Pepperfry, Kingfisher, and Co-op: 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 seven days. Featuring Co-op, Kingfisher, Pepperfry, Secret Sales, Albert Czech Republic, and Løvenskiold Handel.
Albert Czech Republic
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.
Kotsovolos-Dixons South East Europe
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.
Dr. Barbara Sturm
Dr. Barbara Sturm, aesthetics skin doctor and founder and CEO at Molecular Cosmetics, has come up with a virtual and interactive way to browse and shop her skincare collection, created by Emperia.
The metaverse store serves as an extension of the bricks and mortar Dr. Barbara Sturm Spa & Boutique.
It is broken down into four rooms: main hall, super anti-aging lab, a microbiotic room and an anti-inflammatory room which offers direct access to a tropical beach.
Customers will be able to purchase Dr. Sturm products directly from the metaverse store while experiencing and learning about new innovations and discovering exclusive content.
Kingfisher and Google Cloud
Kingfisher and Google Cloud have announced a five-year strategic partnership.
The former, whose brand portfolio includes B&Q, Castorama, Screwfix, Brico Dépôt and Koçtaş, will tap Google Cloud’s infrastructure, platform services, and artificial intelligence solutions, Kingfisher.
It says that benefits will include greater website uptime, better forecasting, more seamless customer centric experiences, improved personalisation, and engineering support from Google Cloud.
Kingfisher is one of the largest SAP enterprise users in Europe and is migrating on-premise legacy workloads to Google Cloud.
The Yards
This December, The Yards in Covent Garden, London will be rewarding visitors with exclusive prizes every day throughout its 12 Drops of Christmas campaign.
The initiative will be the first time that a retail client has used a Landmrk powered experience to host a multi-brand competition.
The technology will only recognise visitors to its website who are geographically located within a specific proximity of The Yards.
Those who have scanned the QR codes around the site will be directed to a dynamic map showing the location of the retailers and restaurants that are taking part. These include Hawksmoor, The Conduit, Clarendon Fine Art, Bill’s, and Dishoom.
Cervera
Co-op
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.
Løvenskiold Handel
Pricer’s partner StrongPoint has inked a frame agreement with Løvenskiold Handel to supply and install Pricer electronic shelf labels at its Maxbo stores in Norway.
This will be the first ever roll-out of ESLs at Maxbo stores, with installation set to start in Q1 2023 and expected to be completed by end of 2024.
The value of the frame agreement is up to 45 MSEK, including the cost of installation and future technical support.
Gogoro, Globe’s 917Ventures, Ayala Corporation
Gogoro has announced a strategic partnership in the Philippines with Globe’s 917Ventures and Ayala Corporation, initially focusing on introducing an eco-friendly alternative to traditional fossil fuel powered vehicles for the last mile delivery industry.
The companies will be launching a two wheel battery swapping pilot in Manila using Gogoro’s Smartscooters.
These are powered by the latter’s Swap & Go platform that uses distributed battery swapping stations to enable swapping of used batteries for new ones that quickly deliver riders full power.
This is expected to launch in Q1 2023.
Secret Sales and Kurt Geiger
Secret Sales, a non full price marketplace for fashion, sportswear and beauty brands, has announced a partnership with Kurt Geiger.
The partnership follows an eight week, API integration to the Secret Sales platform where Kurt Geiger offered brands from across its portfolio, including KG London, Kurt Geiger and Carvela.
Working with Secret Sales, the company will also be expanding its non-full-price offering into overseas markets as the business tees up for an international launch in early 2023, with the partnership renewing annually.
The pair have also teamed up on a digital marketing strategy. This includes alignment on digital spends, affiliates and PPC strategies alongside Google Shopping.
Vallarta Supermarkets
Southern California-based retailer Vallarta Supermarkets has become the first retailer to roll-out Logile’s inventory management solutions in combination with its workforce management suite.
“Vallarta operates a format that emphasises ‘Fresh,’ so the ability with Logile IMS to accurately anticipate demand and production capacity while providing fresher products for our customers is an outstanding value proposition,” says Steve Netherton, CIO and VP of Continuous Improvement at Vallarta.
“We will now be able to leverage Logile’s superior, multi-layered forecasting accuracy across critical parameters like price, promotions, weather, events, holidays, business trends and seasonality.”
“IMS will help us optimise inventory management along with store level production planning and labor and task management to most efficiently deliver our brand promise.”
Pepperfry
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.
“Consumer experience is crucial for us. We chose FarEye to help us gain real-time visibility into orders throughout the delivery process,” says Piyush Agarwal, Head of Supply Chain at Pepperfry.
“Our goal is to decrease delivery time and eliminate missed or delayed deliveries, increase the productivity of our delivery fleets, and ensure furniture installations are smooth.”
“We’re looking forward to continuing to refine our last mile strategy, and add a level of intelligence and automation that will reduce manual processes and costs, leading to customer satisfaction.”
Kingfisher
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.
Lacoste
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.
Avon
Perfect Corp. has extended its partnership with beauty brand Avon, to roll-out a virtual try-on online shopping experience in nine initial markets.
This is initially launching in the UK, South Africa, The Philippines, Italy, Poland, Russia, Romania, Czech Republic, and Turkey.
Through Perfect Corp.’s AI and AR technology, Avon’s customers are able to instantly try on products via their mobile camera or webcam on desktop.
In the UK, the experience will be available for over 400 products, across Avon’s collection of lip, eye, and face makeup.
Warner’s
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.
Open for Vintage and Luxclusif
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.
Lagardére Travel Retail
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.
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