Starring Confer With, Trigo, and Ocado Group: the biggest retail technology news stories of the week
It’s Friday, the weekend is almost upon us, so let’s kick back and reflect on another eventful week for the retail systems space. Here's your briefing on the most important stories from the past five days, including Aldi Nord, Currys, the British Retail Consortium, Lotte Shopping, and Kingfisher.
1. Confer With announced as Overall Winner at 2023 RTIH retail technology innovation awards event
Confer With, a 1:2:1 video commerce platform built for retail and e-commerce firms seeking to scale personal shopping, emerged victorious last week as the Overall Winner at the 2023 RTIH Innovation Awards.
After a rigorous judging process and amidst strong competition across various categories, Confer With received praise not only for its individual contributions but also for its collaborative efforts with retail partners such as L'Occitane, OWAY and Dunelm.
"Our commitment to transforming the retail landscape through innovative technology has always been at the core of what we do," says Serge Milbank, CEO/Founder at Confer With.
"Winning this award is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our team and the fruitful collaborations with our partners. We are excited to continue pushing the boundaries and shaping the future of retail."
2. Aldi Nord harmonises computer vision and AI at Trigo and shopreme powered Shop & Go store in Utrecht
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.”
3. Samsung, Acer, Hisense onboard as Currys Connected Media unveiled by UK technology retailer
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.
4. Lotte Shopping breaks ground on first Ocado Group powered Customer Fulfilment Centre in Busan, South Korea
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!”
5, BRC Payments Survey 2023: cost-of-living crisis sees return to cash, dominance of cards poses problems
UK retail sales rose 4.3% to £439.5 billion in 2022, although this was largely due to rising prices resulting from increased costs throughout the supply chain, according to research by the BRC. The number of transactions rose from 17.2 billion in 2021 (47.2 million per day) to 19.6 billion in 2022 (53.7 million per day).
Average transaction value fell from £24.49 to £22.43, as consumers shopped around more and made more regular, but smaller, purchases. This reverses a trend seen during the pandemic, towards less frequent, bigger, shopping trips – as people tried to avoid going out as often.
Cash usage grew for the first time in a decade, rising to 19% of all transactions (from 15% in 2021).
This reflects a choice by many households to use cash to budget more carefully during the onset of the cost-of-living-crisis, as well as a natural return to cash usage following the move to contactless during Covid.
6. Kingfisher expands partnership with CitrusAd to launch retail media across banners including B&Q
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 technologyfirm 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).
Brands will have the opportunity to engage with millions of customers shopping via the banners’ e-commerce websites and apps, reaching them at every stage of their shopping journey.
It is anticipated that many of Kingfisher’s suppliers – including leading national and international home improvement brands – could become retail media advertisers. Over time, Kingfisher says that it sees the potential for retail media revenues to reach up to 3% of the Group’s e-commerce sales.
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