Let’s push things forward: these are RTIH’s biggest retail technology articles on LinkedIn
We’re big fans of LinkedIn and are busy building an amazing community of retail tech enthusiasts on the social media platform. These are the articles that are currently on their radars, including Żabka Group, AiFi, Microsoft, Retail Technology Show, BRC, Emperia, Wakefern Food Corp. and Trigo.
Autonomous retail tech will push things forward: Poland’s Żabka Group reviews its time at NRF 2023
Żabka Group was last week out in force at NRF 2023 in New York.
Żabka Nano, an autonomous store concept that has been developed under the umbrella of Żabka Future for over a year and a half, was featured at the Microsoft booth.
And now Patryk Powierża, Growth Lead at Żabka Polska, has taken to LinkedIn to sum up the firm’s time at the show.
Autonomous technology will drive the retail industry, he argued.
“We have had great talks with worldwide retailers. All of them were interested in the details of approaching autonomous technology from the retailer's perspective and our plans for how to scale it up. Most of them were from Asia and North and South America,” he wrote.
He added: “The doors of our Nano store were opened about 1,200 times. Most of the visits included groups of about five to eight people.”
“We can say that a few thousand people had a chance to check the Żabka Nano store. From unofficial info, we know that the Microsoft booth was one of the most interesting during the whole event.”
Powierża concluded: “Opening the pop-up store in NYC was a challenge. I used to compare our store to Ikea Retail, but sending a store from Poland to the USA wasn’t an easy job.”
“The store was assembled in three days and it was fully functional. It only proves how flexible our technology is.”
Emperia raises $10 million to further develop its virtual store management SaaS platform
Emperia, which creates immersive e-commerce spaces for retail brands, has raised a $10 million Series A.
This follows an $875k pre-seed in 2021 (featuring Concept Ventures, SFC Capital, Blissgrowth).
The Series A round was led by Base10 Partners and joined by investors including Daphni (via its retail fund Dastore), Sony Innovation Fund, Background Capital, Stanford Capital Partners and Concept Ventures. Angels include Blissgrowth’s Jay Radia.
Emperia's clients include Dior, Bloomingdales and Lacoste. It was launched by fashion and retail specialist Olga Dogadkina and VR innovation expert Simonas Holcmann in 2019.
It will use this fresh funding to grow its team, develop its virtual store SaaS platform and deepen the capabilities of the data suite that powers it, with the aim of accelerating global market presence .
It also plans to utilise virtual store customer data to provide retailers with even better tools with which to personalise the customer experience.
Emperia will also work with partners to bring various global virtual e-commerce solutions under one roof; leveraging the fast growing Web3 ecosystem and its partners’ brand and retail technologies to deliver “game changing customer experiences”.
Teaming up: Retail Technology Show and the BRC announce innovation partnership
Retail Technology Show and British Retail Consortium have announced a strategic partnership which will showcase the role of innovation in driving the future of retail.
This will see the latter lead a keynote session at Retail Technology Show, taking place at London’s Olympia on 26th-27th April, as part of a conference programme that also includes Farfetch, Alibaba, Deliveroo and Currys.
Andrew Opie, Director of Food and Sustainability at the BRC, will be discussing the key sustainability questions retailers should be asking themselves in 2023 on day one of the show.
Dr Kris Hamer, Director of Insight at the BRC, meanwhile, will join the closing keynote panel discussion, also on day one, which explores the key innovations impacting retail today and how this will evolve as we look ahead to 2028.
Wakefern Food Corp. becomes first to try Trigo autonomous shopping technology in USA
Wakefern Food Corp. has opened The Pantry, a checkout-free convenience store for the workers at its Edison, New Jersey campus that features Trigo technology.
This uses computer vision with a series of cameras and shelf sensors to identify products picked up by people.
Wakefern is the first US company to test Trigo's technology, which has been deployed by several retailers in Europe and the UK, including REWE and Tesco.
“Our associates can shop The Pantry at work for groceries they need at home while simultaneously providing helpful feedback for us on the technology,” says Charles McWeeney, VP of Technology, Innovation and Strategy at Wakefern.
“The chance to evolve in the self-service space at retail is important and we hope to learn more about frictionless checkout and how we can potentially provide this cutting-edge and convenient technology to Wakefern member owned businesses.”
Productsup report flags top priorities for creating strong customer experiences in 2023
Productsup has launched a study comparing business priorities for the year ahead with today’s consumer expectations.
The retail software firm, which works with the likes of Ikea, Aldi, and L’Oreal, collaborated with Censuswide, polling 755 senior commerce decision makers across 16 countries.
It also surveyed 5,698 consumers from the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the USA.
2022 RTIH Innovation Awards winners and highly commended entries announced
Now into their fourth year, the awards celebrate global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.
We received a record number of submissions in 2022 across 14 categories (you can find a full rundown of the 2022 shortlists here).
Our winners and highly commended companies were announced during a sold out event that took place in central London last month and was attended by retailers, tech suppliers, members of our judging panel, and sponsors.
So, without further ado, here is the 2022 RTIH Innovation Awards hall of fame.
Congratulations to our latest entrants!
What’s hot and what’s not? Five retail technology questions for Excellent Zephyr’s Ian Moore
This time around, our five questions go to Ian Moore, Founder and Head of Services at Excellent Zephyr.
Amazon UK opens Just Walk Out tech powered Amazon Fresh store in Croydon after Dalston closure
Amazon has opened an Amazon Fresh checkout-free convenience store in Croydon.
This can be found at Unit 1, Ruskin Square, Croydon, London, CR0 2WF, and is open from 7:00 am to 11:00 pm, seven days a week.
In addition to a convenience grocery store offering, customers can also pick up items purchased on Amazon.co.uk at an Amazon Hub, and return items without needing to package the product or print a shipping label.
On Saturday, RTIH exclusively reported that Amazon Fresh had closed its Dalston, London location, less than 18 months after opening it in a blaze of autonomous retail glory.
FinTech startup Twinco Capital raises $12 million to expand supply chain finance platform
Twinco Capital, a global supply chain finance solution that covers the production cycle from purchase order to final invoice payment, has closed a $12 million equity and debt round.
The investment was led by Quona Capital, and included participation from Working Capital, as well as existing investors Mundi Ventures and Finch Capital. Zubi Capital provided the venture debt portion.
The funds will be used to accelerate the company’s expansion within the major sourcing countries and strengthen its technology and data capabilities, in particular in relation to ESG.
Twinco Capital says that it is on a mission to reduce the world’s estimated $1.7 trillion trade finance gap, which disproportionately affects small and medium-sized companies in emerging countries and hinders their ability to access business opportunities and grow.
Through its solution, the company engages with large corporations, mostly in the retail and apparel sectors, and offers funding to their suppliers worldwide, advancing up to 60% of the purchase order value upfront and paying the remainder upon delivery.
Autonomous robots firm Dexory announces new round of angel investors joining advisory board
AI and robotics company, Dexory, formerly known as BotsAndUs, has secured a new round of angel investors.
This follows investment in 2022, when it bagged $13 million in a seed round led by Swiss venture capital firm Lakestar.
The new investors include Paul Dodd, Martin Bysh, and Thomas Bagge.
Dodd, Chief Innovation Officer and Co-founder, Huboo, brings over 20 years of experience working with robotics and supply chain with P&G, both in the UK and worldwide.
Bysh, meanwhile, is CEO and Co-founder at Huboo.
Thomas Bagge, CEO at Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA), has worked with global supply chains for 25 years in both logistics and container shipping companies.
A large part of his career has been centred around digital transformation, process automation and deployment of new technologies.
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