RTIH lays out this week's coolest retail technology plays
RTIH Editor, Scott Thompson, brings you his top ‘future of retail’ systems launches and deployments from the past week, including age estimation technology, drone delivery, museums in the metaverse, and augmented reality try-on experiences.
Yves Saint Laurent Beauté
L’Oréal Group brand, Yves Saint Laurent Beauté, has announced an NFT wallet, several drops of NFTs and partnerships with Web3 players in collaboration with Wunderman Thompson and powered by Arianee solutions.
Amazon
The 3,500 residents of Lockeford, a rural San Joaquin County town in California, will be among the first to have drones deliver their Amazon Prime packages.
“Lockeford residents will play an important role in defining the future,” Amazon said in an online post.
“Their feedback about Prime Air, with drones delivering packages in their backyards, will help us create a service that will safely scale to meet the needs of customers everywhere, while adding another innovation milestone to the town’s aviation history.”
Co-op
Co-op has extended its trial of age estimation technology into five of its stores in partnership with Diebold Nixdorf and Yoti.
The pilot – which is not facial recognition and does not retain or store images – now sees Co-op testing out Vynamic Smart Vision I Age Verification, a new Diebold Nixdorf solution that uses Yoti’s age estimation technology, in five of its Manchester stores, including one located within its Customer Support Centre where it first tested the tech last November.
The trial runs until the end of June and forms part of the UK Home Office Digital ID Sandbox, which provides an opportunity for industry and retail to test innovative approaches to age estimation.
Co-op also believes that the technology could reduce abuse and anti-social behaviour towards retail workers as asking for ID can be a flashpoint for frustration for some shoppers.
In addition, the retailer says there is the potential to make shopping quicker, easier and more convenient for customers, especially at busier times.
TAG Heuer
Swiss luxury watchmaker TAG Heuer has unveiled a new experience for its Connected Calibre E4 smartwatch, which allows users to display NFT artworks on their watch by connecting their crypto wallet to guarantee authenticity.
To develop this new feature TAG Heuer teamed with key members of the BAYC, Cryptopunk, CLONE-X and WOW communities, which, it says, “ensured the Lens functionalities and experience created real value for the community”.
It has partnered with Ledger to enable its users to access and display their NFTs on the Connected; the new functionality also supports Metamask. Users can then resize the image, so it works well on the watch’s round screen.
The initiative closely follows the brand introducing crypto payments on its US website with BitPay, enabling customers to purchase TAG Heuer watches and accessories with the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Lacoste
After its collaboration with Minecraft, which saw the first immersive projection of Lacoste in a virtual world, Croco Island, the French company is launching its first Web3 experience, UNDW3 (pronounced underwater).
As a preamble, it launched its dedicated discord server on 6th June, in order to allow each member to be kept informed in real-time of innovations in the Lacoste universe in Web3, as part of “a collective experience based on exchange, interaction and co-creation”.
This saw more than 30,000 subscribers in a 48 hour period.
From this week, Lacoste is putting on sale a first drop of NFTs: 11212 pieces at a price of 0.08 ETH, featuring an image of the crocodile emerging from the water. 11212, in reference to the iconic L1212 polo shirt invented by the brand's founder, René Lacoste.
Hudson
Hudson, which has more than 1,000 stores in airports, commuter hubs, landmarks and tourist destinations across North America, says that its first Southeast location for Hudson Nonstop, powered by Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology, is officially open at Nashville International Airport (BNA).
At just over 1,000 square feet of concession space, this is different from any other Hudson Nonstop store as it exclusively offers food and beverage products.
Travellers can enter by swiping their credit card or hovering their palm over an Amazon One device.
They are charged for products they take after they leave the store.
Magnum
Magnum Ice Cream and Deliveroo this week unveiled a metaverse located Magnum Pleasure Museum at the MET AMS festival in Amsterdam.
Between 14th and 17th June, attendees of the festival were able to wear a VR headset that transported them to the museum in Decentraland.
Grubhub and Cartken
Grubhub and Cartken have announced a partnership to bring robot delivery to college campuses.
The service was piloted at Ohio State University this spring, and a full roll-out is expected when students return to campus this autumn.
Grubhub partners with more than 250 college campuses across the United States to give students the ability to integrate meal plans directly into their Grubhub account and access restaurants both on- and off-campus for delivery and pickup.
Amazon Fashion
Amazon Fashion has launched Virtual Try-On for Shoes, an interactive mobile service that uses augmented reality to help customers visualise how a pair of shoes will look on themselves.
Beachwaver
Perfect Corp. has partnered with hair care and hair tools brand, Beachwaver, for an interactive augmented reality try-on experience, bringing its newest boho summer Floral Collection to life.
This is available in the YouCam Makeup app.
Happy Nation
Happy Nation, a new brand from Victoria’s Secret & Co., is collaborating with Roblox on a virtual hub with three themed obstacle courses.
For every Roblox player who completes all three obstacle courses, Happy Nation will donate one pair of underwear, up to 10,500, to Undies for Everyone until 31st July. Players can track their impact using the live counter displayed at the brand’s hub.
Players who complete an obstacle course will receive a virtual tote bag.
They can also browse the brand’s capsule collection, go to its photo booth, rest in the outdoor lounge area or visit the Wall of Happy, which highlights users that complete all three obstacle courses.
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