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 The Very Group, Decathlon, AO, Tesco, Gucci, and Paperchase.
Sevenoaks in Kent looks set to host the UK’s first Amazon Fresh checkout-free store outside of London.
According to KentOnline, this will be situated in the former Baby Gap outlet in Bligh's Meadow.
While official details are scarce, and Amazon did not respond to our request for comment, council planning documents show that permission has been granted for both interior and exterior work on the site.
Job listings have also been posted for retail associates at a Sevenoaks store powered by Just Walk Out technology.
Gucci will accept cryptocurrency payments in some US stores at the end of this month, with plans afoot to extend the pilot to all of its directly operated North America stores this summer.
Payments will be made with a link sent via email to the customer.
The link contains a QR code that allows them to execute the payment from their crypto wallet.
The first Gucci stores onboard are Wooster Street in New York, Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles, Miami Design District, Phipps Plaza in Atlanta and The Shops at Crystals in Las Vegas.
Gucci will accept payments in more than 10 currencies, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Wrapped Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu and five stablecoins pegged to the US dollar.
Jisp Media has teamed with Reposs to provide what is pitched as “one of the biggest media and insights propositions for independent convenience retail in the UK”.
The pair will be offering retailers the opportunity to use Jisp’s Scan & Save solution, helping them drive footfall, sales and increase loyalty locally at no additional costs to them.
Stationery retailer, Paperchase, has been working with Retail Assist on a full upgrade of the infrastructure and operating system that underpins its omnichannel supply chain solution, Merret, also provided by Retail Assist.
The Very Group, which operates online retailer Very.co.uk, is set to provide personalised size and fit guidance across its 300 fashion brands through a new partnership with True Fit.
True Fit has 89 million active users and represents 17,000 brands globally, including Quiz, which is popular with Very customers.
The partnership is one in a series of technology and talent investments that Very will make in 2022 as it looks to “create an even better digital customer experience”.
It follows the announcement of a tie up with commercetools.
Decathlon is set to equip dozens of additional stores with Quadient’s automated parcel lockers in 2022.
Online electricals retailer AO has committed to a 12-month contract with Taggstar to deliver social proof messaging.
Taggstar tested 11 message types across the pureplay’s full-funnel to help provide its customers with better information and service.
The pair will now work together to test review and machine learning algorithm messaging to help push conversion further. AO is also considering adding social proof on other channels, where appropriate.
Starbucks will launch its own NFT collections later this year.
During its fiscal Q2 2022 earnings call this week, the coffee giant said that NFTs can help Starbucks extend its concept of the “third place”, that is, a place between home and work where people can feel a sense of belonging over coffee.
The company has brought in Adam Brotman, the architect of its Mobile Order & Pay system and the Starbucks app, to help serve as a special advisor on the project.
Cutlery, tableware and kitchenware specialist, Robert Welch Designs, has chosen BrightBridge for a cloud software implementation project.
This will comprise implementation of ERP solution Oracle NetSuite, including financials, sales and purchase orders, invoicing, inventory control and real-time management information.
WAERlinx, a built for NetSuite solution, will be deployed to handle all elements of warehouse management. Integration of B2B, B2C, Amazon, and major retail partners will be achieved using Jitterbit.
Tesco has teamed up with Uber Eats to help expand its Whoosh rapid grocery delivery service,
The supermarket giant launched Whoosh, which aims to deliver food and drinks in under 60 minutes, in May 2021 and it now covers 200 Express outlets across the UK.
The deal with Uber launches from 20 stores, including Edinburgh, Bradford, Portsmouth, Norwich, St Albans and Letchworth.
Tesco says that the partnership will help towards the target of offering the service from 600 locations by the end of 2022.
