The latest from Carrefour, Very, and Tesco: Presenting 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 immersive experiences, autonomous firsts, creator led ad campaigns, and product discovery experience tie ups.

Tatcha

Tatcha is launching a new virtual store, powered by the Emperia platform.

The aim, according to a press release, is to “immerse guests in the tranquil scents and sounds of the Japanese hinoki forest while introducing them to the new Forest Awakening collection and educating visitors about the benefits of forest bathing”.

Forest bathing, also known as shinrin-yoku, the ritual of connecting to nature through the senses, has become a common medical treatment prescribed by Japanese physicians for its many immunity and mood boosting powers.

Starting with a calming walk through the Hinoki forest, visitors are immersed in the sounds and sights of the traditional Japanese outdoors, leading to an onsen, a Japanese wellness resort, consisting of several rooms, all engulfing the user in the Tatcha Hinoki experience, allowing the user to move freely, explore products, learn about them and shop.

The Ritual Space provides visitors with a step-by-step beauty regime.

The Best Seller Space presents Tatcha’s products and teaches visitors about their ingredients and origins; the Spa Space presents the new Forest Awakening collection around a traditional Japanese hot tub.

Visitors who choose to venture back into the outdoors can pass by the hot springs and reach a tea ceremony, taking place in a calming outdoor hut.

Apotea

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.”

Tesco

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.

Lipton Ice Tea

Lipton Ice Tea has announced the launch of #PassTheSunshine, its biggest ever creator led campaign in Australia in partnership with influencer agency, Billion Dollar Boy.

The 14-day campaign features a range of 11 of Australia’s biggest creator talents in a combined digital out-of-home (DOOH), social media and experiential activation to raise brand awareness and to encourage acts of kindness.

It began on 15th February in Bourke Street, Melbourne - one of Australia’s largest and busiest shopping districts - and will be executed in three stages.

Matt Storer, known for his comedic paradies and musical skits on TikTok, kicks things off, appearing on the 28 metre tall Bourke Street Mall billboard - Australia’s biggest full motion, high resolution digital billboard.

Embracing the spirit of Melbourne’s eclectic busking community, Storer performs his one-minute long original, bespoke campaign song, Pass The Sunshine, with lyrics appearing as subtitles.

The advert encourages Melbourne to perform random acts of kindness, with Storer passing a Lipton Ice Tea to other creators guest appearing in the billboard - including: comedic social media personalities, Nathan Lust and Angelo Marasigan; best friends and mature creators, Ginger and Carman; differently abled comedic creator, Jimmy Jan; and prominent children’s entertainer, Tsehay Hawkins.

The song finishes with Storer offering a Lipton Ice Tea to passers by in a 3D effect.

Vyking

Virtual try-on specialist Vyking has unveiled a new in-store augmented reality solution, Magic Mirror.

It says that that this will enable consumers to visualise footwear through a smart mirror.

Activated by walking up to a full length digitally connected mirror, people can try virtually before they buy dozens of pairs of trainers and other footwear.

They choose the pair they’d like to try via an in-store display on a tablet, before the 3D model is “beamed” into the mirror for them to see how it looks on their own feet.

The solution also offers omnichannel marketing possibilities as the technology can be deployed in other physical locations such as billboards, bus stops or window displays.

Well Pharmacy

Independent pharmacy chain Well Pharmacy has partnered with Pennies, a micro-donation charity, and Trust Retail, part of the Trust Payments Group, to help encourage charitable donations when paying in cashless ways.

Coen Markets

US-based convenience chain Coen Markets has launched two checkout-free stores, in partnership with Grabango, at its Amoco sites in Oakdale and Southpark, PA.

bp previously announced a partnership with Grabango.

Amoco, a bp brand, will be the first to go live with the firm’s technology at Coen owned sites.

Shoppers use the Grabango app to pay for items without needing to stand in line or scan their items. They grab what they need and are billed in the app. Payment is contactless and automatic.

Foodhub

Online food delivery and takeaway app, Foodhub, says that it has doubled conversion rates to 40% while improving new customer activation times, partnering with MoEngage.

Foodhub offers customers exclusive deals on online takeaways and food deliveries through its network of 30,000+ restaurant, takeaway and quick service retail (QSR) partners in the UK. 

With predictive AI powered segmentation, which uses customer insight and behavioural data to enhance customer journeys, MoEngage allows the company to power personalisation that drives app use, revenues and loyalty across mobile, email and targeted push notifications.  

The Fresh Market

Firework has proved an update on its longstanding partnership with specialty food retailer, The Fresh Market.

The latter is using the Firework video commerce platform to launch what is pitched as the USA’s first ever Shoppable Video-Live Commerce (SVLC) retail media network (RMN).

 “Overall, the combined viewership of our first four Firework powered livestreams exceeded two million views and we saw conversion rates of the special occasion meals featured in the shoppable videos to be over 300% greater than our traditional digital advertising results," says Kevin Miller, Chief Marketing Officer at The Fresh Market.

“Having proven the power of Firework’s video commerce content in 2022, we’re excited to offer our partners an innovative and differentiated means of storytelling in an entertaining new way. We call it shoppertainment.”

M&S

Very

Online retailer, Very, which is operated by The Very Group, has announced a new product discovery experience partnership with Constructor.

The first phase will see Very implement new search, browse and autosuggest tools across its website and app.

Using artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing, machine learning and data, these tools learn from anonymous individual interactions and collaborative behaviours, with the aim of optimising the product discovery experience and providing customers with faster, more personalised results.

Very will also roll-out other elements of Constructor’s product discovery solution, including its personalised ‘quiz’ functionality, in the longer term.

By answering a series of questions related to their preferences, interests and goals, customers will be able to use quizzes to discover the right items for them across all product categories.

Carrefour Argentina

The first autonomous Carrefour Flash store has opened in Latin America.

Tapping Go2Future miniGO technology and using cameras on the ceiling and sensors integrated into the shelves, this is a 50 square metre store located in Argentina, in the town of Pilar, a province of Buenos Aires.

Via an app, the products that customers choose are automatically loaded into a virtual cart and payment is made upon leaving, without the need to use a traditional checkout. It is also possible to buy online and pick up in-store or request home delivery.

“We are excited to be able to implement innovative purchasing alternatives in Argentina,” says Pablo Lorenzo, CEO at Carrefour Argentina.

“We listen to our clients and customers and we know that speed and simplicity are essential characteristics when going to stores. We seek to be up to the task and we hope that in Carrefour Flash they will find an ideal shopping experience.”