Always be testing and learning: check out last week’s most read RTIH retail technology articles
These are the RTIH articles that caught your fancy last week, including Lyft, Rokt, Aldi UK, Amazon, Walmart, Scribbler, Fujifilm UK, Heart with Smart Group, Vista Technology Support, Au Vodka, and Huboo.
Ride share company Lyft deploys Rokt technology to increase customer loyalty and engagement
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.
"We both 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."
Aldi UK checkout-free store at centre of cash row as Piers Corbyn pays for strawberries with coins
In early 2022, discount retailer Aldi UK launched its first autonomous store.
Situated on Greenwich High Street in London, it enables customers to complete their shop without scanning a single product, or having to go through a checkout.
They can download the Aldi Shop&Go app, which will allow them to enter the store, pick up their items, and then walk out when they have completed their shop.
Once a customer leaves, they will then be automatically charged via their selected payment method and a receipt will appear in the app.
The system, provided by AiFi, uses specially positioned cameras.
Those people wishing to buy alcohol, or other Challenge 25 products, are able to use facial age estimation technology, provided by Yoti, to authorise their purchase.
Giles Hurley, CEO at Aldi UK and Ireland, said at the time of the opening: “Today is the culmination of months of work, not least from the team here in Greenwich and I’m looking forward to seeing how customers react to our trial.”
“This store utilises the very latest in retail technology offering Aldi’s award winning products and unbeatable prices to customers in a new and innovative way. The team are really excited about seeing customers come in and experience Aldi Shop&Go.”
Fast forward to the present day and the store has been targeted by Piers Corbyn, brother of former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, and also a climate change denier, anti-vaccine activist, and conspiracy theorist.
In a video posted on social media, Corbyn can be seen holding a box of strawberries and putting down cash on a help table.
Stateside success: Amazon Just Walk Out tech connects with college campuses and sporting venues
Although its Just Walk Out technology has yet to take off at grocery locations, Amazon is having some success with universities and sporting venues.
The University of Pittsburgh, for instance, will collaborate with Transact Campus and Chartwell’s Higher Education to bring the tech to a convenience store on the Pittsburgh campus.
“As one of the first universities in the United States to integrate Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology into its on-campus retail environment, Pitt is elevating the student experience by making shopping at The Market at Towers faster, easier and more convenient,” says Matthew Sterne, Vice Chancellor of Business Services at Pitt.
“This collaboration enhances our ongoing efforts to leverage innovative solutions to meet the evolving needs of our campus community."
Tech savvy, on-the-go college students are a glaringly obvious target market for this frictionless shopping technology.
As are sports fans, who want to spend as much time as possible watching a baseball, soccer etc game, and as little time as possible buying food, drinks etc..
The Seattle Seahawks and Lumen Field are set to expand the venue’s use of Just Walk Out 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.
Bringing products to life: 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 Instacart, Walmart, Bestseller, Carrefour Belgium, Shiseido Americas, Coach, Lowe’s, and Miravia.
High street greeting card retailer Scribbler works with Fujifilm UK on Scribbler Lite launch
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.
Walmart hits drone delivery milestone and celebrates with Oreo related publicity stunt
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.
👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻
2023 RTIH retail technology awards: Virtual Store of the Year category open for submissions
The fifth edition of the RTIH Innovation Awards is now open for entries.
The awards. sponsored by CADS, 3D Cloud by Marxent, and Goodays, celebrate global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world and include a Virtual Store of the Year category.
Deadline for 2023 submissions is Friday, 27th October, with winners being revealed at an exclusive event at the Barbican in central London on Wednesday, 29th November.
The winner of the aforementioned category, which is new for 2023, will have either launched a new virtual store in the past 12 months, or overhauled and significantly enhanced an existing one.
We’re looking for retailers/brands delivering seamless and personalised shopping experiences, engaging with customers in exciting and innovative ways via the likes of gamification, livestream commerce, and the metaverse, and boosting online sales.
Download an entry form here.
RTIH Editor, Scott Thompson, says: “Innovation and technology play a critical role in the success of the retail sector, so it is great to recognise standout examples through our awards.”
“Thanks to all those who entered the 2022 event. We received a record number of submissions and many fantastic examples of the continued resilience and dynamism of the retail space during hugely challenging times.”
“I’m excited to launch the fifth edition of the awards. The 2023 event will be the biggest and best yet.”
Currys CIO Andy Gamble joins data and insights startup Uncrowd as investor and advisor
Andy Gamble has joined Uncrowd as investor and advisor as the UK-based customer data and insights startup looks to scale and expand into the US over the next few months.
Gamble is Chief Information Officer at Currys and a non-exec board advisor at Mulberry.
He has worked in technology for 25 years with some of the world’s largest businesses, including Sony and Dyson, and provided advice to Big Data pioneer Unifi Software until its exit to Dell Boomi in 2020.
Heart with Smart Group selects Vista Technology Support as its retail technology services provider
UK hospitality company, Heart with Smart Group, has selected Vista to provide technology support and project services for its estate of 150+ Pizza Hut restaurants across the UK, and its growing portfolio of itsu stores.
Heart with Smart operates both its Pizza Hut ‘dine-in’ restaurants and itsu quick service restaurants (QSRs), seven days a week.
With trading hours from lunch until late at night, its team were looking for an agile technology partner that could deliver excellent levels of service to maximise the uptime of its business critical in-restaurant technology, including EPoS/Point of Service systems at the front of house, kitchen management systems, and back office IT.
The multi-year contract award includes the provision of on-site field hardware maintenance for all of Heart with Smart’s restaurant locations, as well as Vista’s Repair Centre, for the refurbishment, repair and redeployment of IT systems.
Heart with Smart also intends to tap into Vista’s Restaurant IT Project Services and IMAC Services, which includes working with the firm to deliver its digital transformation roadmap managing the deployment of new technology, as well as provide an IT project office for managing new store openings and store refits.
Au Vodka partners with fulfilment specialist Huboo as it chases gap in direct-to-consumer market
British brand Au Vodka has partnered with e-commerce fulfilment firm Huboo as it looks to meet online demand and accelerate its global journey which began in 2015 when it was founded by friends Jackson Quinn and Charlie Morgan.
The business has since reported £40 million in annual sales, a launch into Europe, and an upcoming venture into the US.
A large number of Au Vodka’s products are sold and delivered directly thanks to Huboo, which delivers nearly 2.5 million items a month for more than 1,500 businesses, from startups such as Au Vodka to multinational giants like Nestlé and Porsche.
It picks, packs and ships to one in five UK households today and stores a further 18 million items across over 700,000 sq. ft of global warehouse space, with its software able to integrate with e-commerce channels and marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, TikTok and Shopify.
Testing and learning: Amazon looks to boost the customer reviews experience with generative AI
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.”
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