Starring Studenac, Moonpig, and Amazon: RTIH runs through the week's coolest retail technology plays
RTIH Editor, Scott Thompson, brings you his top ‘future of retail’ systems launches and deployments from the past week, including electric powered deliveries in South London, autonomous micro stores in Belgium, and, in Croatia, digital tools that use data to improve margins, streamline the supply chain and enable better, faster decisions on where to build new stores.
Amazon UK
Croydon is among the first Amazon locations in the UK to use electric cargo bikes, building on launches in Wembley, Southwark, Shoreditch, Manchester and Glasgow.
Electric cargo bikes and on-foot deliveries are now operational from hubs in more than 20 cities across the UK and Europe.
“We’re excited to open the new micromobility hub at our Croydon delivery station as part of our commitment to our customers and our sustainability goals,” says James Partridge, Amazon Croydon Delivery Station Manager.
“This new hub will help us to reduce the number of vehicles on the roads around Croydon while also bringing more electric powered deliveries to our customers in South London.”
Studenac
Studenac, Croatia’s largest retailer by number of stores, has deployed a series of digital tools that use data to improve margins, streamline the supply chain and enable better, faster decisions on where to build new outlets.
The Location Analysis Tool (LAT), the flagship project from the Studenac Digital Centre of Excellence, helps managers select new store locations based on data including demographics, transportation links and the presence of competitors in any given geographical area.
The LAT uses algorithms to help select high potential locations, streamlining the investment committee's decision-making process and accelerating the pace at which new stores can be approved and opened.
The company sees room to open as many as 2,500 new outlets across Croatia using this format.
Studenac has tripled its store network to more than 1,200 since it was acquired five years ago by Central European private equity fund Enterprise Investors. It plans to add 120 organically this year and speed up the pace in 2024 and beyond.
M&S
Marks & Spencer has donated 70 million meals to local charities with food redistribution partner Neighbourly.
Since the launch of the partnership in 2015, M&S has been working with Neighbourly to redistribute surplus food from store, which is too good to waste, to more than 3,000 local charities and community organisations.
To date, the tie up has supported over 4.5 million individuals, with meal donations supporting families in need, young people and those with disabilities. It has prevented over 30,000 tonnes of good quality food from going to waste.
This contributes to M&S’ ‘target of 100% of edible surplus food to be redistributed by 2025, as part of its ‘Plan A’ roadmap to net zero.
Alex Freudmann, Managing Director at M&S Food, comments: “Doing the right thing for the people and communities we serve has always been important to M&S, and that’s one of the reasons we launched our partnership with Neighbourly back in 2015.”
“I’m delighted that we have surpassed the milestone of 70 million meals donated because its enabled us not only to tackle food waste in our stores but also ensure our delicious food, which is too good to waste, can support those in need when they need it most. I want to thank our incredible store colleagues for their ongoing efforts to make this partnership such a success.”
Carrefour Belgium
Carrefour Belgium has this week opened its smallest store in Belgium, measuring just 18 sqm.
Carrefour BuyBye is located at the retailer’s Belgian headquarters in Zaventem (near Brussels).
The autonomous store consists of a series of refrigerated vending machines where customers can purchase lunch, snacks, cold drinks and fruit.
Shoppers need to download the Carrefour Buybye app, create an account and add a payment method before they can use the app to open the machines, take out products and check-out.
Initially, this will be open Monday to Friday from 7am to 10pm to start with, but from January it will be available seven days a week.
It is the result of a collaboration with startup Reckon AI, which specialises in micro-stores equipped with artificial intelligence. Plans are afoot to roll-out the concept to Carrefour Belgium’s existing physical stores.
Armani Group
ON has announced a strategic partnership with the Armani Group.
Following a launch with A|X Armani Exchange in March, the expanded tie up now includes A|X Armani Exchange, Armani Exchange - Canada, Armani Exchange - UK, Emporio Armani and EA7 Emporio Armani.
In the first six months after implementing the ON platform, A|X Armani Exchange reported that 92% of inbound inquiries were immediately addressed through automated AI chat, accelerating the speed to resolution through shopping journeys.
Additionally, engagement with ON resulted in up to a five times increase in the likelihood of shoppers making purchases.
LEGO Fortnite
LEGO Fortnite is now live. This is the first play experience to come from a long-term partnership between Epic Games and the LEGO Group to develop fun and safe digital spaces for children and families.
New world building, gameplay features, and more LEGO Style Outfits will be arriving in updates starting early 2024. Fortnite is available to play for free on PlayStation4, PlayStation5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PC on Epic Games Store and cloud-based gaming streaming services.
LEGO Fortnite is built inside Fortnite and powered by Unreal Engine 5, taking advantage of features such as Chaos physics and destruction to give players the ability to place, connect and break apart bricks just like they would in the real world.
The game utilises World Partition to stream all 95 square kilometres of playable space (that’s 19x the size of the Fortnite Battle Royale Island!), and uses the Procedural Content Generation (PCG) framework to dynamically create detailed environments.
Moonpig
Moonpig says it is the first major online card retailer to launch an AI tool that helps people craft authentic heartfelt and personalised messages all with the click of a button.
It notes that, with the increased use of instant messaging via apps such as Whatsapp, Messenger and Instagram, over the last decade emojis have come to replace words when communicating with friends and family, and as a result left many struggling to write heartfelt messages to loved ones.
The new Smart Text feature is available across Moonpig’s entire range of cards, including Christmas.
It can be found in the editor toolbar as a magic symbol when starting to compose a message. It gives people the chance to type in a short prompt providing details about the recipient, occasion and even inside jokes or specific interests.
JD.com
JD Logistics, the logistics arm of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, has announced the launch of its international express delivery service.
Currently available in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, the expansion will initially cover 23 countries across North America and Europe, facilitating one-way deliveries from China.
Looking ahead, JD Logistics plans to extend the reach of the service, expanding its availability throughout China.
Leveraging the company’s network, customers in China can book doorstep pick-ups through the JD Express mini programme on WeChat and expect one-hour pick-up by JD’s in-house couriers,.
Real-time parcel tracking is also available.
Jeff de Bruges
Jeff de Bruges, a chocolate manufacturer in France, has selected Informatica’s AI powered Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) platform as a key component of its data modernisation project.
It says that the combined solution from Informatica, KPMG, and Microsoft will help build “a data driven culture that will significantly improve the overall quality and use of data across the enterprise at Jeff de Bruges”.
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