Including Kingfisher, KiK, and Coles: RTIH presents last week’s biggest retail technology plays at a glance
RTIH rounds up the stand out retail systems deals, launches, deployments and pilots from the past seven days. Including Amazon, Elvie, Copec, Holland & Barrett, Monica Vinader, 7-Eleven Mexico , Costa Coffee, S Group, and Innovasport.
KIngfisher
Home improvement retailer, Kingfisher, has broadened its partnership with CitrusAd to bring retail media opportunities to third-party brands across its banners – with B&Q live this month.
Kingfisher is already working with CitrusAd, part of advertising and marketing technology firm, Epsilon, a Publicis Groupe company, to deliver its retail media proposition in France, including through its partnership with Unlimitail, the joint venture between Publicis Groupe and Carrefour.
The expanded partnership will see the pair work together to bring retail media to all its banners across six further European countries (UK, Ireland, Poland, Spain, Portugal and Romania).
KiK
KiK, a German discount retailer with more than 4,100 locations across Europe, has adopted TradeBeyond as its multi-enterprise platform to digitalise its supply chain operations.
KiK will use TradeBeyond’s CBX platform to optimise its supply chain end-to-end, starting with its sourcing, tendering, order collaboration, and inspection processes.
TradeBeyond will replace KiK’s existing analogye systems with cloud-based solutions that introduce real-time data sharing, empowering the company to bring new products to market faster and more efficiently.
The platform will assist KiK as it brings its sourcing operations in-house, streamlining its supply chain processes and easing its reliance on outside sourcing partners to realise major efficiency gains and cost savings.
Copec
Copec and Grabango have partnered with the objective to upgrade 100 of the former’s convenience stores across South America with checkout-free technology.
“We are excited to bring Grabango’s industry leading checkout-free tech to South America,” says Leonardo Ljubetic, Copec’s Chief Development Officer.
“We have seen impressive shopper uptake in our former U. stores and wanted to expand the innovation to shoppers in Latin America. Grabango’s seamless checkout system will accelerate our ‘First in Service’ programme by simplifying the shopping experience, delighting our loyal customers and drawing new traffic to our Pronto stores.”
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are set to open two cashierless concession stores at Lincoln Financial Field this month.
After a soft launch on Sunday, the On the Fly Express Shops. located at the venue’s main concourse and Pepsi Plaza, will be in operation for all Eagles games moving forward.
This is the result of a collaboration with Verizon (which provides the 5G network underpinning the frictionless experience), and computer vision technology specialist AiFi.
Shoppers enter via an NFC reader at a turnstile and select their desired items, then exit, with payment automatically processed on the way out.
They can also register for a receipt to their email or a mobile app through a QR code.
Computer vision enabled cameras track items as they are picked up, put down, and taken out of the location, which triggers payment.
McDonald’s
McDonald's and Google have announced plans for a new multi-year, global partnership.
The fast food giant says that it plans to leverage a wide range of Google Cloud's hardware, data, and AI technologies to “implement innovation faster and create even better experiences for its customers, restaurant teams, and employees”.
"We see tremendous opportunity for growth in our digital business and our partnership with Google Cloud allows us to capitalise on this by leveraging our size and scale to build capabilities and implement solutions at unmatched speeds," says Brian Rice, McDonald's Executive Vice President and Global Chief Information Officer.
"Connecting our restaurants worldwide to millions of datapoints across our digital ecosystem means tools get sharper, models get smarter, restaurants become easier to operate, and most importantly, the overall experience for our customers and crew gets even better."
Amazon
Amazon has announced the expansion of its Just Walk Out technology at the University of Pittsburgh.
The launch of Pitt on the Go at the Petersen Events Center, in collaboration with Chartwells Higher Education Dining Services, marks the second deployment of the solution on the University of Pittsburgh campus.
“The University of Pittsburgh is fortunate to have a robust collaboration in place with Amazon,” says Pitt Athletic Director Heather Lyke.
“The addition of Just Walk Out technology to our fan experience at the Petersen Events Center is yet another way that the two parties continue to work together to drive innovation in collegiate athletics.”
Holland & Barrett
Health and wellness retailer Holland & Barrett has partnered with Olio, a food sharing app.
This supports Holland and Barrett to quickly and safely redistribute spare, good to eat food, including surplus from its new range of “food that loves you back” to people living nearby, lending a helping hand to local families who might be struggling and facing bare cupboards.
Olio makes this possible by pairing each Holland and Barrett store with one of its 90,000 food safety trained volunteers, many of whom will live just around the corner from the retailer’s stores.
Those volunteers visit stores at the end of each day and collect any spare food that’s nearing its use by date (but still perfectly edible). They take that food home, snap a picture of it and add it to Olio’s app, so that people nearby can request and collect it.
Also collected from Holland and Barrett through the scheme are ambient food products, including nuts and fruit, drinks and sports bars and powders.
As well as supporting local communities, saving food from the bin each day through Olio will positively impact the environmental footprint of Holland and Barrett’s stores. For each 1kg of food that ends up in landfill, 4.3128kg of CO2 is released into the atmosphere.
Elvie
FemTech brand, Elvie, has partnered with Wunderkind.
As it looks to grow its direct to consumer (DTC) channel, Elvie wanted to adjust its marketing strategy to reduce reliance on increasingly competitive paid media channels, noting that these were delivering diminishing returns, both in terms of ROI and authentic and effective engagement.
Instead, it wanted to focus on developing its owned channels and capturing more first-party data to grow its customer community.
“From a brand perspective, we needed to be less reliant on paid performance marketing and instead build a community in our owned channels,” says Roselle Forman, Elvie’s Global Brand Manager.
Innovasport
Teamwork Commerce has announced a collaboration with sporting goods retailer, Innovasport.
Having gone live with its Point of Sale (PoS) solution in over 250 locations across Mexico, Teamwork Commerce has deployed over 2,000 POS terminals within the retailer’s stores.
With Teamwork Commerce’s PoS terminals integrating with the Innovasport online store, it can now offer a range of omnichannel capabilities to its customers, including Buy Online Pickup In-Store (BOPIS) and Ship to Store with same-day delivery.
Lotte Shopping
Ocado Group has broken ground at its first Customer Fulfilment Centre (CFC) with South Korea’s Lotte Shopping.
Situated in Busan, this is one of six CFCs planned across the country.
Ocado Group said on X: “With 30% of the CFC's operations to be powered by on-site solar panels and a 100% electric delivery fleet, the Busan CFC will also make big strides towards generating more carbon-efficient operations in online grocery.”
It added: “When it goes live in 2025, Lotte's first CFC will make amazing new online grocery experiences available to c.2.3 million households across Busan and beyond. Next stop, Seoul!”
Coles
Northfork has announced a partnership with Australian retailer, Coles. The aim here is to boost the latter’s online platform by introducing shoppable recipes via Northfork's API technology.
The integration will enable Coles customers to explore recipes that align with their individual preferences, dietary requirements, and lifestyles.
They can add all ingredients to their online cart with a single click, while also accessing nutritional information and estimated costs.
Halfords Group
Halfords Group, a UK provider of motoring and cycling products and services, has selected Kriya, an embedded finance specialist, to power payments and credit for its trade account customers.
Under the partnership, Kriya will embed its financial tools across Halfords stores, customer teams, and online .
Monica Vinader
Jewellery brand Monica Vinader has selected Constructor, an AI powered product discovery and search platform, to engage online shoppers with bespoke digital experiences.
Shoppers can purchase the British company’s pieces and collections through its website; in global luxury retailers such as Selfridges, Liberty, John Lewis, Farfetch and Nordstrom; and in Monica Vinader boutiques across the UK, US, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea.
As it grows its customer base, particularly across the US and Asia-Pacific, it has prioritised enhancing the digital customer experience.
Constructor’s platform supports this: harmonising data across a brand’s channels to personalise search results, browse experiences and more for the shopper while also optimising experiences for retail key performance indicators (KPIs).
7-Eleven Mexico
7-Eleven Mexico has implemented Blue Yonder’s category management SaaS solution to address a gap in its retail operations and gain the ability to create planograms, which, it says, has resulted in a better consumer shopping experience and minimised out-of-stock products.
The project was implemented by GOLDCO, a Blue Yonder partner.
Snappy Group
Snappy Group, the technology company behind Snappy Shopper, a UK grocery and convenience store delivery app, has announced a new partnership, with Jersey delivery food business provider Order It.je.
Snappy Shopper's white label technology will be used to power Order It’s fleet of Jersey-based deliveries from this month, under the Order It. je website and app.
The latter will now be able to offer shoppers an array of features that make better grocery shopping possible on Jersey from the comfort of their own homes or offices.
This includes asap and scheduled delivery slots, exclusive delivery promotions, bespoke categories, product deals and updated order alert preferences.
The wider partnership also includes Alliance Supermarkets who operate four retail supermarkets on Jersey and supply Order It exclusively with its product range. The next few months will see the online product offering expand and grow.
Currys
Currys has unveiled the first suite of products available via its retail media network, Currys Connected Media.
This allows partnered brands to understand, reach and engage millions of customers online and in-store.
Brands such as Samsung, Acer and Hisense are harnessing the offering, which is built on solutions from partners including Circana, Epsilon and Criteo.
Aldi Nord
Aldi Nord has redesigned its Trigo and shopreme powered Aldi Shop & Go store in the Dutch city of Utrecht.
In a LinkedIn post, Dr. Christian Bock, Team Lead Self-Service Checkout & Cashless Payment at Aldi Nord, said: “We are delighted to announce that we have taken another significant step towards an innovative and forward looking development, both technologically and business wise.”
“Our team takes immense pride in the redesign of our test store in Utrecht. Over the past year and a half, we've learned a great deal collaboratively with our customers, and it fills us with pride to incorporate these insights directly into the store's transformation.”
He added: “We are particularly excited to share that we have made the store even more appealing in accordance with our customers’ preferences. Through the harmonisation of computer vision and artificial intelligence, not only has the product assortment been subtly repositioned, but we have also revolutionised the checkout process.”
“This groundbreaking integration of technologies allows us to embark on entirely new paths, fundamentally enhancing the shopping experience from product selection to payment.”
InPost UK and Newcastle United
InPost has become an official partner of Premier League football team Newcastle United.
InPost UK has 6,000 out of home delivery options across the country.
This number is set to increase as Newcastle United supporters will soon be able to use bespoke parcel lockers at St James’ Park – the first in the country at a Premier League stadium.
Doffing a cap at the the black and white of Newcastle United, the specially designed parcel lockers will be located outside the iconic Gallowgate End, offering customers a city centre location, with InPost also having a number of collection points around Newcastle and wider Tyneside area.
S Group
Finnish retailer, S Group, has entered into a long-term partnership with Adyen.
S Group offers everyday services at grocery stores, hotels and restaurants, department stores, service station stores, hardware stores and its own bank, with more than 500 million transactions annually.
The partnership will help it connect online and offline channels, providing customers with omnichannel experiences and loyalty programme capacity across its brand portfolio.
Costa Coffee
Costa Coffee has unveiled its revamped New George Street store in Plymouth.
This now features touchscreen ordering and a dedicated collection point for customers on the go, complementing a refreshed counter and modern seating for those staying in.
Whilst a new mobile ‘order to table’ feature makes life easier thanks to a QR code scannable on the Costa Club app.
The store will also feature a ‘Chatter and Natter’ table to help bring together the local community in Plymouth.
Volunteers from the Chatty Café scheme will soon be on hand to provide an opportunity for people to connect with new friends, share stories, and enjoy the companionship of others over a cup of coffee.
Everton and Fanatics
Everton F.C. is celebrating five years of its equity and inclusion campaign, All Together Now, by launching an exclusive new clothing range, Respect, Celebrate, Empower.
Supporters can shop the range, which has been produced in collaboration with retail partner Fanatics, online and in-store at Everton One and Everton Two. The offering includes hoodies, T-shirts, sweatshirts and joggers in various colours.
100% of the net profits from the range will be donated to the football club’s official charity Everton in the Community.
The Respect, Celebrate, Empower slogan is being introduced as part of the five-year celebrations to serve as a reminder of what All Together Now stands for - and the impact it has made across the club, Everton in the community and beyond.
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