A pay by palm milestone: The retail technology news you might have missed last week
Failed to keep up with the breaking retail technology news last week? Then have no fear as RTIH has you covered. Here are the major stories that you need to know about. Includes Amazon One, Whole Foods Market, Co-op, Starship Technologies, Yum! Brands, Uber Eats, Sweaty Betty, and NewStore.
Amazon One pay by palm tech to be deployed at all Whole Foods US stores by end of 2023
The Amazon One service is currently available at more than 200 Whole Foods Market locations across the country, including Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
Co-op and Starship Technologies expand robot online grocery delivery service across Leeds
Co-op and Starship Technologies have announced the expansion of autonomous online grocery delivery services across more neighbourhoods in Leeds in collaboration with Leeds City Council.
Following a pilot launched last November - which saw 20,000 residents within the Adel and Tinshill area of Leeds have access to Starship’s offering - a further 12,000 households in the Kippax and Swarcliffe areas of the City will now be able to access Co-op groceries via robots.
Orders are placed through the Starship app, with residents in Kippax and Swarcliffe able to choose from a wide range of groceries which are picked fresh and then delivered locally from two local Co-op stores.
With a delivery fee starting from 99p, customers can order their delivery to arrive in under an hour and watch the robot travel in real-time via an interactive map. They will receive an alert when the robot arrives, and can meet and unlock it through the app.
Yum! Brands appoints former Walmart CFO Brett Biggs and Boeing CIO Susan Doniz to its board
Yum! Brands, parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and The Habit Burger Grill, has announced the appointments of Brett Biggs, former Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Walmart, and Susan Doniz, Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President of Information Technology & Data Analytics of The Boeing Company, to its Board of Directors.
AutoStore to stump up £200 million as it resolves retail technology legal battle with Ocado Group
Norwegian robotics specialist AutoStore is to pay £200 million to British online grocery retailer and tech supplier Ocado Group as part of a deal to settle all outstanding patent litigation claims.
Both companies licence their technology to retailers and had been involved in legal battles to defend their intellectual property.
They are now able to use and market all their own existing products without challenge.
AutoStore will pay £200 million Ocado in instalments over a two-year period. No reason was given for this payment.
The agreement does not allow for collaboration, technology support between the companies, or access to actual products.
It does, however, grant access to both the companies to certain portions of each other's patent portfolios for them to use or manufacture their own products.
XY Retail appoints Alberto Riva as Chief Revenue Officer and Daniele Nizzero as Director of Solution Strategy, EMEA
XY Retail, a provider of omnichannel retail solutions, has announced the additions of Alberto Riva as Chief Revenue Officer and Daniele Nizzero as Director of Solution Strategy, EMEA.
Riva will be responsible for overseeing sales and strategic partnership efforts, helping to drive the company’s worldwide growth and adoption.
He founded Fortech in 1993 and, after selling it to Micros, assumed the role of Managing Director for the Micros Retail Business in EMEA, later joining Oracle to play a key role in the global growth of Xstore.
In 2018, he led Aptos Retail's market expansion in Europe and oversaw the TXT acquisition in Milan.
Nizzero joined Micros in 2008 and played a key role in the sales and implementation of Xstore across Europe.
After Oracle's acquisition of Micros, he gained experience in large corporate operations and a transition to Aptos allowed him to explore new technologies.
At XY Retail, he will lead and manage the solution strategy and consulting team in the EMEA region, developing and reinforcing relationships with customers and partners.
Footgear taps Nextail smart retail merchandising platform in stores across South Africa
South African multi-brand footwear retailer, Footgear, has partnered with smart retail merchandising platform Nextail.
As a first step, Footgear will implement in-season solutions across its footprint of more than 200 stores nationwide.
Over its 22-year history, it has relied on spreadsheet-based tools for planning and forecasting in-season inventory management. However, with a growth strategy in place, these methods have proved challenging to scale.
Consequently, it recognised the importance of a centralised information source, better system integration, streamlined manual processes, and improved inventory visibility across its retail network.
LK Bennett taps True Fit technology to bring artificial intelligence to its digital fit experience
British fashion brand, LK Bennett, has teamed with TrueFit, a platform that decodes size and fit for digital consumers, as it looks to increase conversion, reduce returns, and drive customer loyalty.
It will leverage True Fit’s Fashion Genome solution where recommendations are powered by the demographics, fit preferences, and transactional behaviour of millions of global shoppers and enhanced by AI and continuous machine learning.
Amplience brings in retail technology veteran Anthony Lye as new Chief Executive Officer
AI content specialist Amplience has appointed Anthony Lye as its new Chief Executive Officer.
He says: “Customers tell us they need agile solutions that embrace AI and allow each brand to dynamically generate persuasive content and media across various channels to create seamless customer experiences.”
“Ensuring all touchpoints provide the rich and engaging shopping experiences that delights customers and delivers performance is what we will provide.”
Lye comes to Amplience from Palantir Technologies where, as Global Head, he has been responsible for expanding its Apollo service and the company’s Growth Business Unit and its artificial intelligence strategy.
Prior to that, he was Executive Vice President and General Manager at NetApp, a data storage and management company where he built the Public Cloud Business Unit.
Other roles have included Board Member at Spoken Communications, EVP and Chief Cloud Officer at Guidewire Software, and he is also an Operating Advisor at Bessemer Venture Partners and is on the board of trustees for the University of Bath in England.
Former Kingfisher Chief Digital and Technology Officer JJ Van Oosten joins Boston Consulting Group
JJ Van Oosten has joined Boston Consulting Group on a part time basis as Senior Advisor.
Earlier this year, Van Oosten stepped down from the role of Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Kingfisher, the retail group whose brand portfolio includes B&Q, Castorama, Screwfix, Brico Dépôt and Koçtaş.
In a LinkedIn post, he said: “It is now time for me to pass the baton over to the wonderful team and to focus on my personal interests.”
“Over the last there years, together, we have doubled our e-commerce participation from 8% to 16% of group sales. We put stores at the centre of our fulfilment strategy. We also offered more choice and speed to our customers.”
He added: “We successfully launched marketplaces in the UK for B&Q, in Iberia for Brico Dépôt and have clear roll-out plans. In the UK, our Screwfix customers can get their products under 60 minutes using 'Sprint' on the app.”
“Above all, we have developed and attracted world class talent across e-commerce, digital marketing, data (science), product management and technology. We have clear plans. Thank you. I wish you all the very best.”
Beyoncé fans get taste of checkout free technology at Zippin powered Nissan Stadium stores in Nashville, Tennessee
Thanks, then, to checkout-free stores firm Zippin, who posted the following tweet, ahead of a concert at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee (part of her Renaissance World Tour).
Sweaty Betty deploys NewStore mobile first omnichannel platform in UK and Ireland stores
Sweaty Betty has rolled out NewStore’s mPOS solution in 73 stores across the UK and Ireland.
By replacing its legacy PoS with this tech, the London-based brand now runs its retail operations entirely on iPhone, laying the groundwork for its omnichannel transformation.
"Sweaty Betty has quickly grown from a small London boutique to an international business. During this process, we recognised the importance of providing a seamless and scalable omnichannel experience for our customers and store colleagues," says Simon Pakenham-Walsh, Chief Technology Officer, Sweaty Betty.
"We selected NewStore because its platform does not carry the complex technical debt of the industry’s legacy solutions, and the company's vision aligns perfectly with our strategy, which includes having an extensible, modern, and API first technology stack."
Perfect Corp. partners with Dufry to bring AR makeup virtual try-on experience to European airports
Perfect Corp. has announced a collaboration with travel retailer, Dufry, providing in-store and web makeup virtual try-on for products from 15 brands.
In London Heathrow, London Stansted, Manchester and Barcelona, it is now possible to try products from the likes of Benefit, Kylie Cosmetics, Guerlain, and Huda Beauty.
Dufry plans to bring Perfect Corp. powered virtual try-on shopping experiences to more airports in the future.
Co-op and Uber Eats tie up delivers rewards for retailer’s members and their communities
Co-op and Uber Eats’ online grocery partnership is set to give rewards to the convenience retailer’s customers.
The move is a first for Uber Eats in the UK, and will be available from over 1,000 Co-op stores this month.
Shoppers, who are members of Co-op, will be able to both earn rewards and also make a difference in their community, by adding their membership number into the Uber Eats app at checkout.
As a co-operative, Co-op is owned by its members who, when purchasing selected Co-op groceries, earn rewards for themselves (2p in every pound spent on own brand products) and for communities, with the retailer giving the same amount to help support local causes and community projects across the UK.
Schwarz Media and The Trade Desk shake hands on strategic retail media partnership
Schwarz Media, the retail media unit of Schwarz Group, and advertising technology firm, The Trade Desk, have entered a strategic partnership.
This will use the Lidl online shop and Kaufland Marktplatz to reach consumers and measure the success of digital advertising campaigns on the open internet.
The aim is for advertisers to measure the influence of digital ads on direct sales and thereby optimise campaigns in near real-time. The advertising impact on the connected TV and digital out-of-home channels can also be measured and optimised more effectively.
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