Starring Kingfisher, Just Eat, and Paradies Lagardère: check out last week’s most read RTIH retail technology articles
These are the articles on this here website that caught your fancy last week, including GroupM, Amazon Ads, Marks and Spencer, Żabka Polska, AiFi, Shopify, and Creative Force.
2023 RTIH Innovation Awards to be held at the Barbican Centre in London on Wednesday, 29th November
We’re pleased to announce that the 2023 RTIH Innovation Awards, sponsored by PMC, FreedomPay, CADS, 3D Cloud by Marxent, Goodays, and Vista Technology Support, will take place at the Barbican Centre in central London.
The event will be held on Wednesday, 29th November, maintaining its popular evening format, with a drinks reception in the stunning Conservatory, followed by a Christmas themed three course meal, and awards ceremony in the Garden Room presided over by comedian Ian Moore.
2023 RTIH INNOVATION AWARDS RUN TIMES
6.30-7.30pm: Drinks reception
7.30-9.15pm: Dinner is served
9.30-11pm: Awards presentation with our host Ian Moore
11pm-1am: After party featuring DJ
1am: Event ends
“I am delighted that we will be able to host the 2023 RTIH Innovation Awards at the Barbican Centre,” says Scott Thompson, Editor and Founder, RTIH.
“And what better way to kick things off than a drinks reception in the spectacular Conservatory, a hidden tropical oasis in the heart of the city which is home to exotic fish and over 2,000 species of tropical plants and trees.”
“Since we launched the awards in 2019, they have gone from strength to strength and holding them at the Barbican Centre, a much loved, internationally acclaimed venue, is going to be a tough one to top.”
GroupM and Amazon Ads team up to deliver creator content directly in the online shopping experience
GroupM (via its influencer marketing agency Goat) and Amazon Ads have partnered to introduce creator led shoppable content to the Amazon advertising suite of services available to its clients.
The tie up gives GroupM clients the ability to amplify creator content within the Amazon DSP and in Amazon Sponsored Brand placements.
There are several bespoke formats available, but one example includes the ability to upload creator content onto Product Pages and Brand Stores, with the aim of increasing conversion rates and helping to turn Brand Pages on Amazon into "inspiration hubs" for consumers.
Samantha Bukowski, Global Head of Commerce, GroupM Nexus, says: “The development of this new capability is an important step we’re taking to better connect the creativity and engagement of creator marketing with the scale and sophistication of GroupM Nexus’s commerce capabilities.”
“We’re excited to continue this collaboration with Amazon to further integrate inspirational content in commerce advertising in ways that deliver value for clients and Amazon’s consumers.”
Creative Force bags $8.9 million in Series A funding to reshape e-commerce content creation landscape
Creative Force, an end-to-end creative operations workflow platform for e-commerce retailers and brands, has raised $8.9 million in Series A funding from Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO) and Hearst Ventures, the venture capital division of Hearst.
This brings its total funding to $17.9 million.
Creative Force will use the cash to scale its Danish headquarters and new US office in Boston and integrate generative artificial intelligence (AI) into its platform.
Kingfisher introduces Athena to boost testing and learning with AI and machine learning technologies
Group Head of Data Science, Mohsen Ghasempour, discussed how the retailer is harnessing these innovations to improve the customer experience and power growth.
He introduced Athena, an AI orchestration framework which will manage how Kingfisher prompts and interacts with AI language models, as well as other AI tools developed in-house.
This is designed with advanced controls to ensure security and provide protection against sensitive or inappropriate content.
Tom Betts, Group Data Director at Kingfisher, says: “Athena will help us test and learn with these technologies even faster.”
Żabka Polska taps AiFi autonomous technology to boldly go where traditional retail stores can’t go
Żabka Polska has announced new autonomous stores, powered by AiFi technology, at the campus of Medical University of Warsaw, the campus of Warsaw University for Life Sciences, and student dormitories at Basecamp Student.
In a LinkedIn post, Patryk Powierża, Head of Żabka Nano Growth, said: “We truly believe that autonomous stores can bring more convenience to the lives of our customers.”
“Thanks to this autonomous technology we can open our store in locations where traditional stores can’t appear.”
Glenn Faulkner, Solutions Architect at AiFi, said: “Żabka continues to showcase the flexibility and innovation that can be achieved with autonomous stores. Making sure to meet the customer where they are and when they need it.”
Just Eat Takeaway.com develops AI powered chatbot with pilot set to launch soon in UK
Just Eat Takeaway.com is launching an AI chatbot. Consumers who opt-in will be able to use the assistant to build and customise their orders through text and voice ordering.
The company says it will continue to develop this experience and plans to roll-out features that help people discover new partners, as well as offering personalised recommendations, delivering regular order updates and providing AI assistance for specific consumer questions.
This is first being tested in the UK, and the plan is to roll it out to other markets and in other languages.
Zippin scores a first as it brings checkout-free shopping to those passing through Dublin Airport
A new Dublin Town To Go store, powered by Zippin technology, has opened in T1 Arrivals at Dublin Airport.
People scan their payment card to enter and a combination of cameras and weight sensored shelving then detects what they’re buying and charges their card when they walk out.
The store, the first of its kind to open to the general public in Ireland, sells a range of goods to meet the needs of both departing and arriving passengers and also those waiting to welcome people in Arrivals, including coffee, pastries, sandwiches, salads, sweets, cereal, milk and toiletries.
Shopify research: many shoppers planning to splash out during Black Friday Cyber Monday 2023
Shoppers around the world expect to maintain or increase both their online and bricks and mortar spending this Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) weekend. However, they are looking for particular deals and are planning to use AI to discover new brands as well as products – and are willing to switch brands to get them.
This is according to a Shopify survey of more than 2,000 consumers and 1,000 SMBs in the UK, which is part of a research study surveying 12,000 consumers and almost 5,000 businesses in six countries.
Deann Evans, Managing Director, EMEA at Shopify, comments: “Despite many studies predicting a challenging period for retailers as consumers look to tighten their purse strings, our data indicates that this could be a key revenue moment for those that embrace BFCM.”
“In fact, shoppers have recently cut back so they are ready to spend during BFCM to get more for their money. Brands need to embrace this opportunity by offering competitive deals and higher quality products as if they don’t, consumers may move away to another.”
Bayer Consumer Health UK works with Zappar to launch first accessible QR code in healthcare space
Bayer Consumer Health UK, in partnership with Zappar, has introduced a new Accessible QR code (AQR) on its Canescool Soothing Gel Cream product packaging to help those who are blind or partially sighted.
Canescool is the world’s first women’s intimate health brand to adopt AQR codes on its product packaging.
Mike Knowland, Cluster Lead Northern Europe including the UK & Ireland, comments: “This digitally inclusive transformation is a major step change for us as well as the whole healthcare category.”
“The enhanced QR code improves access to important product information for consumers during their shopping journey.”
“It is the start of our ambition to add Accessible QR codes onto more of our product packaging across the consumer health portfolio, so that we continue to meet our company vision of ‘health for all’ and empower more people to find it easier to self-care – a vital societal sustainability pillar of ours.”
Marks and Spencer hackathon explores generative AI and the benefit it could bring to customers
An M&S hackathon took place last week, with over 220 colleagues from across the retailer gathering in 22 teams, dedicating 24 hours to explore real life business opportunities during BEAM Academy’s bi-annual event.
M&S established the BEAM Academy in 2019. It’s an internal training programme based on the UK government’s Apprenticeship Levy scheme, which provides funding for on the job training, and in partnership with data science and AI education provider Cambridge Spark.
During the hackathon, 14 teams explored generative AI and the benefit it could bring to customers.
Others looked to elevate customer experiences by introducing personalised, healthy shopping suggestions and improved stock availability.
And there was also a visit from Co-CEO, Katie Bickerstaffe, and the one and only Colin the Caterpillar to inspire the teams.
The winning team was headed up by Clothing & Home Design Lead Luke Miller.
“Whilst spending time working in the Finsbury Pavement, London store, it was clear that there was a quicker way to get Clothing & Home products out on to the shopfloor for our customers,” he said.
“The hackathon was a really collaborative process that brought different skillsets from across the business, which was really powerful to experience. We were only a small team, but our win has proven that colleague ideas can make a big impact to our business.”
Paradies Lagardère taps hologram tech for virtual associate at Charlotte Douglas International Airport store
Paradies Lagardère has deployed ARHT’s Capsule Hologram technology at The Goods Express@CLT store, situated in Charlotte Douglas International Airport, to provide shoppers with a virtual interactive associate.
The store also features Amazon's Just Walk Out technology.
In a LInkedIn post, Paradies Lagardère said: “Get ready for an interactive shopping experience like never before, where holographic displays meet seamless shopping. Introducing ARHT’s cutting-edge Capsule Hologram technology at The Goods Express@CLT store, featuring Amazon's Just Walk Out technology.”
“We are thrilled to be partnering with ARHT, Amazon, and CLT to take travel retail to a whole new dimension. Make sure to check it out post-security in the Main Terminal.”
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