Mary Portas heads to RTS 2023: RTIH’s six 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 Wilko, Amazon UK, Mary Portas, Retail Technology Show, and the 2022 RTIH Innovation Awards.
1. Wilko unpicks legacy tech as it enlists UST, Cinchy, and Blue Yonder for Click and Collect roll-out
Wilko has rolled out a Click and Collect service to its 400+ stores.
Online purchases can be collected from stores in as little as three hours, at no extra charge.
This is an extension of a service that the retailer began offering from approximately 70 locations last year.
In a LinkedIn post, Simon Reeve, Head of Solution Delivery and Software Engineering at Wilko, said: “I’m hugely proud of the cross functional team here at Wilko that has recently brought Click and Collect to all of our 400+ stores, resulting in a great new way to shop and some terrific feedback from our customers and team members.”
Reeve noted that delivery went from sticky Post-Its to production launch in about seven months. “That short timescale belies the huge complexity of the challenge.”
He added: “For the Wilko technology team this involved unpicking lots of legacy tech; implementing the spine of a new tech stack based on MACH principles and composable architecture; taking our first steps into CI/CD and DevOps with UST; implementing a new data fabric with Cinchy; integrating OMS capability with Blue Yonder; and much more besides.”
The project involved Wilko shifting its thinking from e-commerce to omnichannel, and from project centric to product centric delivery.
Reeve concluded: “Still lots more to do on all of the above, and as a technology team we're excited to be pushing on and supporting our great business in accelerating our omnichannel transformation.”
2. Amazon UK fulfilment centre workers in Coventry call "unprecedented" week long strike
Amazon UK workers have announced a week long strike at the company’s Coventry warehouse.
More than 350 staff at the West Midland fulfilment centre will walk out on 28th February, 2nd March and from 13th to 17th March.
This builds on them becoming the first Amazon workers in the UK to strike, on 25th January, in their fight for £15 per hour
Amanda Gearing, GMB Senior Organiser, says: “This unprecedented week long strike shows the anger among Amazon workers in Coventry.”
“They work for one of the richest companies in the world, yet they have to work round the clock to keep themselves afloat. It’s sickening that Amazon workers in Coventry will earn just eight pence above the national minimum wage in April 2023.”
She concludes: “Amazon bosses can stop this industrial action by doing the right thing and negotiating a proper pay rise with workers.
3. Celebrating retail technology trailblazers: Check out the official 2022 RTIH Innovation Awards review
RTIH has published an in-depth 2022 RTIH Innovation Awards review, running through the winners and highly commended submissions and including photos from our awards ceremony and the thoughts of our judging panel.
Check it out here.
Sponsored by PMC, 3D Cloud by Marxent, CADS, FreedomPay, and Critzr, the awards celebrate global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.
We received a record number of submissions in 2022 across 14 categories (you can find a full rundown of the 2022 shortlists here).
Our winners and highly commended companies were announced during the aforementioned sold out event that took place in central London during December and was attended by retailers, tech suppliers, members of our judging panel, and sponsors.
As for the 2023 event, we’ve got big plans, including an overhaul of the judging criteria, and a move to a bigger venue for our central London event.
We’ll be accepting submissions from April onwards, with the deadline being early November and the winners being announced at said event in December.
Stay tuned for further updates over the next couple of months.
4. Tesco leaves London and switches on GetGo Aston University Express checkout free store in Birmingham
Tesco has opened its latest GetGo location, Aston University Express. Powered by Trigo technology, this is located in Birmingham, the UK’s second largest city.
The university location is the final instalment of Tesco’s announced three autonomous stores deployment throughout the UK, the other sites being Chiswell Street Express in central London, and Fulham Reach Express in Parrs Way, London.
It is the largest autonomous Tesco store to date at over 4,000 square metres.
5. Queen of Shops Mary Portas set to headline Retail Technology Show as keynote speaker
Queen of Shops and co-chair of the Better Business Act, Mary Portas, has been confirmed as a keynote speaker at Retail Technology Show 2023, taking place on 26th and 27th April 2023 at London’s Olympia.
Following the announcement of Steven Bartlett as headline speaker last week, Portas will join over 100+ retail thought leaders taking to the stage at the event.
Speaking on the Headline Stage on day two, moderated this year by retail broadcaster and ‘Customer Whisperer’ Kate Hardcastle, she will discuss the role of human connectivity and the Kindness Economy in the future of retail.
Portas will explore what this new value system, where businesses must understand the fundamental role they play in the fabric of people’s lives, means for retailers – and their omnichannel technology roadmaps – as they look ahead to 2023 and beyond.
6. Nordic online pharmacy Apotea deploys first piece-picking solution integrated with AutoStore
Swedish online pharmacy, Apotea, automated its logistics centre in autumn 2022 to deliver approximately 50,000 orders a day to its customers.
Following cooperation between Element Logic, AutoStore, RightHand Robotics and Apotea, the centre fully integrated eOperator piece-picking robots with an AutoStore solution, pitched as a world first.
“During the pandemic, we looked at expanding the capacity to go from delivering 50,000 orders to 100,000 orders,” says Pär Svärdson, CEO at Apotea.
“That's when we started looking at Element Logic and AutoStore. When we thought of installing AutoStore, it was precisely the ability to be able to robotise the picking that was one of the driving forces.”
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