DoorDash, Giant Tiger, and Shopify: Last week’s most read RTIH retail technology articles

These are the RTIH articles that caught your fancy last week, including Giant Tiger, Shopify Plus, Kingfisher, Prada, Lacoste, and our 2022 retail technology innovation awards.

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”.

NFTs, robots, and first mile automation: Last week’s biggest retail technology plays at a glance

RTIH rounds up the stand out retail systems deals, deployments and pilots from the past week. Featuring Charlotte Tilbury, Obsess, Giant Tiger, Shopify, Sainsbury’s, adidas Originals, Fiserv Forum, and Amazon.

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.

Shopify notches up Black Friday Cyber Monday record as shoppers support indie brands

Shopify has announced a record setting Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend, with sales of $7.5 billion from independent businesses worldwide.

That’s a 19% increase in sales from the $6.3 billion during the same weekend in 2021 (21% on a constant currency basis). 

“This year, Black Friday/Cyber Monday showed us once again that consumers are voting with their wallets to support the independent brands they love,” says Harley Finkelstein, President at Shopify.

“We saw record level shopping happening across all channels this weekend, proving businesses that meet their customers where they are, whether that’s online or in-person, will earn their loyalty in return.”

Kotsovolos-Dixons South East Europe deploys Displayforce digital signage solution

Kotsovolos-Dixons South East Europe, an electronics retail chain in Greece and Cyprus, has been working on a pilot project with MarTech startup Displayforce.

This has enabled brands to communicate with customers in-store via an AI algorithm. The initiative has also provided stores and visitors with real-time Covid safety information.

Prada drops a Timecapsule NFT Collection in celebration of festive season

Prada has announced the seventh instalment of its Timecapsule NFT Collection.

On 1st December, in celebration of the festive season, there was an exclusive holiday drop of a gender neutral sweater along with a gifted NFT. 

The latest NFT drop is #36 in the Timecapsule collection.

Timecapsule NFT holders will have the opportunity to gain access to exclusive events and experiences including invitations to events such as Prada Extends and Prada Mode, which are held around the world.

Those from the first six drops will be in with an exclusive chance to attend Prada Extends Miami on the sidelines of Art Basel 2022.

Open for Vintage and Luxclusif announce The Loop handbag buy back service

Open for Vintage (OFV), a luxury resale technology platform and Luxclusif, a company wholly owned by Farfetch, have announced a partnership to power The Loop handbag buy back service.

The Loop is accessed directly on the former’s website and allows customers to trade in their designer handbags in exchange for store credit that can be used towards future purchases on OFV.

Customers submit product details and photographs of their bags and a proposed buy back price is generated within two days. Once accepted by the customer, the bag is sent to Luxclusif for verification, free of charge.

Once verification is complete, OFV provide the store credit to the customer and Luxclusif retain ownership of the bag, increasing the volume of pre-owned merchandise across the wider Farfetch network.

The Loop launches together with a brand new OFV website. As part of this initiative, OFV has migrated its order management solution to Onport, another wholly owned Farfetch company.

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.

Albert Czech Republic teams with Brain Corp to deploy robotic scrubbers in stores

Brain Corp, working with Tennant, has completed the deployment of over 40 autonomous in-store scrubbers with the Czech Republic’s Albert, part of the Ahold Delhaize company.

Kingfisher taps Fluent Commerce OMS tech, starting with B&Q roll-out

Kingfisher is to deploy Fluent Commerce’s Order Management System (OMS), with the aim of supporting the Group’s online retail business and enhancing customer experience. 

The solution will first be rolled out at B&Q.

Integrating the new platform with the latter’s existing architecture is being led by Valtech in collaboration with Kingfisher Group, with deployment first taking place in the UK.