Featuring Goodays, Amperity, and Leapwork: 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 3D Cloud by Marxent, Digimarc, TalkShopLive, Visualsoft, Brightpearl by Sage, and CommerceHub.
Bestseller
Leapwork has been selected by Bestseller to automate testing across its Point of Sale and e-commerce processes, with the aim of maintaining a seamless shopping experience for customers globally.
With Leapwork, Bestseller says it can further invest in quality customer experiences by removing QA bottlenecks and achieve continuous, end-to-end testing across a range of Microsoft Dynamics 365 applications, minimising the risk of any disruptions during regular software updates.
Its products are sold across 70 countries, including 17,000 multi-brand and department stores, and 3,000 Bestseller branded stores. Omnichannel selling means a complex technology stack, which is why being able to test across technologies and integrations is critical in end-to-end processes like order fulfilment.
Netto
German retailer Netto Marken-Discount reports that its private labeled food and beverage products are now digitised using Digimarc technology, including incorporating covert Digimarc digital watermarks into the packaging.
“It is exciting to partner with retailers like Netto that are setting the example for the rest of the industry and leading the way for a circular economy,” says Digimarc CEO Riley McCormack.
“More sustainable packaging is becoming a business imperative, and ourdigital watermarks are transforming recycling as a validated way to improve circularity dramatically.”
“We initially cooperated with Digimarc to optimise our checkout by digitising our private label food and beverage products with Digimarc’s technology,” says Christina Stylianou, Netto Corporate Spokesperson.
“Netto is now also well positioned to adopt Digimarc Recycle by leveraging the same Digimarc digital watermarking technology that makes the checkout easier and more efficient. We are ready and excited for Digimarc Recycle to come to Germany in the near future.”
Burnley FC
English football club, Burnley FC, has announced an online partnership with Visualsoft.
Its pre-existing e-commerce site failed to provide the desired level of engagement and interaction.
By teaming up with Visualsoft, the club aimed to revamp its online presence and maximise its growing potential retail sales.
Instacart
Instacart reports that Electronic Benefits Transfer for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (EBT SNAP) can now be used to buy groceries online via its platform in every US state.
This makes Instacart the first and only online grocery marketplace to accept SNAP in all 50 states and Washington D.C.
Lyft
Rokt has partnered with Lyft to boost the experience offered to customers in the US and Canada.
The ride sharing company is tapping Rokt's technology to present relevant offers to people through the Lyft app.
"Rokt and Lyft share a customer first approach and an unwavering commitment to adding value to the digital experience," says Elizabeth Buchanan, CCO at Rokt.
"We're thrilled to launch this partnership to make every Lyft journey more personally relevant for riders in North America and to support the Lyft Media division as it grows."
Carrefour Belgium
Carrefour Belgium reports a rise in customer satisfaction across its retail network thanks to its collaboration with Goodays.
As a result of deploying the company’s platform, the retailer says it can establish even closer contact with its customers and respond to their requests more quickly, as both parties take stock after two years of cooperation.
After a pilot in late 2020, said platform was deployed in Carrefour Belgium integrated stores in early 2021, and in franchise partner stores later that year.
Newegg
Newegg, an online retailer for PC hardware, consumer electronics, gaming peripherals, home appliances, automotive and lifestyle tech, is tapping artificial intelligence (AI) for customer reviews.
Using ChatGPT, it says that it now offers concise summaries of said reviews on product pages to enable shoppers to make more informed decisions quickly and easily.
Previously, shoppers relied on average product ratings to gauge customer sentiment. After analysing all reviews, the AI extracts key terms and phrases to generate concise synopses, called Review Bytes.
These highlight product owners’ opinions of their likes and dislikes of each product, helping shoppers understand key aspects without having to read reviews. By clicking on each Review Byte, customers can access the full reviews from which the information originated.
Additionally, a paragraph summary, called SummaryAI, provides further insights into multiple customers’ opinions with sentences to elaborate on key points.
For example, if a customer is shopping for a graphics card, they can find Review Bytes covering pros like installation ease, fan noise and average temperature benefits and, as a con, coil whine. The SummaryAI complements these insights with more in-depth information.
Seattle Seahawks and Lumen Field
The Seattle Seahawks and Lumen Field are set expand the venue’s use of Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology and Amazon One with deployments at both retail and concession locations, including at the new Seahawks Pro Shop Outlet for fan merchandise.
The latter will open starting with the Seahawks home preseason game on 10th August and is located in the northwest corner of the stadium’s main concourse near section 140.
Fans will find a variety of team gear offered at reduced prices including hats, shirts, jerseys, and souvenirs.
Shiseido Americas
Amperity is working with Shiseido Americas to help create connected and personalised digital customer experiences across all of its brands.
Amperity brings together data from all the beauty giant’s online and offline touchpoints, including pre-purchase, Point of Sale, and post-purchase customer care to create unified customer profiles.
“As an omnichannel retailer, we are laser focused on understanding our customers and the channels they want to interact in, while ensuring we are delivering consistent customer experiences,” says Kristin Morseman, Senior Vice President Americas Digital Transformation at Shiseido Americas.
“With Amperity, we can unify and activate all of our customer data with the goal of creating a seamless omnichannel journey for our customers."
John Lewis Partnership
John Lewis Partnership has announced a partnership with Google Cloud, worth £100 million over the next five years. This is an expansion of the relationship it has had with Google since 2012.
The collaboration is pitched as a significant step forward in John Lewis Partnership's digital transformation of its John Lewis and Waitrose brands, and its ambitions to provide customers with more tailored and personalised experiences.
Under the expanded agreement, more of the organisation's technology will migrate to Google Cloud, harnessing the cloud provider's latest offerings, including advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
The hope is that these tools will enable the John Lewis Partnership workforce, known as Partners, to be more efficient, spend more time focusing on customers, and better use data insights to help curate great products and services.
The partnership will also support a pan-Partnership loyalty programme in 2024.
USAopoly
USAopoly, a specialty game manufacturer, is using Alloy.ai technology to combine sell-through, shipment and forecasting data for more accurate planning, data management time savings and better retail execution – resulting in six figure sales increases at Target and Amazon.
The company claims also to have saved an estimated $240,000 from efficiency gains and $80,000 by reducing excess inventory as a result of using the Alloy.ai platform.
Miravia
CommerceHub is partnering with Miravia (part of Alibaba Group) to power the online marketplace’s European expansion.
Miravia launched last year in Spain.
It is both a marketplace and entertainment space where consumers can access products from their favourite brands, and learn about the latest trends in fashion, beauty, and lifestyle through solutions like exclusive content created by influencers or virtual make-up try-on lenses.
It is also a platform for sellers and brands where they can have their own stores, with the ability to design them, select the products they offer, define prices and promotions, interact directly with customers and users, and apply their own loyalty programmes.
Farm Girl
14th August will see Farm Girl, an Aussie inspired chain of cafes and restaurants in London, launch its debut collection of NFTs.
Comprising 70 unique NFTs, this promises a new form of loyalty programme, offering buyers a variety of perks dependent on which level is purchased.
These include free coffee every day, free brunch with queue jump and a years supply of rice paper rolls, courtesy of Roll Baby, Farm Girl's sister brand.
According to a press release: “Each NFT mirrors the vibrant branding of Farm Girl and Roll Baby, showcasing a playful reflection of the brand’s customer profiles, including a fashionista, sassy influencer and yogi.”
TalkShopLive, Paramount Pictures and Walmart
TalkShopLive, a live streaming, social selling network, has worked with Paramount Pictures and Walmart on an event involving the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.
In a LinkedIn post, Bryan Moore, CEO and Co-Founder at TalkShopLive, said: “Building connections between content and commerce is at the heart of what we do, and today is not any different.”
“So thrilled to welcome the iconic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles presenting our first ever show with Paramount Pictures featuring a new toy collection exclusively available at Walmart.”
He added: “Hosted by the Ballinger family, the live unboxing event connects the retail ecosystem bringing talent, brands, media networks and retailers together to bring products to life. Make sure you tune and get a glimpse behind the movie magic right at Paramount Studios.”
Lowe’s
Lowe’s has launched a new Kitchen Visualiser tool online as part of a summer update to its Kitchen Planner Suite.
This is powered by 3D Cloud by Marxent technology.
In a LinkedIn post, Timothy Looney, Sr. Manager of Product at Lowe's Companes, said: “The visualiser complements the Style Quiz and Estimator, allowing customers to see what a kitchen of a similar size and layout of their own will look like with different cabinet styles, hardware, countertops, paint, backsplash, and flooring. Check it out!”
Pigment
Homeware brand Pigment has chosen Brightpearl by Sage technology ahead of its e-commerce and wholesale expansion.
Brightpearl’s retail operating system (ROS) includes a library of Plug & Play integrations, an Automation Engine and demand forecasting.
Opened in 2007, originally as a space to showcase the work of local artists in San Diego, Pigment has evolved into a retailer of home and garden wares, with three stores across the city and growing e-commerce and wholesale arms of the business.
It decided to move away from its previous software, Retail Pro, after struggling with endless glitches and tedious manual processes, alongside a lack of multi-channel functionality which the brand desperately needs to grow successfully.
KAFKAS
Greek electrical equipment retailer, KAFKAS, has embarked on a digital transformation journey, starting with the adoption of an electronic shelf label (ESL) solution in its stores.
The first implementation was recently completed at one of its 77 stores, with plans to extend it to more locations in the near future.
The solution, supplied by Mindsys, a partner of ZKONG, is part of the Valley series. This system offers a combination of hardware and software that boosts the management of pricing and information, allowing for real-time operations and eliminating the need for manual intervention.
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