Live shopping firsts and smart carts in France: RTIH’s biggest retail technology news stories of the week
It’s Friday, the weekend is almost upon us, so let’s kick back and reflect on another eventful week for the retail systems space. Here's your briefing on the most important stories from the past five days, including Walmart, TalkShopLIve, A2Z's Cust2Mate subsidiary, Monoprix, Casino Group, Asda, True, and the BRC.
1. Walmart becomes first retailer to activate new TalkShopLive Shoppable Simulcast product
Live commerce platform TalkShopLive has launched Shoppable Simulcast in the US.
This allows sellers to simulcast their shoppable livestreams to their Facebook business page as a Facebook Live, while keeping the shopping element intact.
Walmart, which has worked with TalkShopLive on over 150 live shopping experiences, will be the first to activate the Shoppable Simulcast product with a live show on 20th June featuring The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond.
Drummond, who has held several shopping events with TalkShopLive, will be launching her new furniture line.
The livestream will appear on TalkShopLive, Walmart’s Facebook page, Walmart.com/live and The Pioneer Woman’s Facebook page.
2. Domino’s Pizza claims QSR brand first as it launches Domino’s Pinpoint Delivery service in the US
Domino’s Pizza is introducing Domino’s Pinpoint Delivery in the US, a new technology that allows customers to receive a delivery in such places as parks, baseball fields and beaches, just in time for the start of summer.
Customers with the Domino’s app can select the service, drop a pin on the map and get pizza delivered pretty much anywhere, the retailer says.
“We’re proud to be the first quick service restaurant brand in the US to deliver food to customers with the drop of a pin,” says Christopher Thomas-Moore, Domino’s Senior Vice President – Chief Digital Officer.
“We’re always striving to make customers’ experiences even better and more convenient, and Domino’s Pinpoint Delivery does exactly that.”
3. A2Z's Cust2Mate partners with IR2S to deliver smart carts to Monoprix and Casino Group in France
A2Z Smart Technologies Corp.'s subsidiary, Cust2Mate, has announced a partnership with IR2S, pitched as the first major example of its strategy to team with local integrators.
The tie up is intended to deploy 30,000 smart carts between 2023 and 2025 across retail chains in France, including Monoprix and Casino Group.
IR2S will play a key role in managing the installation, support, and maintenance of the carts.
4. Brightpick robots to automate order picking, consolidation and dispatch for e-grocer Rohlik Group
Brightpick has completed a nine-month pilot of its robotic solution in the Prague fulfilment centre of European e-grocer Rohlik Group.
Rohlik now plans to roll-out this out across multiple warehouses in 2023 and 2024, starting with Munich in July and continuing with Frankfurt, Vienna, Prague and other fulfilment centres.
The solution includes Brightpick Autopicker and Brightpick Dispatcher autonomous mobile robots and enables Rohlik to fully automate picking, consolidation and dispatch of orders.
Rohlik has more than 1.5 million e-grocery customers and 12 million orders per year.
Once fully deployed in the Munich warehouse, Brightpick will be able to dispatch over 1,000 order totes (bins) per hour and 5,000 completed orders per day (an order may contain multiple totes).
5. Brace yourself: Amazon Prime Day shopping event returns in 2023 on 11th and 12th July
Amazon has announced that it will host its annual Prime Day shopping event on 11th-12th July.
New deals will drop every 30 minutes during select periods throughout the two days.
The e-commerce giant says that this Prime Day, members in the US will also be able to shop more deals on small business products than ever before.
6. Asda reports that home deliveries from three stores to be delivered by electric vehicles
Groceries from Asda’s Gillingham Pier, Old Kent Road and Sheffield Chaucer stores will now be fulfilled by electric vehicles, giving over 345,000 households in the store catchment areas access to a greener delivery choice.
The vehicles can run for up to 120 miles per charge, requiring seven hours recharge time.
Asda, which was named UK Retailer of the Year at the 2021 RTIH Innovation Awards, says that using these electric vehicles will save over 400,000 CO2 (kg) per year.
Customers in Cardiff Bay and Leith will also soon be able to have their groceries delivered by a fully electric fleet as the retailer has committed to turning a further two stores electric by the end of the year.
The move represents the first stage of Asda’s ambition to completely remove diesel vehicles from its grocery home delivery fleet by 2028.
These plans are part of its wider strategy to half its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 as part of its Courtauld commitments.
7. True and BRC announce partnership to drive retail innovation and technology adoption
True, a retail and consumer specialist investment and innovation firm, has announced a partnership with trade association British Retail Consortium (BRC).
The aim is to give BRC members access to cutting-edge technology and to foster innovation through True's expertise and network.
True has developed a new offering, Amplify, to help retailers find technology that works for them.
This is powered by its experience from investing in and growing technology startup businesses, its sector research, and technology successes with its corporate partners in the retail industry.
The partnership kicks off with a series of roundtable events for BRC members on accessing better technologies.
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