Here’s to a very omnichannel Xmas! Check out RTIH’s biggest retail technology articles on LinkedIn

We’re big fans of LinkedIn and are busy building an amazing community of retail tech enthusiasts on the social media platform. These are the articles that are currently on their radars, including Lacoste, Emperia, FreedomPay, Prommt, Starship Technologies, Co-op, and the 2022 RTIH Innovation Awards.

Emperia creates virtual holiday store for Lacoste, with an NFT twist

Emperia has announced the launch of Lacoste’s first ever virtual store ahead of the holiday season.

Upon entering the experience, customers are taken through a crocodile’s mouth, where they find themselves in a showroom featuring five seasonal products, all shoppable viewed in 360°.

As users continue their journey into the second room, Emperia has developed a gamification feature that enables them to interact with more products in the Christmas range.

A third and final token gated room is nestled at the end of the store, exclusive to VIP customers in UNDW3 (Lacoste’s Web3 community) that are in possession of a Lacoste NFT.

Throughout December, ‘loot’ boxes will be dropped within this room for UNDW3 customers to collect, and five users will be selected at random daily, to win a prize.

Created in partnership, using Arianee’s token gated technology to bring this room to life, customers will be encouraged to keep coming back for new surprises.

FreedomPay and Prommt partner on secure personalised payment requests

Commerce technology firm FreedomPay has partnered with Prommt, a platform that enables businesses to request, collect, and track remote payments.

It says that the move will enhance its Next Level Commerce solution by providing greater flexibility and choice for enterprise customers who wish to offer a fully branded and rich payment experience.

The tie up will help deliver instant, branded, personalised payment requests via email, text, chat, and messaging apps while integrating with FreedomPay's solutions across payments, security, identity, and data analytics.

2022 RTIH Innovation Awards: shortlists announced, winners revealed this month

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been announcing the shortlists for the 2022 RTIH Innovation Awards.

And now we’re pleased to bring them all together in one place.

Check them out here.

Colruyt Group Collect&Go service tests out Clevon unmanned vehicle in Belgium

Collect&Go, Colruyt Group’s online shopping service, is trialling an autonomous vehicle built by Clevon that combines remote teleoperation with autopilot functionality.

The Clevon 1 will cover a four kilometre route, from distribution centre to Collect&Go's pick-up point in Londerzeel. This is the longest route ever covered in Belgium by an unmanned vehicle.

RTIH invites submissions for 2022 Retail Technology Innovations Report

RTIH recently announced the launch of its first ever Retail Technology Innovations Report, sponsored by Metapack.

This will highlight the top retail tech plays of 2022 as decided by our Editor, Scott Thompson, and an independent advisory panel.

Think you should be included in our top 50 retail technology innovations of 2022?

If so, make sure you submit your nomination (free of charge) before Friday, 9th December.

We’re looking for noteworthy technology deployments, launches, and pilots from across the omnichannel retail landscape, be they payments, supply chain, online, mobile, physical store etc related.

Scott Thompson will then draw up a longlist which will go to our independent judging panel.

Robots up north: Starship Technologies and Co-op bring autonomous food delivery to Leeds

Starship Technologies has partnered with Leeds City Council and the Co-op to bring autonomous grocery delivery to the streets of Leeds.

The service will be available to 20,000 residents initially within the Adel and Tinshill area of Leeds.

Orders are made through the Starship app, which is available for download on iOS and Android, with groceries picked in local Co-op stores on Spen Lane, Tinshill and Otley Road, Adel, for rapid delivery.

The expansion in the north of England for the first time follows the introduction of autonomous deliveries in Milton Keynes, Bedford, Northampton, Cambourne, and most recently Cambridge.

Warner’s deploys Gander food waste technology in new store

UK independent retailer, Guy Warner, has got onboard with food waste app, Gander, by installing its technology in his latest flagship store in Upton-Upon-Severn.

The co-branded concept store is branded as Warner’s Supermarkets – Together with Morrisons.

The Gander app identifies reduced food items in local stores in real-time.

Giant Tiger rips out online retail technology stack, replaces with Shopify Plus

Canadian discount store chain, Giant Tiger, has launched a new website and an end to end tech stack replacement.

In a LinkedIn post, Simon Rodrigue, SVP & Chief Digital Officer at Giant Tiger, said: “Excited to be working with Shopify on the Shopify Plus platform building out an experience to help Canadians save with a smile.”

He added: “Thanks to all of the teams at Giant Tiger, our lead development partners at Diff and our technology partners at Algolia, Contentful, Segment, ShipHero, Akeneo, Sitation, 6 River Systems, Alumworks, Noibu, Yotpo, Klaviyo, Gorgias, Plobal Apps - it takes a powerful team, dedicated to a cause to make it happen.”

In a Twitter post, Aaron Rubin, Founder and CEO at ShipHero, described the project as “the biggest Shopify ecosystem news you haven’t heard”.

Indian online retailer Pepperfry taps FarEye last mile delivery solutions

Pepperfry, an e-commerce home goods company, headquartered in Mumbai, India, is working with FarEye to simplify last mile delivery, particularly for oversized deliveries requiring installation.

Lagardére Travel Retail goes live with ReceiptHero digital receipt solution

ReceiptHero and Lagardére Travel Retail are teaming up to deploy a digital receipt solution to the latter’s UK stores.

Lagardére Travel Retail currently operates 21 shops across eight airports and eight ferries.

Lagardère Travel Retail UK & Ireland brands include Discover, Aelia Duty Free, Tommy Hilfiger and the LEGO Store.

Customers can receive their digital receipts in real-time from the point of purchase in the ReceiptHero app, available for both iOS and Android users.