“The future of entertainment and advertising”: RTIH presents the retail technology week in numbers
Do you like numbers? Do you like retail systems news? Then this is the article for you. Including Co-op, Spring, REWE, Trigo, Sook, Ikea, Amazon, Best Buy, and Roku.
50…RTIH is pleased to announce the launch of its first ever Retail Technology Innovations Report, sponsored by Metapack.
Available for download here, free of charge, this highlights the top 50 retail tech plays of 2022 as decided by our Editor, Scott Thompson, and an independent advisory panel.
45…Co-op has expanded its trial with tech recirculation startup, Spring, with the introduction of reusable pouches for shoppers’ old and unwanted phones and electronic devices.
The new service, known as Spring Post, goes live this week in 45 Co-op stores located in towns and cities including: Birmingham; Brighton; Bristol; Cardiff; Leeds; London; Manchester and Swansea.
Customers collect one of Spring’s pouches from a participating store, and send tech they no longer use to the company, earning cash for them in the process.
The move increases the total number of Co-op stores offering Spring’s service to 75, and is in addition to self-service pods located in 30 of the convenience retailer’s locations.
4…REWE has opened its fourth Trigo powered store, situated in Cologne, Germany’s fourth largest city.
Located in the Sülz neighbourhood, this is, at 564 sqm, Trigo’s biggest store to date.
Kai-Uwe Reimers, Head of Research and Innovation, REWE digital, comments: “The bar is rising around customer expectations, customers have less time, cost and effort are getting more important.”
“Computer vision will be the core of the future store. It changes the supermarket workflow by introducing frictionless checkout which solves the biggest customer pain point in the store: standing in line.”
“When we were ready to start with frictionless checkout it was clear that Trigo would be the first to talk to.”
“We screened the market again, we talked to other retailers and in the end, we decided for Trigo because we really believe in the team, we really believe in the solution, and we think it’s the most advanced solution at the moment.”
6…Sook, which takes vacant retail spaces and gives them a modular, digital fit-out which can be rented by the hour, has landed in Islington Square, a place in north London to eat, drink and shop which is situated in an old postal sorting office.
This is Sook’s sixth opening in London.
15%, 20% and 22%…Consumers feel that retailers shouldn’t ban serial returners from shopping with them, according to new research from Retail Technology Show, which will take place on 26th and 27th April at London’s Olympia.
A survey of over 1,000 UK shoppers revealed that the average Brit now returns 15% of the total number of items they buy online, rising to 20% for Millennials and 22% among Gen Z shoppers;
5,000…Automated parcel machine service provider, InPost, says that it has deployed its 5,000th locker unit in the UK.
It means there are approximately 290,000 individual locker compartments available for consumers to collect, return and send their parcels across the country.
And nearly half of residents in London, Birmingham and Manchester live within a seven minute walk of an InPost locker.
One hundred autonomous drones are now operational in Ikea stores - the latest in Ikea Zaventem, Belgium – with owner Ingka Group saying it is the first retailer to use such a solution for stock inventory.
Two years ago, Ingka Group and the Supply Chain Development Team at Inter Ikea Group, together with Verity, a provider of indoor drone systems, started developing a fully autonomous drone solution.
As a result, 100 drones are now at work during non-operational hours, with the aim of improving stock accuracy and securing availability of products for online or physical retailing. This means that co-workers no longer need to manually confirm each pallet.
“We are investing in technology across the board so that our stores can better support customer fulfilment and become true centres for omnichannel retailing,” says Tolga Öncu, Head of Retail at Ingka Group.
“Introducing drones and other advanced tools – such as, for example, robots for picking up goods – is a genuine win-win for everybody. It improves our co-workers’ wellbeing, lowers operational costs, and allows us to become more affordable and convenient for our customers.”
$25 million…APEXX Global, a global payments orchestration platform, has raised $25 million from existing and new investors, closing a Series B round. The funds will be used to develop its products and technology and to expand its presence in North America.
1…Marymount University has become the first higher education institution in the US to have an on-campus convenience store powered by Amazon’s Just Walk Out tech.
Located in the lobby of Gerard Phelan Hall on Marymount’s main campus in Arlington, Saints 24 opened to the University community for the first time on Friday.
Customers use their credit card at the entry gates of Saints 24, grab what they need and the technology automatically detects what is taken from (or returned to) store shelves, creating a virtual shopping cart.
When people have completed their shopping, they can leave the store without stopping to check out, and their credit card will be charged for the items they took.
$8 million…Digital wholesale platform, Powered By People (PBP), has secured $8 million in Series A equity funding.
The company will use the funds to continue scaling its global operations and technology.
PBP provides small-batch, independent maker brands from over 70 countries with technology solutions that enable them to sell their sustainably made goods at scale to retail and trade buyers.
Customers range from independent boutiques across major markets, to large retailers such as West Elm, Pottery Barn, Banana Republic, and The Citizenry.
The equity round was led by Altos Ventures, with participation from existing investors including Golden Ventures and Susa Ventures.
£10 million…Lloyds Banking Group has invested £10 million in digital identity company Yoti.
Yoti offers digital identity solutions that aim to make it simple for people and businesses to protect themselves online.
This includes a free Digital ID app, which gives individuals a way to prove their identity from their phone, with no need to show ID documents or share an excessive amount of personal data.
The investment from Lloyds Banking Group will support Yoti’s development of a new reusable digital identity proposition that will complement its existing solutions and is set to launch later this year.
1…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.”
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