Starring SADA, Polytag, and Olio: Check out last week’s most read RTIH retail technology articles
These are the RTIH articles that caught your fancy last week, including Aldi UK, Marks and Spencer, Whole Foods Market, Lidl, Ingka Group, Ikea, Tesco, and Frasers Group.
Marks and Spencer blasted by elderly customers as it goes cashless in automated cafes
Marks and Spencer has come under fire from disgruntled elderly customers after closing traditional counters in eight digital cafes, including at two of the retailer’s megastores.
With orders placed via touchscreens, staff are now focused on making food and drinks rather than taking orders, with customers alerted when their order is ready.
Elderly shoppers have described the move, which ushers in cashless payments, as “abhorrent”, The Telegraph reports.
M&S is also testing out self-service belted checkouts alongside manned tills in two food halls.
These can be found at London Colney, near Watford, and White Rose Shopping Centre near Leeds - two of its largest stores which also have the digital cafes installed.
In a LinkedIn post, Ron Delnevo, Chair of the UK Cash Supply Alliance, said: “Really silly, thoughtless stuff from M&S. If you want to find out how to alienate your customers, just read and copy!”
SADA to develop new data platform on Google Cloud for UK retailer Frasers Group
SADA has announced a new services engagement with Frasers Group, a retail conglomerate based in the UK.
This will see it develop and implement a new platform to help Frasers Group scale data visibility and reporting across its retailers, which includes Sports Direct.
“We selected Google Cloud because we were facing a data challenge – we knew we needed to play catch up in the data space, and that shifting to the cloud from an on-prem environment would be necessary,” said Simon Palmer, CIO at Frasers Group.
“In order to fulfil our mission of becoming a global player, we needed a provider familiar with the ecosystem and capabilities to help us scale quickly and efficiently. We knew that SADA would fit the bill.”
Aldi UK teams with Polytag to gain access to real-time packaging lifecycle information
Aldi UK has partnered with recycling technology company Polytag.
It will trial the deployment of Polytag’s invisible UV tags onto its packaging, starting from July.
With the company’s unique readers installed at the Biffa Teeside recycling centre, Aldi will get insights on the quantity of its packaging that is actually recycled and be able to track an item’s journey through said process.
This previously inaccessible packaging lifecycle information will help the supermarket accurately measure and track its performance against its sustainability targets, such as halving its plastic footprint by 2025.
Ready to roll: 2023 RTIH retail technology awards are now open for submissions
After launching in 2019 and delivering hugely successful follow up events in 2020, 2021 and 2022, the RTIH Innovation Awards return in 2023 with a discussion panel and awards ceremony to be held in central London venues during December.
The fifth edition of the awards is now open for entries.
The event celebrates global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.
We received a record number of submissions in 2022, with winners including Sook, B&Q, 3D Cloud by Marxent, Compass Group, AiFi, Walmart, Ribble Cycles, Obsess, HyperFinity, Red Ant, Pets at Home, and TPP Retail.
Our winners and highly commended companies were announced at a sold out event in central London on Tuesday, 6th December.
For 2023, we are introducing new categories and expanding the awards ceremony to accommodate more attendees (further details on that will be revealed in the near future).
Scott Thompson, Editor and Founder of RTIH, says: “Our awards celebrate the dynamic, resilient and innovative retail sector and the companies and technologies that drive it forward.”
“Competition was tougher than ever in 2022, so to emerge victorious was no mean feat.”
“Congratulations to our winners and highly commended companies. I’m excited to launch the fifth edition of the awards. The 2023 event will be the biggest and best yet.”
Deadline for 2023 submissions is Friday, 27th October, with winners being revealed at the aforementioned event in central London during November.
Lidl signs up with Miconex technology powered Scotland Loves Local Gift Card programme
Lidl has joined the Scotland Loves Local Gift Card scheme.
The retailer’s 111 Scottish stores are now accepting the regional card, which can be swiped at the till like a debit card, with the balance automatically updated after each purchase.
Over 6,500 businesses, spanning retail, hospitality, accommodation, health and beauty, leisure and attractions and services, are currently part of the programme, including national household names and independent businesses.
Virtual fashion try-on firm Zyler launches tool to set up AI shopping experiences
Augmented reality and artificial intelligence fashion tech solutions provider, Zyler, has introduced a way to implement virtual try-on into any retailer website.
The plug-in feature automates the integration process.
With just a couple of lines of code pasted into a new webpage, fashion retailers can allow customers to see themselves in outfits with a headshot and basic measurements.
To get set up, they provide Zyler with an image of a model wearing the clothes that they wish to be enabled for online try-on. The latter’s team will work with the images to prepare them for try-on.
Once this is completed, the Zyler Go solution will appear on the website, so customers can see the item of clothing on themselves while shopping.
Whole Foods Market enlists Olio for food waste prevention push across London stores
Local sharing app, Olio, is launching a partnership with Whole Foods Market, supporting the Amazon owned retailer with food waste prevention at its stores in London.
Olio has been brought in after a six-week pilot scheme at its Kensington location.
This saw the former’s team collect over 1,200 kg of edible food from Whole Foods Market – the equivalent of 2,800 meals – with the store feeding 439 local households and avoiding 5,000 kg of CO2 emissions.
Whole Food Market’s London stores have committed to giving Olio’s volunteers any remaining organic produce that is not taken by its local charity partners at closing time.
They then use the Olio platform to help redistribute perishable food - including baked goods, delicious salads, deli counter items, meat, poultry and ready meals - to local households for free.
Featuring Amazon, Prada, and Walmart: RTIH presents last week’s biggest retail tech plays at a glance
RTIH rounds up the stand out retail systems deals, launches, deployments and pilots from the past seven days. Including Bensons for Beds, Co-op, Diageo, GANT, Zara, Euronics, and Stinker Stores.
Tesco deploys AgriSound Polly common pollinating insects monitoring device in fruit supply chain
Tesco and WWF have partnered with tech startup, AgriSound, to roll-out its insect monitoring device, Polly, across several English apple orchards, just as the spring blossom emerges.
50 of the AI devices - designed to capture and analyse the sound of a range of common pollinating insects - have been deployed across three different sites in Kent.
The aim is to measure the biodiversity benefits of wildflower margins across three large, commercial apple orchards, and their impact on pollination.
Ingka Group boosts Ikea omnichannel credentials as it snaps up supply chain tech provider Made4net
Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group (the largest owner and operator of Ikea stores in 31 countries) has acquired Made4net, a US-based supply chain software solution provider.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
It says that the move will increase the capacity needed for a successful end-to-end customer offering, making it “likely the largest implementation of a warehouse management solution (WMS) in the world”.
Ingka Group will integrate Made4net’s fulfilment operations system as it looks to improve the omnichannel experience for customers and co-workers in stores.
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