&Q, Screwfix, Castorama, Brico Depot and Woolworths where he held multiple transformational change delivery roles, most recently as Portfolio & Governance Director.
Whilst at Kingfisher, he was responsible for a multi-year programme to deploy common ways of working underpinned by a unified technology stack across the group.
In a consulting capacity, he has also previously worked at BP Convenience Retail (US) and Smyths Toys.
4. 2022 RTIH Innovation Awards judging day takes place in central London
Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been busy announcing the shortlists for the 2022 RTIH Innovation Awards.
And on Tuesday our judging panel come together at a venue in central London to flag up their favourite entires and agree the winners and highly commended companies.
These will be revealed at an exclusive event in central London on Tuesday, 6th December.
5. Aldi Nord digitises discount retail as it enters strategic partnership with Trigo
Aldi Nord has announced a partnership with Trigo (yep, them again).
This builds on a tie up in Utrecht with Aldi Nederland where the pair are working on a checkout-free test store, Aldi Shop & Go.
"To successfully lead discount retail into the future, technology and business must go hand in hand," says Sinanudin Omerhodzic, Chief Technology Officer at Aldi Nord.
"Our close partnership with Trigo unites exactly that and brings together two true experts in their field.”
“The cooperation in Utrecht has shown that we share the right values and that together we can develop quick solutions with an eye for essentials, always focusing on customer benefits."
Omerhodzic adds: "We don't have final reports yet, but the initial results of Aldi Shop & Go are promising.”
6. Rapid delivery specialist Zapp is now available on Uber Eats platform
Uber Eats and Zapp have announced a quick commerce partnership.
Customers across central London using Uber Eats will now be able to order from Zapp’s catalogue of around 2,000 products.
Each order will be picked and packed from the nearest ‘Zappstore’ for delivery within as little as 20 minutes, 24/7.
Zapp says that this makes it one of the only convenience retailers available on Uber Eats night and day.
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