AiFi, A2Z Cust2Mate, and Sitoo head up October’s biggest retail technology plays at a glance
RTIH rounds up the stand out retail systems deals, deployments and pilots from October, including smart carts in France, digital deposit return schemes in the UK, checkout-free stores in Ireland, and automated intralogistics systems in Spain.
REMA 1000
REMA 1000 has migrated SymphonyAI store mobility, store operations, demand forecasting, and space planning and automation to SymphonyAI’s hosted cloud-based platform.
As a SymphonyAI customer since 2015, the discount grocer uses its solutions to streamline store operations, automate space planning and planogram processes, and improve demand forecasting accuracy to better engage shoppers while increasing efficiency and driving measurable business impact.
“As a result of the productive collaborative effort between SymphonyAI and REMA 1000, we seamlessly completed a successful transition from our previous hosting provider to SymphonyAI’s one stop shop cloud hosting with end-to-end support,” says Fredrik Almstrøm, Head of Cloud at REMA 1000.
Rally House
Sweden-based Sitoo has rolled out out its first major US customer, sports merchandise retailer Rally House.
Rally House has deployed the Sitoo Point of Sale solution and the underlying Unified Commerce Platform in around 200 stores across 18 states.
Amazon
Amazon has implemented a new artificial intelligence (AI)-based technology that, it claims, can spot even the smallest anomalies in delivery vans, from tyre deformities and undercarriage wear to bent or warped body pieces, before they become on-road problems.
The Automated Vehicle Inspection (AVI) tech is launching in partnership with startup UVeye in the US, Canada, Germany, and the UK.
“The last thing I want is for something preventable to happen, like a tyre blowing out because we missed an imperceptible defect during our morning inspection,” says Bennett Hart, owner of logistics company Hart Road. “This technology improves the safety of our fleet.”
Carrefour France
A2Z Smart Technologies Corp. has been selected to supply Cust2Mate smart carts to Carrefour's Connected Cart project for its newly merged Hypermarket and Supermarket division in France.
The first phase of the aforementioned project is the delivery of 2,000 smart carts, expected in the first half of 2024 at two Carrefour hypermarket retail locations in France.
Ocado Retail
Since 14th July, Ocado Retail customers have been able to claim monetary rewards for recycling any of its own brand two and four-pint milk bottles using Polytag’s QR codes, redeemable via recycling app Bower.
The trial saw more than 20,000 Ocado Retail milk bottles scanned by over 3,000 consumers using their smartphones before being deposited into home kerbside recycling.
The QR code integrated onto the milk bottles’ labelling is scanned via the aforementioned app, the bottle disposed of in a person’s registered at home recycling bin, and the reward withdrawn into their bank account.
Up to £4,000 worth of rewards were obtained during the nine week long trial.
Superdrug
Superdrug has launched its own retail media network in the UK.
In a LinkedIn post, Paul Stafford, Head Of Digital Marketing, Retail Media & Online Brand at Superdrug, said: “This week, I had the pleasure of announcing the arrival of Superdrug’s own retail media network, Optimo, at our annual supplier conference.”
He added: “This has been a huge piece of work covering A.S. Watson Group (the owner of Superdrug) BU’s across Hong Kong, Milan, Paris, Amsterdam and London. From a personal point of view, it’s been an incredible journey to work on a project that is at the coal face of major industry change.”
“I can’t wait now to start working with our suppliers to deliver on their briefs.”
“Obviously this has been a massive team effort and couldn't be done without the support of Dan Jarvis (Chief Digital Officer, Europe at A.S. Watson Group), Andrea Zoboli (eLab Technology Director (Europe) at A.S. Watson Group, Mariëlle Slenders, (Head of Media & Performance Benelux at A.S. Watson Group), Matt Walburn, (Customer and Marketing Director at Superdrug), Nicholas Queally, Marketing Manager - Promotions and Pricing at Superdrug), and many, many more.”
Amazon (again)
Amazon customers in the UK, Italy and an additional US city will have the option to get their packages delivered by a Prime Air drone beginning in late 2024.
Specific cities in the US and abroad will be named in the coming months.
David Carbon, Vice President of Amazon’s Prime Air, says: “As part of our continued efforts to innovate for customers, we are excited to announce the expansion of Prime Air delivery internationally, for the first time outside the US.”
“We have been delivering packages by drone for almost a year in California and in Texas. We have built a safe, reliable delivery service and have partnered very closely with regulators and communities.”
“We will continue with that collaboration into the future to ensure we are meeting the needs of our customers and the communities we serve.”
Prime Air is also unveiling a new MK30 drone design, which is said to be quieter, smaller, and lighter, than previous models.
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.
Just Eat Takeaway.com
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.
The Dune Group
The Dune Group has gone live with OneStock’s order management system.
In a LinkedIn post, OneStock, who worked with partner Tryzens on the project, said: “We’re really looking forward to working with the entire team at Dune to support them in their omnichannel success.
Paradies Lagardère
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.”
Costa Coffee
Vista Technology Support has announced a partnership with Costa Coffee.
The tech support company will apply its Continuous Service Improvement (CSI) philosophy with the aim of reducing the occurrence of system faults and outages, and to maintain maximum operational time in over 1,500 Costa Coffee stores across the UK.
When unable to predict a likely outage or interruption through CSI, the Vista Field Services Team of more than 130 engineers around the UK will be mobilised to repair and resolve any issues.
Walmart
Perfect Corp. has announced a collaboration with Walmart to launch a makeup virtual try-on experience via the US retail giant’s iOS app.
This will allow Walmart customers to virtually try-on products across the blush, lip colour, eye shadow, and bronzer categories and discover their perfect shade.
“As a destination for beauty, we’re committed to identifying new and emerging opportunities to inspire our customers and create more personalised, seamless, customer centric shopping experiences. That’s why I’m so excited that Walmart is launching Beauty Virtual Try-On, to offer customers a more engaging and convenient try-on experience on the Walmart app,” says Creighton Kiper, Vice President of Beauty at Walmart U.S.
The offering features Perfect Corp.’s Face AI solution, which is powered by AI deep learning technology to create hyper-realistic AR powered makeup filters for customers to try-on digitally.
It will allow shoppers to virtually try-on more than 1,400 products from Walmart Beauty’s brand assortment including Almay, Black Radiance, CoverGirl, e.l.f. Cosmetics, Maybelline, NYX Professional Makeup, Revlon, Rimmel, Neutrogena, wet n wild, and The Lip Bar.
Mercadona
Mercadona, a grocery retailer in Spain and Portugal, has partnered with Cimcorp to implement an automated intralogistics system at its distribution centre in San Isidro, Spain.
Cimcorp’s robots have helped it to achieve record lead times in its supply chain, thereby increasing shelf life for its products and ensuring freshness for its customers.
As well as enabling the delivery of fresh produce from field to store within 24 hours, the warehouse automation secures Mercadona the benefits of less waste and a safer workplace.
With robots taking care of the heavy lifting and repetitive tasks, staff enjoy work roles that are less tiring and more productive, factors that typically aid retention rates. Automation also ensures order accuracy, reduced costs and maximum throughput.
Crew Clothing
Retail247 has announced the deployment of Archean, its stock solution, at Crew Clothing stores.
This consists of a central engine (Archean Core), and is supported by a series of transaction providing solutions.
As part of Crew Clothing’s three-year technology strategy to enable efficient omnichannel retailing, the brand needed a platform to become its single repository of stock information.
Having established a strong partnership with Retail247, it chose to build on this existing foundation and selected Archean as its stock engine in March 2022, including the module Archean Move.
This is designed to be deployed in stores, Archean Move can be the store’s single portal for stock activity.
Transactions in Archean Move can have multiple states and can also trigger activity to other solutions, meaning that Archean can seamlessly maintain the integrity of legacy solutions where required.
Sainsbury’s, Nectar360 and Clear Channel
Nectar360, which owns and operates Nectar, a UK loyalty coalition programme, as well as managing Sainsbury’s and Argos’ retail media services, has announced plans to expand its connected digital screen network to over 800 screens, in conjunction with out of home media and infrastructure company, Clear Channel, a move that also includes the launch of a new internal screen network.
The Sainsbury's Live network currently reaches millions of shoppers every week through more than 320 full motion digital screens, placed at store entrances.
It will now become the UK’s largest connected digital supermarket screen network, as Clear Channel upgrades the existing offering, expanding the external screen network to include 420 screens and launching up to 400 internal ones across stores nationwide.
Asda
Tata Consultancy Services has announced a multi-year partnership with Asda to support its digital transformation and to implement a new organisation wide IT operating model, following its divestiture from Walmart.
This will see the grocery giant leverage TCS’ cloud, AI, and security solutions.
TCS will build a new digital core by implementing multiple cloud-based ERP platforms to streamline Asda’s supply chain forecasting, buying and merchandising processes, HR processes, warehouse management, and e-commerce processes.
Additionally, it will use its Machine First Delivery Model to automate the retailer’s IT operations, with the aim of providing a seamless experience for employees and customers, and improving operational resilience.
Domino’s Pizza and Microsoft
Domino’s Pizza and Microsoft have partnered on a project involving pizza ordering and store operations and generative AI technology and cloud computing.
The companies will leverage the Microsoft Cloud and Azure OpenAI Service to enhance the former’s ordering process through personalisation and simplification.
With Microsoft as its primary cloud provider, Domino’s has already been experimenting with data and AI capabilities in a bid to make store operations smarter, simpler and more robust.
Work on modernising its store systems has evolved into the early stages of developing a generative AI assistant powered by Azure
OpenAI Service intended to help store managers save time on daily tasks such as inventory management, ingredient ordering and staff scheduling.
With plans to streamline pizza preparation and quality control with more predictive tools, this generative AI assistant will be designed with the goal of freeing store managers to dedicate more time to team member experience and customer service.
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