RTIH runs through 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 QR code triggered holograms on cheese labels, NFT collections, and blockchain powered wine marketplaces.
Nextech AR and Bothwell Cheese
Nextech AR has inked a deal with Bothwell Cheese which uses its tech to place a QR code triggered and floor anchored hologram on the latter’s cheese labels.
The experience can be found on five Bothwell Cheese products distributed at retailers and independent stores across Canada such as Whole Foods Market, Save-On-Foods, Sobeys, Federated Co-op, Longos, and Loblaws.
Amazon and Houston Astros
For the first time, Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology is live in a Major League Baseball stadium.
Two food and beverage stores, powered by the checkout-free technology, have opened in Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros, ahead of their first home game of the season.
Both offer a selection of snacks, soda, candy, and alcoholic beverages. One also offers pre-packaged salads, wine bottles, and souvenirs.
Wakefern Food Corp.
Wakefern Food Corp., the largest retailer owned cooperative in the US, has announced a pilot with Simbe Robotics to deploy its business intelligence solution, Tally, at stores.
Tally autonomously roams store aisles up to three times per day, leveraging computer vision technology to collect shelf data that ensures products are in-stock, in the correct location, and accurately priced on the sales floor.
boohoo
Fast fashion big hitter boohoo has announced the launch of its first NFT collection.
Phase one of the brand’s move into this space included the launch of NFT education and community building platform @boohooverse on Twitter and Discord, which aims to onboard the female fashion community into Web3 ahead of the first drop.
boohoo ran a competition to support a second phase. This recruited artists in the NFT space to be part of what is pitched as “the biggest female led NFT collection yet”.
American Airlines Center
The American Airlines Center in Dallas, home of the NBA’s Mavericks and NHL’s Stars, has opened two new autonomous food and beverage experiences.
In collaboration with hospitality partner Levy and its innovation studio, DBK Studio, it has launched a Market To-Go shop on the arena’s Terrace Level, with a second location on the Main Concourse of the arena to open later this month.
Powered by autonomous retail tech from Standard AI and mobile payment tech from SpotOn, these are pitched as being “among the first food and beverage destinations at a North American sports venue that fully integrate AI and mobile payments for an autonomous experience”.
Crurated
London-based wine marketplace, Crurated, has raised €3 million.
Investors include wine expert Chris Van Aeken, Dip WSET, entrepreneurs, and other private wine collectors.
The funds are being used to further build out blockchain and NFT technology within the company’s platform.
Crurated launched in 2021 with an emphasis on France and Italy.
Alfonso de Gaetano, Founder of Crurated, will now focus on expanding in the Italian market throughout Tuscany and Piemonte and in France’s Côte du Rhône region.
Cruise and Walmart
Cruise, the self-driving car unit of General Motors, has expanded its autonomous delivery pilot with Walmart in Arizona. The company will now be doing limited deliveries for customers in Chandler, in addition to Scottsdale.
Coles Liquor
Australian retailer Coles Liquor is implementing the RELEX Solutions Living Retail platform across its 931 stores.
The solution will service Coles Liquor’s Liquorland, First Choice Liquor Market and Vintage Cellars stores as well as five distribution centres throughout Australia, with the aim of driving improved availability for customers through supply chain planning and AI driven replenishment.
Starship Technologies and HOK-Elanto Group
Starship Technologies has launched its robot delivery service for groceries in Finland.
The firm has partnered with grocery store chain Alepa, owned by HOK-Elanto Group.
At first, deliveries will start from six Alepa stores in the city of Espoo during April. Starship aims to sign more partnerships with Finnish retailers going forward. It is also expanding its R&D centre in Helsinki.
