The six biggest retail technology news stories of the week
It’s Friday, the weekend is almost upon us, so let’s kick back and reflect on another eventful week for the retail systems space. Here's your briefing on the most important stories from the past five days, including Nike, Co-op, Uber Eats, Boots, Deliveroo, Amazon, and Instacart.
1. Nike enlists BUCK for 50th anniversary augmented reality experience
In celebration of Nike’s 50th anniversary, BUCK has partnered with the company’s Global Brand Experience team to bring its past, present, and future to life through a WebAR experience.
Powered by Zappar’s ZapWorks platform, this provides a portal into the Department of Nike Archives for visitors to Nike stores.
2. Uber Eats and Co-op agree rapid online delivery tie up
Co-op and Uber Eats have teamed-up as part of the convenience retailer’s plans to expand its on-demand online home delivery service.
Through the partnership, shoppers will be able to order via the Uber Eats app from around 1,000 Co-op food stores by the end of the year, with groceries delivered in as little as 30 minutes.
With the phased roll-out underway from this week, customers can use the Uber Eats app to choose from over 6,000 products stocked in local Co-op stores.
With products picked fresh in local stores, the service is available for a full grocery shop as well as on-demand top-up and forgotten items, meal ideas and treats for evenings in at home.
3. Boots expands Deliveroo tie up following 14 store trial
Boots has expanded its partnership with Deliveroo to 125 stores across the UK.
Customers will now have access, via the Deliveroo app, to an expanded range of 750 products delivered to their door in minutes, following a 14 store trial.
Boots is now available via Deliveroo for the first time to customers in cities including Manchester, Glasgow, Belfast, Bristol, Sheffield, Coventry, Plymouth, Exeter, Middlesbrough, York, Aberdeen and Inverness.
More stores are also offering the service in existing regions, including London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds and Edinburgh.
4. Amazon halts Just Walk Out tech powered checkout-free stores push
Amazon has put the brakes on the expansion of its checkout-free convenience stores, due to sales falling short of expectations and fit out costs being multiple times higher than with a standard location.
According to a report by The Sunday Times, the US giant is understood to have walked away from talks on dozens of sites for Amazon Fresh stores, and has stopped its search for more locations.
There will still be a handful of openings this year at sites where Amazon had already committed to a lease.
In a LinkedIn post, Martin Heubel, an Amazon strategy consultant, said: “Not a major surprise amid the current economic climate. It’s expensive to get into retail and even more expensive to remain.”
“With inflation at all time highs, customers are prioritising to save money. Even the most advanced self-checkout technology won’t revert this trend in the short-term. It seems, Amazon has come to realise this, too.”
5. Pick n Pay opts for Amazon Web Services as cloud provider
Pick n Pay Group, a retail business operating in South African and other African countries, has migrated its entire on-premises IT infrastructure to Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Pick n Pay worked with Lemongrass Consulting, an AWS Premier Consulting Partner with Migration and SAP Consulting Competencies, to move its on-premises SAP environment to AWS and implement a SAP HANA platform.
It says that jumping to the cloud will enable the firm to streamline its operations and modernise the supply chain network for its stores, develop new digital customer experiences in omnichannel grocery, and expand into new areas of business.
6. Instacart launches Big & Bulky fulfilment solution for retailers
US-based grocery technology company, Instacart, is launching Big & Bulky nationwide.
This is a new fulfilment capability that enables same-day and scheduled delivery for large items.
Big Lots, Container Store, Mastermind Toys, Office Depot, Spirit Halloween and Staples are some of the first retailers to use the new solution, unlocking same-day delivery of larger items like outdoor furniture, home office supplies and electronics via the Instacart app and select retailers’ Instacart Platform powered websites.
