AR technology lets American Freight customers see how furniture looks in their homes before purchase

American Freight has unveiled its new store concept at two Denver, CO locations, offering a more spacious layout designed to make shopping more convenient, enhanced brand and storytelling for open box appliances, flexible financing options and same-day delivery for all in-stock items.

AR technology, meanwhile, will enable customers to visualise how furniture looks in their home before purchasing.

American Freight will be piloting the new store concept in additional locations before rolling it out nationwide beginning in the third quarter.

“We’re thrilled to launch our redesigned store format as we celebrate the grand opening of our Westminster location and continue our Colorado expansion,” says Peter Corsa, CEO of the Home Segment at FRG Inc., the parent company of American Freight.

“Our plan is to roll-out the new store concept to more locations over the next year to provide an even better experience for our customers nationwide as they shop our wide selection of affordable home furnishings, mattresses and appliances from trusted national brands.”

2023 RTIH Innovation Awards

Nanovo emerged victorious in the 2023 RTIH Innovation Awards Bricks and Mortar Retail category, sponsored by CADS.

Our winners were revealed at a fantastic awards ceremony, which took place at the Barbican Centre in central London.

The event was 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.

BRICKS AND MORTAR INNOVATION SHORTLIST AS FOLLOWS:

This award went to a company enabling physical spaces to thrive via innovative technology, even as online shopping continues to grow. 

We were looking for examples of reducing friction in the customer journey, offering improved experiences, and blurring the lines between channels.

Cust2Mate

Cust2Mate is a leading smart cart solution that helps reduce shrinkage, effectively track store stocks, and boost sales with on-cart promotions that entice shoppers to make the most of special offers and sale items.

Its patented technology ensures robust durability and unwavering reliability, making it the go-to solution for a seamless shopping journey.

EE

EE has an ambition to be the most personal, customer focused brand in the UK and to do this, it needed to provide its customers with personal experiences both physical and digital, something it knows they want.

The EE Studio in Westfield London, White City, is EE’s vision for the future of retail, designed to empower customers with the best connectivity and technology solutions for their connected life, and serve as a hub for the local community to work, learn and play.

HL Display

HL Display has developed physical equipment to help reduce time and labour spending on chiller merchandising.

Thanks to 180-degree rotating movement, all shelves of the Rotoshelf solution move at once, allowing for quicker restocking from the back. Simply rotate, refill, rotate the section back.

With the optimal gravity feed shelves, products are always automatically front faced and keep the drinks cold. By reducing the time opening chiller doors for restocking, energy is thus saved and maintaining refrigeration temperature becomes easier.

Ladorian

Turning bricks and mortar stores into smart stores: how AI software created a seamless in-store customer experience and increased promotional sales – a BP-Ladorian partnership.

BP in Spain wanted a tool that could manage the entire communication with in-store clients in its forecourt retail business, creating a customer centric, seamless experience while stimulating demand.

Ladorian provided it with AI software, creating an intelligent and measurable sales impact ecosystem that, using data such as sales and contextual factors, delivers the right content to the right customer at the right time, providing the experience BP was looking for while generating 38.5% promotional sales increase. 

Nanovo

Nanovo is connecting bricks and mortar stores to omnichannel and digital services. It is implementing a phygital store experience, with one being created for 6thStreet.com in Dubai. This concept consists of a showroom without physical products being displayed.

The main objective of this solution is to transfer the experience known to e-commerce customers to the physical space of a stationary store.

This concept offers a variety of facilities, for example the possibility to choose products in a user-friendly application. Orders are then transferred from digital terminals and products are delivered to interactive fitting rooms.

shopreme

shopreme is a champion of unified self-checkout solutions, offering a range of products and services to simplify and enhance the retail customer experience. With its Scan & Go, SCO, and exit solutions, it is aiming to revolutionise how customers shop stores.

After only three years, it handles millions of transactions via its ecosystem in customers’ stores, leading to operational efficiency gains that raise retailers’ margins and take pressure off employees.

Power Retail Media elements help to increase the average basket size by inspiring and activating customers through well established elements we know from online shopping, such as recommendations and product information.

Zippin

Zippin transformed a traditional hot foods concession stand into checkout-free shopping at Kingdom Grill at Arrowhead Stadium. This was the first Zippin Walk-Up installation, a new checkout-free format that doesn’t require construction and comes ready to install in just days.

Arrowhead Stadium was able to leverage its existing kitchen, equipment, counters, and space as part of the Walk-Up transformation. Instead of waiting in lines, guests simply enter with a credit card, select what they want, and exit without waiting.