Drones, robots, and generative AI: RTIH runs you through the week's coolest retail technology plays
RTIH Editor, Scott Thompson, brings you his top ‘future of retail’ systems launches and deployments from the past week, including Walmart, eBay UK, Amazon, Sook, Mall of Africa, Albert Heijn, Heineken, and Starship Technologies.
Walmart
Walmart reports that it has surpassed 10,000 safe drone deliveries and is revealing the most popular item delivered in this way – the Oreo Family Size Pack.
In celebration of the milestone, the US retail giant has teamed up with Oreo to create a two foot version of the well known cookie and film what is pitched as “one of the most epic Oreo dunks ever witnessed”.
We’ll let you make you own mind about that.
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M&S
5,000 M&S customers in the UK and ROI will this Saturday get their shopping for free as the retailer launches a first ever Sparks Super Saturday event.
This is pitched as a supersized version of M&S’ Sparks giveaway where every week a Sparks customer gets their shopping on the house.
Since M&S relaunched its customer reward scheme in 2020, it has given away £3.5 million in free shopping including one trip worth nearly £3.5k.
To be in with a chance of winning, customers must scan their Sparks card when shopping at M&S in-store or log into their Sparks account when shopping online.
Those in-store will find out straight away and those online will be notified via email.
eBay UK
eBay has launched a bespoke sneaker hub in partnership with London’s Notting Hill Carnival.
The online marketplace has joined forces with carnival experts to curate what is pitched as “the ultimate sneakerhead shopping destination ahead of the big weekend (27th and 28th August)”.
Scribbler
Scribbler and Fujifilm UK have continued their partnership to create the Scribbler Lite, offering customers at stores instant access to over 2,000 greeting cards, in a wall mounted or countertop display option.
Designed for use through a touch screen display, people will be able to find the perfect card for any occasion, as well as write their personal message inside in any font, size, or colour, of their choice.
Once complete, the product is printed behind the till using the FUJIFILM CX3240 creative duplex printer and is ready for collection in 60 seconds.
The software gives retailers, as well as commercial premises, the chance to carry an extensive range of greeting cards without running the risk of waste due to overstock or requiring the footprint of a photo kiosk.
This is being pitched as a particular benefit during seasons such as Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day, where stock can become outdated and leftover stock goes to waste.
Albert Heijn and Heineken
Sook and Mall of Africa
Sook, which takes vacant retail spaces and gives them a modular, digital fit-out which can be rented by the hour, has announced a partnership with Mall of Africa (MoA).
This opens the doors for brands to lease UK-based Sook’s rentable space within the MoA’s complex in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The move represents the company's debut into international markets and its first design, commercial, technology assets and business model license agreement.
The lease is secured for a minimum of five years, during which Sook has committed to providing ongoing assistance in revenue generation and technical support.
Wichita State University
Wichita State Dining has announced the roll-out of robotic food delivery on campus, thanks to a partnership with Starship Technologies.
The latter’s fleet of autonomous, on-demand robots are now available to deliver food from the following campus restaurants: RSC Starbucks; Panda Express; Freddy’s Frozen Custard; Tu Taco; Market at Groundhouse; Cargill Cafe; Black & Gold Grill: A Delivery Ghost Kitchen.
The service works in conjunction with the student meal plan and Shocker dollars, as well as via credit card.
Users can download the Starship Deliveries app on their mobile device and get food delivered for a $2.49 fee to any campus location. They then drop a pin where they want their delivery to be sent.
They can watch as the robot makes its journey to them, via an interactive map. Once the robot arrives, they receive an alert, and can then meet and unlock it through the app.
The delivery usually takes just a matter of minutes, depending on the menu items ordered and the distance the robot must travel. Each robot can carry the equivalent of about three shopping bags of goods.
Outdoor and Cycle Concepts
Volumental has announced a partnership with Outdoor and Cycle Concepts O&CC), a UK outdoor and sports retailer, following a pilot phase where its foot scanners reduced product returns by 28%.
Amazon
Amazon is leveraging generative AI to help people better understand what customers are saying about a product, without having to read through lots of individual reviews.
In an online post, Vaughn Schermerhorn, Director, Community Shopping at Amazon, says: “Last year alone, 125 million customers contributed nearly 1.5 billion reviews and ratings to Amazon stores - that’s 45 reviews every second, making reviews at Amazon an incredible resource for customers.”
“We want to make it even easier for customers to understand the common themes across reviews, and with the recent advancements in generative AI, we believe we have the technical means to address this long standing customer need.”
“Want to quickly determine what other customers are saying about a product before reading through the reviews?”
“Our new AI powered feature provides a short paragraph right on the product detail page that highlights the product features and customer sentiment frequently mentioned across written reviews to help customers determine at a glance whether a product is right for them.”
Central Retail Corporation
Thailand’s Central Retail Corporation (CRC) has partnered with Ant Group to launch Alipay+ at its stores.
Users can make payments via their local digital wallet, including Alipay (Chinese mainland), AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR), Touch ‘n Go eWallet (Malaysia) and Kakao Pay (South Korea).
Payments can be made across over 3,000 stores nationwide under the CRC banner, including Central and Robinson Deportment Stores, Supersports, Tops, Power Buy, B2S, OfficeMate, Matsukiyo, Tops Vita and Muji.
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