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 Lowe’s, Marks & Spencer, Ikea, Walmart, and Alibaba Group.
Lowe’s is tapping NVIDIA Omniverse Enterprise to create interactive store digital twins in Mill Creek, Wash,. and Charlotte, N.C.
“We are always looking for ways to reimagine store operations and remove friction for our customers,” says Seemantini Godbole, Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Information Officer at Lowe’s.
“With NVIDIA Omniverse, we’re pulling data together in ways that have never been possible, giving our associates superpowers.”
Marks & Spencer has partnered with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to upgrade its in-store space, range and display (SRD) capabilities.
The retailer was facing multiple operational challenges created by a lack of technology investment.
TCS developed and implemented a cloud-based SRD platform using Blue Yonder Category Management and Azure Data Bricks with the aim of optimising store space, improving stock management efficiency, addressing the company’s GSCOP (Grocery Suppliers Code of Practice) ranking and enhancing the customer experience.
Dagrofa, a Denmark-based company with over 500 grocery stores, is partnering with RELEX Solutions to provide automated and optimised forecasting and replenishment planning for its three distribution centres.
Ingka Group says that it has reduced food waste by 54% in its Ikea stores.
That translates into more than 20 million saved meals and 36,000 tonnes of CO2e that have been avoided.
This results from more than 20,000 Ikea food co-workers who were trained to use Winnow’s AI technology in their daily routines.
Firework has signed a partnership agreement with Walmart Connect, a closed loop omnichannel media business of Walmart, to bring livestream and premium shoppable video content to the retail giant’s offering.
Walmart Connect is aiming to bring shoppable, short form, social media style videos to its own digital properties while also making them available to advertisers.
Alibaba Group’s Tmall Luxury Pavilion platform has hosted an augmented reality fashion show and introduced a Meta Pass, which confers priority digital access to brands’ products.
In recent years, the platform has deployed 3D shopping, augmented reality and virtual reality try-ons for products, digital avatars and digital collectibles.
Also this month in Shanghai, luxury executives attended an awards ceremony and explored an exhibition on extended reality.
“Before metaverse became a buzzword, we had already transformed this buzzword into a commercial reality,” says Janet Wang, Head of Alibaba’s luxury division.
Autonomous stores specialist, Trigo, has designed what is pitched as “a new way to manage in-store inventory”.
EasyStock uses its existing sensing infrastructure to automatically provide real-time on-shelf availability in order to accelerate the shelf replenishment process and reduce out-of-stock rates.
In a LinkedIn post, the company says: “With our shelf and inventory management software, retailers can track, analyse, predict, and manage any shelf or product to provide enterprise wide visibility and improve direct to shelf performance.”
“The EasyStock product is part of a range of additional products that can run on top of our StoreOS platform. It is another advancement to using computer vision and AI technology to enable brick and mortar stores to benefit from the same insights and analytics that digital stores do.”
Asda is expanding its trial of technology which will make it easier for blind and partially sighted customers to navigate their way through a store whilst they do their shopping.
Following an initial trial at Asda’s designated technology innovation store in Stevenage, the retailer is integrating a further 10 stores into the GoodMaps smartphone app.
Nike has joined Ant Group’s Green Energy Initiative and launched an official mini programme on Alipay to encourage more consumers to recycle worn out shoes.
Chinese shoppers can search Recycle-A-Shoe in the Alipay app and have old Nike shoes collected for recycling.
These will then be dismantled and re-processed to make sustainable sport courts through Nike Grind technology.
By doing so, consumers will receive virtual green energy points in Alipay Ant Forest, a green mini programme. These can be used to support tree planting, ecological restoration or bio-diversity conservation projects.
