July 2022: top retail technology deals and deployments at a glance
RTIH rounds up the stand out retail systems deals, deployments and pilots from July, including Aldi Nord, Morrisons, Marks and Spencer, Amazon, Walmart, and Boots.
Aldi Nord has opened an Aldi Shop & Go store in the Dutch city of Utrecht.
This is a 370㎡ (3,982 square feet) AI powered location where shoppers can walk in, select their items, and walk out without having to queue at the checkout lane or scan any items.
In its largest store format to date, Trigo applies its algorithms to shelf sensors and ceiling mounted cameras which analyse anonymised shoppers' movements and product choices.
Payments and receipts are settled digitally.
Morrisons is adopting Worldline’s Lane/3000 PIN Pad as a core part of its in-store payment system.
Tata Consultancy Services has helped Marks and Spencer (M&S) digitally transform its HR function.
TCS has been a strategic partner to M&S for over a decade.
For the HR transformation journey, its team built a cloud-based solution using the Oracle HCM suite.
As part of the programme, TCS migrated 27 million records of M&S employees working across 1,450 locations in the UK, and enabled “seamless, secure data connects across the landscape”.
The solution provides the workforce with anytime, anywhere, intuitive self-service capabilities. This allows HR operations teams to focus on other value adding activities.
Carrefour has partnered with Procter & Gamble for what is pitched as “the first joint retail/FMCG brand experience in the metaverse”.
This involves the latter’s Mr. Clean brand.
In a LinkedIn post, Elodie Perthuisot, Chief E Commerce, Digital Transformation and Data Officer & EXCOM member at Carrefour, said: “Thanks to their Lab, we are both offering Carrefour customers a marketing activation of a new style, between gamification, immersion, Web3, all with a Mr. Clean as you have never seen it before.”
She added: “This is a test to renew the classic advertisements and activations, create a link between the metaverse and e-commerce, and especially receive feedback from our customers to evolve this experience.”
Boots UK is working on drone deliveries, featuring temperature controlled storage, with Apian.
The latter is a startup working with the NHS on delivery capability in harder to reach areas.
The Boots UK tie up kicked off this month, with flights between Southampton and the Isle of Wight to ensure critical time sensitive patient needs are being met on the island.
Kyle Field, home of the Texas A&M Aggies, is set to become the first collegiate venue in the world to open stores equipped with Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology and the Amazon One palm recognition and payment service.
Three checkout-free stores are slated to open this autumn so fans can use them during the college football season.
They will be able to insert their credit card at the entry gate or hover their palm over an Amazon One device to enter.
Just Walk Out technology determines what items shoppers take from or return to the shelves, and when they leave, the credit card they inserted or linked to their Amazon One ID will be charged for the items they took, with no checkout required.
The Co-op and Microsoft Caboodle platform is now live in all of the former’s 2,600 food stores across the UK.
Created with technology consultancy BJSS and Team ITG, the not for profit digital solution enables UK supermarkets, cafés and restaurants to connect with community groups and volunteers to redistribute surplus food.
It is built on Microsoft’s Power Platform technology.
Walmart has inked a deal to buy 4,500 all-electric delivery vehicles, beginning with the Lifestyle Delivery Vehicle (LDV), from Canoo.
The retailer also has an option to purchase up to 10,000 units as part of its goal to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040.
Health and beauty retailer, A.S. Watson, is investing an additional $115 million in technology this year to accelerate digital transformation and delivery of its O+O (online and offline) platform strategy.
Key focus areas include its in-house eLab and TECHLab initiatives, and further building machine learning, artificial intelligence, Big Data and retail technology capabilities.
Polish convenience giant Żabka Group has opened its 50th Żabka Nano checkout-free store.
These leverage AI powered computer vision technology created via cooperation with AiFi.
In a LinkedIn post, Patryk Powierża, Żabka Nano Growth, said: “BOOM! Store number 50 has been opened.”
“After about a year from opening the first autonomous outlet, we have reached the milestone of 50 stores.”
“That number strengthens our position as the biggest chain of autonomous stores in Europe. Easily you can estimate one week – now new store. It’s HUGE!”
