RTIH lays out 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 drone deliveries, Bitcoin rewards, smart shopping carts, and autonomous convenience stores.
Pinterest and Samsung
Pinterest has teamed with Samsung to launch of the first ever ‘flippable’ Pin on its platform.
The aim is to show people just how flexible the folding Galaxy Z Flip3 phone really is.
Through the ‘flippable pin’, Samsung will create the illusion of the Galaxy Flip3 folding out of thin air with the help of Pinterest’s Breakthrough Video ‘Portal’ technique , bringing 3-dimensionality to the ad and helping it stand out in the home feed.
CVS
Lolli has partnered with CVS to offer Bitcoin rewards.
Shoppers can now earn 3% back on all of their CVS purchases at nearly 10,000 locations across the US.
DPD
Parcel delivery firm DPD is now providing an all electric delivery service to 10 UK towns and cities and is aiming for 30 such locations by the end of 2023.
Ikea
Ingka Group, the largest Ikea retailer, this week opened the first Ikea city store in Canada, as part of its commitment to get closer to its customers.
Ikea Toronto Downtown is the retailer’s 15th store in the country.
Ingka Group’s recent investments in Canada include a new distribution centre in Beauharnois, new planning studios (known as Ikea Plan and order points in Canada) and new pick-up points, as well as the redevelopment of its Ottawa location to ship customer orders directly from the store.
doors.
doors., a fashion, art, and beauty online and experiential bricks and mortar retail platform, is bringing its New York-based pop-up Metaverse, Schmetaverse to 8382 Melrose Avenue, prime West Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA from 28th May to 26th June.
This will showcase over 50 independent fashion designers and cult niche brands from 20+ countries and 10 beauty brands selected by Beautyque NYC, the doors. beauty partner which is pitched as the first 3D multi-brand retail virtual storefront in the beauty industry.
The pop-up will host nearly 20 events throughout the duration of one month, including a panel discussion on the influence of the metaverse, and beauty and styling events with social media influencers.
To coincide with the opening, select brands are launching virtual collections, and embracing experiments with NFTs.
Co-op
Co-op has opened its fourth Lab Store, where it will test ideas in real situations, get feedback, analyse results and adapt for future roll-out.
The other three stores are in Codshall, Marsh and York
Walmart
Walmart is set to expand its DroneUp delivery network to 34 sites by the end the year, providing the potential to reach four million US households across six states – Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Utah and Virginia.
The move provides the ability to deliver over one million packages by drone in a year.
Between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., customers will be able to order from tens of thousands of eligible items for delivery by air in as little as 30 minutes. The total weight of delivery is up to 10lbs and the fee is $3.99.
Walmart is also planning to scale its drone infrastructure, offering local businesses and municipalities aerial drone solutions in areas like insurance, emergency response and real estate.
Netto
Netto is testing out a shopping cart from Imagr that scans items and handles payment, enabling shoppers to skip checkout queues.
This is currently live at Kirkegårdsvej in Copenhagen, and it will shortly also be found at Kongelundsvej in Copenhagen, Runevej in Aarhus, Bybuen in Skovlunde and Virum.
The shopper’s smartphone is connected to the shopping cart via the Netto+ app. When the cart is filled with goods, these are automatically registered with the user receiving a digital receipt.
The trial is set to run until July.
Galp
Sensei is providing an autonomous retail experience for petrol station customers following a tie up with Galp in the Iberian Peninsula.
Sensei has created a 323 square foot checkout-free convenience store at a Galp location in Lisbon.
This offers a number of non-perishable goods, food, snacks and beverages to customers and includes a network of cameras mounted in the ceiling and sensors in shelves to detect the items people pick or leave.
The autonomous software creates and keeps track of each person’s virtual shopping bag and charges them automatically via an app, with credit card payments soon to follow, upon exiting the shop.
The store open to customers from 8am until midnight every day with 24/7 access becoming available in the next month.
Zapp
On-demand delivery big hitter Zapp has announced a new Period Store, selling the likes of organic tampons and pads, menstrual cups and liners, along with treats like a hot water bottle, magnesium products and chocolate to boost oxytocin and relieve menstrual strain.
This will launch in London on Saturday for National Period Hygiene Day.
For each of the hot water bottles sold, Zapp will donate £2 to Period Poverty UK, a charity working towards the goal of eliminating period poverty in Britain’s most deprived communities by 2025.
