Featuring Mercaux, Outform, and Bringg: here are last week’s most read RTIH retail technology articles
These are the RTIH articles that caught your fancy last week, including Ikea, River Island, Ikea, Tesco, Carrefour, Coles Group, Amazon, and Żabka Polska.
Ikea, Tesco and Carrefour lead the way as RTIH presents February’s coolest retail technology plays
RTIH Editor, Scott Thompson, brings you his stand out ‘future of retail’ systems deployments from February, including Ikea, Meta, Tesco, Trigo, Starship Technologies, Grubhub, Carrefour, The Fresh Market, and Firework.
British fashion retailer River Island teams with Mercaux for self-checkout via RFID in-store
Mercaux is delivering RFID self-checkout into stores of River Island, the British high street retailer, alongside key strategic partners.
Shoppers will be encouraged to use self-service devices to speed up the last step in their path to purchase.
After dropping the items into the “RFID Bucket”, said items appear instantly in a digital basket on Mercaux’s self-service kiosk where the customer completes the transaction.
This is made possible, in part, with Mercaux’s composable platform, allowing retailers to surface the checkout process on any device in-store (store associate or customer), eliminating the need for customers to join a line to be served by a store associate at the traditional cash register.
Mercaux’s technology was deployed and integrated with River Island’s existing omnichannel commerce platform with the support of system integrator, Cabiri.
Paul Cooper, Director of Technology Operations - River Island, comments: “Although still early days, the results from the project have been astounding and could quickly become a game changing development for River Island when the decision is made to roll-out to the wider estate.”
“Whilst we set a target of 50% of all in-store transactions being processed through self-checkout, we are already seeing this figure closer to 70%.”
Cooper adds: “I can’t thank the whole team at Mercaux enough for their speed of delivery, a smooth onboarding process and diligence with monitoring the business critical KPIs to ensure this project’s success.”
Outform unveils digital mannequin at Euroshop 2023
Outform has launched what is pitched as a first of its kind interactive digital mannequin at retail trade fair EuroShop.
This serves as a visual merchandising platform that lets the shopper control which products they see and how they’re represented in-store through their smartphones.
Shoppers who scan a QR code on the digital mannequin display can take control of what content is displayed.
They can choose which products they see from different perspectives, and which model wears them.
From there, they have the option to purchase the product directly through their mobile device on a microsite.
THG boss Matthew Moulding opens up about coffee addiction struggle amidst IPO pressures
Matthew Moulding, Founder and CEO at e-commerce firm The Hut Group (THG), has taken to social media to discuss his struggles with coffee addiction.
In 2021, Moulding told a conference that he should not have listed in London for a $7.7 billion IPO back in September 2020, and that the experience “just sucked from start to finish”.
Last month in a LinkedIn post, meanwhile, he wrote: “We all have addictions. I have mine. Anyone who knows me has been bemused, if not amused, by my coffee consumption.”
Hectare raises $20 million in Series A funding for sustainable agricultural supply chain push
Hectare says that it has raised $20 million in Series A funding.
The round was led by existing and private investors.
The investment will be used to support Hectare’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) inventory, trading, logistics and market insights product development, and expansion into new international markets.
Since its launch in 2015, the startup has facilitated over $1 billion in commodities trading through its technologies, which generate insights – from animal health to market price benchmarking – so agri businesses can make better informed decisions while increasing their sustainability, productivity and profitability.
More than 130,000 farm businesses now use Hectare’s solutions. By directly connecting everyone involved through its digital solutions, the firm says it is solving the invisible inefficiencies in the farm to factory gate supply chain.
In 2022, its technology enabled farm businesses to optimise the trading of livestock, improving animal welfare and reducing the carbon footprint of the beef and sheep supply chain by 2.5 million livestock miles.
Coles taps Bringg delivery management platform as it focuses on cost efficiency throughout supply chain
Australian retailer, Coles Group, has partnered with Bringg with the aim of improving its home delivery offering.
With Bringg’s platform, Coles says it will will be able to more efficiently allocate deliveries to its network of carriers and track those deliveries in real-time, which will increase cost efficiency throughout the supply chain.
Ikea teams with Meta and Warpin Reality to launch AR experience in Swedish stores
Meta and Ikea have partnered with Stockholm-based immersive tech company Warpin Reality to put on an interactive augmented reality experience for families visiting Ikea stores across Sweden.
Called The Little Adventure (“Lilla Äventyret” in Swedish), the AR game can be opened as a filter on Instagram and aims to increase interest and knowledge about life in the ocean, with children able to (virtually) swim with various sea creatures and learn about them.
It also encourages players to engage with themes like littering and pollution prevention, with all three companies involved committed to increasing plastic recycling (for instance, Ikea’s Blåvingad collection from last year).
Ikea Retail Sweden has become the first retailer globally to explore the Meta SPARK AR solution on such a large scale, with the campaign opening across 21 stores last month.
AiFi: Żabka Polska 100 stores milestone means that autonomous retail is here to stay
Autonomous retail firm, AiFi, has hit an active stores milestone.
In a LinkedIn post, the company said: “The launch of our store with Żabka Polska in Poland marks our 100th active store worldwide, a testament that autonomous retail isn’t just a trend; it’s here to stay”
“In cooperation with AiFi, we have created an innovative concept of Żabka Nano, which on a global scale, makes a revolutionary change in the perception of consumer experience,” says Tomasz Blicharski, Managing Director at Żabka Future.
“The idea of an autonomous store makes shopping the most convenient experience ever, since it only requires taking a product from the shelf and paying for it at the checkout without scanning.”
Spreetail raises $208 million in funding and looks to invest in retail technology stack
Spreetail, a specialist in e-commerce logistics and channel management, has closed a funding round bringing in $208 million.
The round was supported by McCarthy Capital, internal management, and other investors. The cash will be used to help the company enhance technology efficiencies and support brand partner growth.
Founded in 2006, Spreetail operates seven fulfilment centres across the US and expanded internationally in 2018.
It serves over 500 brands, enabling them to accelerate their e-commerce sales across marketplaces such as Amazon, Target.com, Wayfair, Walmart.com, and eBay.
Amazon joins India’s Open Network for Digital Commerce with logistics and SmartCommerce offerings
Amazon is to integrate its logistics network (from pickup to delivery) and SmartCommerce services with Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), a private non-profit company established by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade of Government of India.
SmartCommerce is an AWS powered suite of SaaS products that enables MSMEs in India to build and scale their business across digital mediums and will have enablers for onboarding to the ONDC network.
This will be Amazon’s initial collaboration with ONDC, with the two set to explore other potential opportunities for stronger integration.
Continue reading…