The latest from Pret, Ocado, and Corona: Last week’s biggest retail technology plays at a glance
RTIH rounds up the stand out retail systems deals, launches, deployments and pilots from the past seven days. Featuring Starship Technologies, Sensei, Obsess, RELEX Solutions, The Trade Desk, and Pricer.
Best Buy and Roku
TV streaming platform, Roku, and US consumer tech retailer, Best Buy, have announced what is pitched as a first to market relationship across their advertising and retail businesses.
This will see Best Buy provide Roku with its first-party data for targeting and closed-loop measurement.
It will also give shoppers exclusive access to Roku branded TVs.
“Our goal is to create a better TV experience for everyone,” says Julian Mintz, Co-Head of U.S. Brand Sales at Roku Media.
“We’re bringing together our entire business to build the future of entertainment and advertising, making the TV experience simpler, offering the right marketing, data, tech, and scale to drive real results, and helping win the entire streamer’s journey together with Best Buy.”
Pret A Manger
UK-based sandwich shop chain, Pret A Manger, has chosen frontline employee experience platform specialist, YOOBIC, to digitise operational processes and checklists.
This forms part of Pret’s digital transformation push, with the aim of ensuring that customers receive the same high quality experience across its shop locations.
In a LinkedIn post, YOOBIC said: “We’re proud to partner with such a well respected brand and look forward to supporting their continued growth and success.”
Starship Technologies
Starship Technologies’ robots have started on-demand food deliveries at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
30 of them are now delivering from Wendy’s, Bojangles and Shake Smart and will add more campus eateries throughout March, with 10 onboard by the end of the month.
The school’s nearly 30,000 students and faculty can now use the Starship app to order food and drinks from campus retailers to be delivered anywhere on campus, within minutes. The service works in conjunction with the student meal plan.
Prisma
IDIS has been chosen by Finnish retailer Prisma to implement a video surveillance upgrade that tackles shrink and improves system usability at four of its hypermarkets.
Prisma’s existing surveillance system had been expanded and added to over the years, and encompassed more than 150 third-party analogue cameras to provide coverage in four malls – the Prisma Vaasa, Prisma Kouvola, Prisma Tripla, and Prisma Kristiine.
Operating the system had become very challenging, with significant latency impacting camera control and no complete, ‘single pane of glass’ overview of the system or sites.
Image quality and speed of the third-party video wall in the central control room were also issues that hampered their security team’s ability to track suspected thieves.
Working with systems integrator, Safe IT, Prisma opted for the IDS Solution Suite (ISS) VMS. This comes with live video streaming, management, and administration tools and the ability to integrate third-party cameras from a single user interface.
bpost
bpost, a Belgium-based postal operator and an e-logistics partner in Europe, North-America and Asia, is rolling out hundreds of KePol lockers supplied by KEBA.
In the coming years, these will be deployed throughout Belgium offering bpost’s customers a parcel delivery service which is available 24/7.
Pet Supermarket
Pet Supermarket, a retailer with locations throughout the US Southeast, is to begin using Bringg on Salesforce (BoSF) to manage delivery operations, expand fulfilment capabilities and enhance the customer experience.
BoSF is pitched as the only delivery management platform 100% native to Salesforce.
It will also allow Pet Supermarket to expand its carrier options beyond use of an internal fleet to significantly enlarge delivery capacity.
Raymour & Flanigan
US-based furniture and mattress retailer, Raymour & Flanigan, has partnered with Körber as it looks to respond more effectively to today's consumer challenges through warehouse improvements pushing for greater order accuracy, speed and fulfilment.
Corona
Obsess has announced a partnership with Corona to launch the Corona Premier Virtual Clubhouse.
The golf themed experience invites visitors ages 21 and older to enter a sweepstakes for a chance to win a grand prize trip for four to the 2023 U.S. Open in Los Angeles in June or an instant win prize consisting of golfing apparel and merchandise.
It is the first in a series that the brand will be launching throughout the year, including summer and holiday activations.
Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger
Cashback and payments app, Cheddar, has announced new partnerships with Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger.
The pair will offer Cheddar users up to 10% cashback on any online purchase, joining the likes of House of Fraser, Jack Wills, Ganni, and USC.
Royal Caribbean International
Royal Caribbean International’s Icon of the Seas is coming to one of the world’s most played video games, Fortnite, for an initiative called Hide ’N’ Sea.
Built using Fortnite Creative, this addition to the metaverse is pitched as “the first, one of a kind adventure players can experience on Icon of the Seas ahead of its debut in January 2024”.
The challenge? To hide or seek in Thrill Island and The Hideaway on Icon.
Sensei and Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Sensei has launched Dojo, which, covering a total space of 500 square metres, is pitched as the largest fully autonomous store in Europe.
Created in collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), the facility in Lisbon, Portugal is intended as a test lab.
Not open to the public, it provides an environment for Sensei and its partners to develop and test new autonomous store technologies. The tech behind Dojo is scalable for retail spaces ranging from from 150 m2 to 1,500 m2.
Features include gateless entry and exit, and an automatic card payment terminal where purchases are displayed in real-time at the end of a shop, so customers can make purchases without using an app.
There is also automated tracking of products served from assisted counters, such as a bakery, butchery or fish counter, and the integration of self-service coffee and juice machines.
The Trade Desk and Ocado
Advertising technology firm The Trade Desk has announced a partnership with online grocery big hitter Ocado Retail.
The pair claim that, as a result, Ocado is the first grocer in the UK to give direct access to its customer behaviour data, allowing marketers to optimise their audiences and attribute campaigns through The Trade Desk.
Ocado will provide advertisers with access to consented shopper data and insights.
Ocado suppliers and The Trade Desk’s clients will be able to leverage the pureplay’s first-party audiences to reach in-market shoppers and drive key marketing objectives, such as customer acquisition to build brand loyalty over time.
Furthermore, targeted campaigns can be optimised using Ocado data to close the loop between advertising spend and sales.
SPAR Switzerland and AVIA
SPAR Switzerland and AVIA have opened the first 24/7 SPAR Express forecourt store operating without onsite personnel at Zurich’s Sihlqui bus terminal.
In addition to refuelling, customers can now also stock up on groceries, fresh snacks, and coffee.
The 50m2 store offers around 1,000 products, including bread and bakery products, fruit and vegetables, dairy products, meat, drinks, basic food items, hygiene articles, and car accessories.
Access is made possible through FAST aXs technology which allows customers to enter the store by scanning a QR code at the entrance with their smartphone and accepting the terms and conditions.
People do not need to download an app or register. Items are also scanned with the smartphone and payment is made by Twint, credit or debit card, or with Apple Pay or Google Pay.
The store is equipped with cameras and sensors. If customers have questions or face any issues, information is provided online instantly and additional support is offered.
Sales are monitored via an app which ensures that the store is always replenished with fresh food. Customers purchasing fuel can pay at the AVIA petrol station with a fuel card, debit or credit card or cash.
Pinalli
Pricer Italy is making its debut in the cosmetics sector after landing an electronic shelf labels deal from Pinalli.
Pinalli, which has been operating in the Italian market for almost 40 years, currently has over 60 beauty stores located in central northern Italy, as well as e-commerce and a logistics centre of 5,000 m2.
“We are absolutely delighted to have signed this agreement with Pinalli, which provides for direct management by Pricer Italy in terms of digitisation and support of all the brand’s stores,” says Michael Cacciatore, Country Manager, Pricer Italy.
“Pinalli will benefit from all advantages of Pricer’s electronic shelf labels solution and our interference free wireless optical technology, which ensures a stable and future-proof solution, in addition to the reduced energy consumption of the labels.”
He adds: “We will install about 5,000 electronic shelf labels per store, and all the stores will be interconnected through Pricer Plaza, our IOT cloud-based platform which is characterised by excellent safety standards, responsiveness, flexibility, and high scalability.”
The project will be completed in the coming months.
MPM Products
Natural pet food company, MPM Products, is partnering with RELEX Solutions to improve its forecasting and inventory planning capabilities.
The latter’s solution will service the company across its six distribution centres and global supplier base to improve availability, optimise inventory levels, and ensure more efficient use of working capital.
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