Featuring Adyen, Yoobic, and BigCommerce: 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 Printemps, SPAR International, Morrisons, Rituals, PetCo, Aldi, and John Lewis Partnership.
Printemps
French retailer Printemps has announced the integration of Alipay+, Ant Group’s suite of cross-border digital payment and marketing solutions.
As a result, Kakao Pay and AlipayHK are now accepted at Printemps Paris, enabling Korean and Hong Kong shoppers to make payments using their most familiar app.
Alongside Alipay, Kakao Pay and AlipayHK, Alipay+ also supports other partner e-wallets, including GCash (the Philippines), Touch ‘n Go eWallet (Malaysia), and TrueMoney (Thailand).
Printemps is among the first batch of major high end retailers in France to leverage Alipay+ solutions.
SPAR International
RELEX Solutions has signed a preferred supplier agreement with SPAR International, whose network of independently owned and operated retailers and wholesalers work together in partnership under the SPAR brand. The network currently comprises 13,900 stores in 48 countries.
This covers forecasting and replenishment, pricing, promotion, space management (floor planning and planogramming), and workforce optimisation.
Adyen
FinTech big hitter Adyen has launched Data Connect for Marketing, a product enabling omnichannel retailers to leverage payments data to improve marketing initiatives and provide an enhanced understanding of customers.
The company says that unique profile identifiers can link previously unidentified in-store transactions to shopper profiles. Brands can then reward customer loyalty, tailor shopper experiences, and drive value for existing customers.
Premier League
As the first Premier League Summer Series in the USA approaches, fans of the beautiful game will be able to hunt down the Premier League trophy in the five host cities in a new augmented reality mobile experience.
This gives fans the chance to locate 20 Premier League trophies, each representing a different club, hidden at high profile locations in each of the five host cities.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce, an open SaaS e-commerce platform for B2C and B2B brands, is adding new functionality to its multi-storefront (MSF) solution, expanding the ability of merchants to reach and sell to consumers regardless of where they live, what language they speak or what currency they use.
“Language, currency and cultural differences should not be barriers to commerce, and now they don’t have to be,” says Troy Cox, Senior Vice President of Product at BigCommerce.
“These new enhancements extend our MSF functionality so that merchants have even more flexibility to grow their brands and global footprints through one powerful BigCommerce dashboard.”
Morrisons
Eagle Eye has secured a five-year contract with Morrisons involving the UK grocery giant’s loyalty and promotional offering.
The retailer will tap Eagle Eye's AIR platform for its loyalty programme, which allows customers to benefit from exclusive prices and earn points on selected products in-store, online and on fuel.
Its new offering aims to create more ways of engaging with customers, and help the supermarket scale the number of broadcast and targeted offers available.
The scheme will be rolled out to all 499 stores nationwide and is expected to go live later in 2023.
L’Occitane En Provence
L’Occitane En Provence has launched a virtual experience that transports its customers to the heart of Provence, where the French beauty brand gets its inspiration.
"We strive to be pioneers in the beauty industry, constantly pushing boundaries to create products that inspire and transform. By embracing innovation, we aim to turn our customers' dreams into reality, offering them a truly remarkable and unforgettable experience,” says Mariana Rodrigues, Marketing Director at L’Occitane Middle East.
The experience has been developed in partnership with Emperia.
It includes videos, facts, and interactive content about the brand’s universe, highlighting its best sellers, including skincare, fragrance, and body care.
People can explore lavender fields on a bicycle, fly on a hot air balloon to Corsica to see the immortelle fields, have a picnic on almond orchards or discover the Shea Butter collection in the African scenery of Burkina Faso.
M-Cube
M-Cube has unveiled a digital signage installation in Florence, Italy.
Located at Florence Santa Maria Novella train station, the 25 metre long, 30 million pixel installation has 400 modules installed on a total surface of 200 square metres. It gives life to an immersive experience with 3D art and audiovisuals.
To date, footfall has amounted to over a million visitors.
Along with being an attraction to tourists and locals, it also provides the opportunity for advertising.
With a footfall of 160,000 passengers per day, Florence station is one of the busiest train stations in Italy.
Southern Glazer’s
Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits (Southern Glazer’s) has selected MRM Global as its Point of Sale (PoS) execution technology and printing partner in North America.
The company’s on and off-premise field sales teams will use MRM’s technology to order on-demand, customised and compliant PoS materials for their customers.
McDonald’s
Checkpoint Systems is working with McDonald’s France to incorporate RFID technology into the fast food giant’s new reusable containers.
The move comes following McDonald’s commitment to eliminating unnecessary packaging and contributing to the improvement of recycling systems.
It also coincides with the introduction of new French legislation – that came into effect in January 2023 – and aims to fight waste to preserve biodiversity and natural resources.
Following a two-year consultation process, Checkpoint was appointed to work with McDonald’s France in 2021 to deliver the project which involved the installation of RFID hardware and software in restaurants across the country.
The project will help the company reduce waste by providing real-time visibility of its reusable tableware stock, with the aim of delivering fast and efficient inventory management, optimising replenishment and ensuring stock lines are protected for long-term security and usability.
Vivobarefoot
Footwear and lifestyle brand Vivobarefoot has launched VivoBiome, a digital experiential platform for personalised, locally assembled, circular footwear.
And the firm is looking for 200 Brits to try the first generation of products before a wider global launch.
GAIL's Bakery
Cradlepoint reports that GAIL's Bakery will be using its 5G connectivity in stores to support IoT devices like smart ovens, fridges and cookers.
Asahi Super Dry and Manchester City
Japanese beer brand, Asahi Super Dry, has unveiled a new official training kit partnership with Premier League football club Manchester City.
To support the launch, creative agency, Trouble Maker, has designed and executed ‘Beyond Expected Training’, a social campaign featuring Manchester City players Kevin De Bruyne, John Stones, Rúben Dias, Demi Stokes, Yui Hasegawa and Bunny Shaw..
This is rolling out across Asahi Super Dry’s and Manchester City’s social channels, plus it will feature on the social media accounts of several opinion leaders including Lia Lewis, and Ben Black.
Shot ‘behind-the-scenes’ style, it includes the Manchester City players activating their new AR enabled kit.
Stones et al can be seen at the Etihad Stadium, giving interviews and training. As they pass a phone between them, each one looks into the camera and enables their kit through AR, causing it to flash an iridescent blue with Asahi Super Dry branding in the centre.
Rituals
Rituals has rolled out Yoobic’s mobile platform for frontline employees across its European stores.
In a LinkedIn post, Esther van Tienen, Sr. Manager Communications Retail at Rituals, said: “Today we go live with the app for all 10,000 employees in the stores in Europe. An app that supports them in their work and facilitates communication.”
“Super proud of my team and all the people who contributed to this. Without this integrated approach we would not be where we are today. Thank you Rituals for the opportunity to contribute to this great project and the journey together to reach this milestone. Let’s find out the next days how the app lands!”
Tommy Hilfiger
New Balance
New Balance recently opened a concept store in Singapore, featuring a Volumental 3D foot scanner in the fitting area.
Since partnering with Volumental in 2017, the retailer says that it has scanned the feet of more than one million shoppers worldwide.
The scan, which takes less than five seconds, provides employees with detailed information about a customer’s feet, helping them find a shoe that’s sure to fit.
Volumental claims that the solution helps brands and retailers to: reduce return rates by 18%; increase footwear sales by 20%; achieve email capture rates of 71%.
Petco
Petco has implemented Teamwork Commerce’s omnichannel solution to manage its more than 118 stores in Mexico and Chile.
The project includes Point of Sale (PoS), loyalty programme and inventory control, all integrated with its CRM and online store.
Thanks to the cloud based functionalities of Teamwork Commerce, Petco offers Club Petco, a programme where customers receive coupons based on their purchase accumulation, whether they bought in-store or online.
Furthermore, a strategy was implemented to streamline the checkout process by incorporating QR code scanning for grooming services and bulk products, allowing multiple items to be added with a single scan.
Aldi France
Near Intelligence has announced a partnership with Aldi France and CoSpirit Media.
The retailer, which currently operates 1,300 stores in the country, will utilise Near’s data solutions to generate traffic to its online catalogue.
It is looking to create dynamic creative optimisation (DCO) campaigns that automatically generate and display real-time advertisements around its stores in France to reach current and potential customers.
DCO tailors advertisements to consumers based on consensual data, including location, browsing history, and demographics.
DPD and Cartken
Parcel delivery company DPD has announced plans to expand autonomous robot deliveries to ten UK towns and cities in the next 12 months, following a trial in Milton Keynes, starting with Raunds in Northamptonshire.
This extends the firm’s relationship with AI powered robotics and last mile delivery specialist, Cartken and follows work that identified up to 30 UK depot locations which could potentially deploy robots.
The former first introduced the Cartken robots in Milton Keynes in July 2022 and they have since travelled almost 500 miles and performed over 2,500 trips delivering parcels to DPD customers.
Based at DPD's depot at Warth Park on the western edge of Raunds, the robots will deliver to nearby residential areas within a mile of the depot, via the existing network of footpaths.
In Raunds, they will have three separate parcel compartments, instead of just one in the original trial, and an extended battery life of up to 12 hours.
Childsplay Clothing
Luxury childrenswear retailer, Childsplay Clothing, has announced a partnership with Akeneo, a specialist in product information management (PIM) and product experience management (PXM) solutions.
John Lewis Partnership
The John Lewis Partnership, parent company of UK retailers John Lewis and Waitrose, is using Salesforce technology as it looks to transform its customer experience and self-service data culture.
Service Cloud is helping John Lewis support customers throughout their online and in-store journey, saving an average of £1 million in the company’s call centre annually.
Einstein bots provide fast answers via its website and WhatsApp. Virtual Remote Assistant delivers clear and timely video communication between customers and agents.
With Tableau Professional Services, John Lewis’s new self-service platform gives 10,000 Partners a real-time view of sales and inventory data.
With Marketing Cloud, the company has improved its marketing efficiency and engagement through automation, leading to 75% faster production time.
Continue reading…