Who knows where the times go? The retail technology news you might have missed this week
Not been keeping up with the latest retail technology news this week? Then have no fear as RTIH has you covered. Here are the major developments that you need to know about. Includes the MACH Alliance, Vivobarefoot, Fanatics, Rakuten Group, DPD, Cartken, dunnhumby, and PayPal.
The MACH Alliance announces executive board changes and flags growth in North America
The MACH Alliance, a group of companies focused on advocating for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems, has announced changes to its executive board and leadership team.
Board elections take place every year with each term lasting two years. Executive board members are permitted to serve a maximum of two terms.
The MACH Alliance says that the new board fulfils its commitment to ensuring diverse representation across member categories, geographies, genders, and areas of expertise.
There are now more North American representatives than European, reflecting what the group labels the accelerating adoption of MACH (Microservices, API-First, Cloud-Native SaaS, Headless) in North American markets.
Additionally, there has been a transition from a primarily technology focus to having more emphasis on business, marketing, and strategy.
The board comprises representatives from ISV, SI, and Enabler members, with an almost equal split between female and male members.
Premier League launches augmented reality experience ahead of first Summer Series tournament in the USA
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.
Fanatics brings sports merchandise to Japanese shoppers on Rakuten Ichiba online marketplace
Fanatics, a digital sports platform and specialist in licensed sports merchandise, has launched its first online marketplace in Japan by opening a store on Rakuten Ichiba, operated by Rakuten Group.
Japanese sports fans will have access to Fanatics’ range of licensed sports merchandise here.
The store currently offers more than 10,000 officially licensed products from across the company’s partner roster of the top leagues and sporting organisations in the world, such as MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, and major European club and international football teams.
Breaking down e-commerce barriers: BigCommerce adds local shopping features to multi-storefront solution
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.”
Vivobarefoot introduces VivoBiome digital platform to ‘redefine the way we create and experience footwear’
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.
DPD to roll-out Cartken robot deliveries to ten UK towns and cities following Milton Keynes trial
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.
John Lewis Partnership taps Salesforce tech for more personalised, convenient, seamless customer experience
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 answers via its website and WhatsApp. Virtual Remote Assistant delivers 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.
MACH Alliance taps into FinTech as PayPal becomes first company to join Supporter membership category
MACH Alliance, a group of tech companies focused on advocating for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems, has announced PayPal as the first company to join its new Supporter membership category.
The move represents the expansion of MACH Alliance into the FinTech sector.
The Supporter membership category is for companies that sit outside of the requirements for MACH certification but who have a strong association with MACH technology and the ecosystem.
Those could include large technology companies, financial services organisations, government bodies, private foundations, academic institutions and private equity or venture capital firms.
Josh Bottomley starts work as CEO at customer data science specialist dunnhumby
dunnhumby has announced the appointment of Josh Bottomley as CEO.
Bottomley was most recently an Operating Partner at CVC Capital Partners and has held senior roles at data and product led businesses including HSBC, Google and LexisNexis.
He succeeds Dan Olley, who has been CEO since January 2022.
Tesco Group CEO Ken Murphy says: “Josh is an energetic leader with strong experience in improving customer propositions, product and digital innovation, and in leading tech and product transformation.”
“The capabilities and skills of dunnhumby give us unique strengths, and I’m confident that under Josh’s leadership we’ll continue to build on that.”
“I’d also like to thank Dan for his continued passion for dunnhumby, and for his leadership in developing and executing the dunnhumby strategy.”
Alipay+ partners with Printemps Paris, allowing Asian customers to pay via their favourite e-wallets
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.
Bolt raids Revolut for new CFO as Uber rival chases full profitability and prepares for IPO
Estonian ride hailing and food delivery startup Bolt has announced Mikko Salovaara as its new CFO.
He joins from FinTech big hitter, Revolut, where he held the same position, and previously headed up regional finance teams at Kraft Heinz Co.
Salovaara will lead Bolt’s global finance function as the business looks to achieve full profitability and prepares for an IPO.
Asahi Super Dry enlists Trouble Maker and taps AR tech for Manchester City training kit tie up
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.
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