Fast cars and smart carts: RTIH presents 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. Including Trigo, Auchan Retail, AiFi, Cloud Paper, Gently, FitFlop, Adyen, B&Q, Pinterest, Lindex, and Nedap.
AiFi
Formula One hit America this past weekend, with the 2023 Miami Grand Prix taking place at the Miami International Autodrome in Florida, on Sunday, 7th May.
This featured an autonomous store powered by AiFi technology.
Cloud Paper and Gently
Logistics startup, Gently, has announced a partnership with Cloud Paper, a tree free paper products company.
Gently, which made its first delivery in April, will begin deliveries of Cloud Paper products immediately in Los Angeles.
Cloud Paper was founded in 2019 by ex-Uber employees Ryan Fritsch and Austin Watkins.
It says that its products have saved more than 25,000 trees to date, with its mission to end deforestation catching the attention of investors including Bezos Expeditions (Jeff Bezos’ personal investment company), Ashton Kutcher’s SOUNDWaves, Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures, Robert Downey Jr., and Gwyneth Paltrow.
FitFlop
Adyen has partnered with FitFlop, enabling the latter to adopt a streamlined approach to global payments across web, mobile, and in-store activities.
Through the tie up, FitFlop is now able to accept key local payment methods as the brand grows internationally.
Within Adyen’s single platform, it says that it also receives simplified reconciliation, data security, and a reduced risk of payment fraud.
Auchan Retail
Israeli firm Trigo has announced its arrival in France with the launch of an autonomous store at Auchan Retail’s corporate headquarters near Paris.
In an online post, Michael Gabay, Trigo CEO, said: “In Auchan, we found partners who share our commitment to innovation and delivering superior in-store experiences.”
“The new store, named Auchan Go le Lab, will, as its name suggests, serve as a hub of research and innovation for the Auchan team. From this launchpad, our partnership will continue to grow and innovate.”
The ALDO Group
The ALDO Group is set to roll-out Fluent Commerce’s distributed order management system (OMS), Fluent Order Management.
The company, which employs 5,500 staff across North America, will deploy the tech in Canada and the United States across the three retail banners of ALDO, Call It Spring, and GLOBO.
Uber
Delivery management platform provider, Bringg, has announced an expansion of its partnership with Uber Direct, Uber’s on-demand white label delivery service in the UK.
The aim is to help local retailers to easily launch fast and convenient delivery options for their consumers.
Bringg has already partnered with Uber in the US, Canada, ANZ, France, Brazil, Mexico, and Costa Rica.
B&Q and Pinterest
B&Q and Pinterest have launched a co-branded campaign, marking the retailer’s first time utilising the social media platform’s Trend Badge feature.
A Pinterest report released in December revealed that one of the big interiors trends for 2023 would be ‘Home Front’ - as consumers will be focusing attention on dressing and decorating the front of their homes.
Search terms like ‘front door transformation’, ‘front garden’ and ‘front hallway decor ideas’ have all continued to rise on the platform in recent months.
Tapping this to target Pinterest users with an interest in home decor, finance, gardening and bathrooms, B&Q’s new campaign, consisting of creative video ads (known as Idea ads), aims to inspire people with the products and ideas to bring these ideas to life.
Windsor
Windsor has announced a new partnership with Stylitics to launch automated styling and product recommendations for its e-commerce business.
“We are thrilled to partner with Stylitics to elevate our customers’ experience and provide her with even more fantastic ideas for outfitting and styling our head-to-toe offerings,” says Tina Konow, Vice President of E-commerce, Windsor.
“Stylitics’ platform has successfully automated Windsor’s fashion guide to deliver on-brand digital merchandising recommendations that our shoppers find inspirational and personalised.”
S Group
S-kaupat, the online grocery store of Finnish firm S Group, will start express deliveries with delivery robots during the spring and summer, in partnership with Starship Technologies.
In the first phase, deliveries will commence in the HOK-Elanto area of Finland, where the robots were piloted last spring.
In the next phase, over the summer, the service will open across seven locations including Tampere, Turku, Pori, Rauma, Jyväskylä and Oulu.
“Demand for fast delivery is growing strongly and this is also reflected in our future plans. With Starship’s robot technology, we can offer our customers fast and reliable delivery of their purchases across Finland, and in a rather delightful way,” says CDO Jarkko Kyttänen, S Group Retail.
Snappy Shopper
Snappy Shopper, a home delivery app serving convenience stores, has teamed up with EPoS supplier Retail Data Partnership to integrate the firm’s ShopMate system with its retailers.
The partnership is born out of the former’s desire to give its retailers the ability and tools to offer even quicker deliveries and control a bigger and more relevant store range to aid improved basket spend.
ShopMate’s automated price, product and promotional data updates will help retailers to best understand, operate and synchronise their in-store and online menus.
adidas
adidas, through its adidas /// Studio initiative (aka Three Stripe Studio), has teamed up with tokenproof, to brings its brand to the latter’s Web3 community of NFT holders through a token-gated access point on the adidas CONFIRMED app.
As part of a three-year partnership, the two companies rolled out their first collaborative in-app efforts this week by integrating tokenproof’s authentication technology into the CONFIRMED app, which houses the brand’s most exclusive drops, products, collaborations and experiences.
The integration will allow ALTS by adidas NFT holders to access holder only collaborations and purchase certain designer merchandise.
It is part of the latest phase of the ongoing ALTS by adidas experience, which tokenproof has previously supported through live event token-gating and the development of a new “offers” feature used to deploy personalised offers to tokenproof users, which adidas got first access to.
It’s a feature available to all brands, whether they are Web2 or Web3-based, that allows them to airdrop special in-store or online offers or discounts to users’ tokenproof app that are compatible with brands’ native PoS systems.
Lindex
Lindex is set to deploy the Nedap iD Cloud platform. The roll-out involves 400+ of its stores across the Nordics, the United Kingdom, and eastern Europe.
Florian Westerdahl, Head of Technology at Lindex, comments: "As part of our digitalisation strategy, we need to uniquely identify each item. This eventually leads to full item visibility throughout our supply chain.”
“We selected Nedap because of its proven track record, both in the Nordics and on a global level. The company's leading technology, pragmatic approach, willingness to truly seek and understand where we want to go to and the clear and transparent model also contributed to our decision to start our RFID journey with Nedap.”
“The unlimited access to RFID data in iD Cloud lays the ideal foundation to optimise our inventory information across all customer touchpoints. This way, we always have the right product available across all sales channels without overstocking, allowing us to meet customer demand sustainably."
Topp Tiles
Topps Tiles has teamed up with TrueLayer to implement instant bank transfers to its retail and trade customers.
People will be able to pay for their purchase using an account-to-account payment, ensuring a user experience that removes the need to input lengthy card details.
By selecting the instant bank transfer option at checkout, customers authenticate the payment directly using their banking app.
The announcement makes Topps Tiles the first major UK retailer to offer Open Banking as an in-store payment option. Instant bank transfers will be available as a payment option at Point of Sale in its 300 stores nationwide.
The retailer’s team used the Truelayer Payments plugin for Adobe Commerce (previously known as Magento) to make the process of integrating TrueLayer into its existing payment architecture quick and straightforward.
Away from the moment of purchase, the technology also offers instant refunds.
HaStok
A2Z Smart Technologies Corp. has announced a new customer partnership with HaStok Concept, an Israel-based home design and household essentials chain with 40 stores across the country.
The tie up marks an expansion for A2Z's smart cart solution into a new vertical outside of grocery retail.
The purchase order is for 1,000 smart carts and is comprised of an upfront payment, a guaranteed monthly payment, and a revenue share agreement on added value solutions, such as advertising.
Aramark
Aramark has launched the first artificial intelligence (AI) powered Quick Eats store in Scotland.
This has gone live at Aegon’s offices in Edinburgh to serve its 1,300 staff members.
Quick Eats is a checkout-free retail store offering access to a variety of foods, beverages, and essentials at all hours of the working day.
By using Aramark’s WorkXgo app, customers walk in and walk out without having to wait in lines or go through a cashier.
The store features overhead cameras and intelligent shelf sensors, which combine detection, visual cognition, and payment integration.
This is the third Aramark Quick Eats store deploying the technology, with the first two having opened in Germany and Chile.
Sam Edelman
Caleres owned lifestyle brand Sam Edelman has announced the launch of ReLove, a resell programme for its preloved footwear created in partnership with sustainability and technology platform Archive.
“We take pride in using the highest quality materials to design pieces that are made to last," says Jesse Edelman, the company's GM SVP.
"With ReLove, we can extend the life of our products while giving our customers another choice when buying our shoes."
CEO and Co-founder at Archive Emily Gittins says: "We are excited to partner with Sam Edelman to introduce resale to the brand’s customers for the first time through the launch of the ReLove programme.”
“ReLove is custom designed to be an extension of the brand and to ensure that beloved Sam Edelman pieces can live multiple lives.”
Continue reading…