Shoppable recipes and Just Walk Out firsts: RTIH’s biggest retail technology news stories of the week
It’s Friday, the weekend is almost upon us, so let’s kick back and reflect on another eventful week for the retail systems space. Here's your briefing on the most important stories from the past five days, including Marks and Spencer, SideChef, Walmart, Currys, Circana, Downtown Spirits, and Amazon.
1. Marks and Spencer launches Cooking With The Stars shoppable recipes tie up with SideChef
SideChef, a US-based mobile app and platform with over 20,000 shoppable recipes, has announced a partnership with Marks & Spencer.
Customers will now be able to find 150 original recipes featuring signature M&S ingredients, save them to a personal cookbook or shopping list, and create meal plans for their households within any budget.
This launch was done in alignment with the Cooking With The Stars show, which airs on ITV.
Viewers will be able to find all the recipes that the celebrity chefs and contestants cook, and recreate them in their own homes. The feature is available on the M&S website and its app.
The tie up marks SideChef’s first European retail partner.
2. Walmart sets sights on college students as it unveils next phase of View In Your Home offering
US college students are getting ready to head back to campus – and Walmart is looking to make it easy and affordable for them to create the perfect dorm room.
The retailer is unveiling the next phase of its View In Your Home offering, with new features.
This helps customers visualise how furniture and home décor will look in their space. The new features are rolling out now on iOS for AR enabled items on the latest version of the Walmart app.
It is now possible to place, add and swap multiple items in a room at one time, without limit, to curate and visualise the entire space.
People can also view an expanded selection of 7,000+ AR enabled home products across indoor/outdoor furniture, electronics, lighting and more.
And complete the look of a space with complementary item recommendations based on what products work well together.
They can swap items with recommended substitutes via a ‘Similar Item’ feature, enabling customers to visualise size and fit of a comparable item before they choose what works best in their space.
And they can purchase an entire room of furniture with a single tap for a quicker and more efficient checkout experience – whether they want fast delivery or curbside pick-up on the way to campus.
3. Downtown Spirits becomes first beer, wine, and spirits retailer to implement Amazon Just Walk Out technology
Downtown Spirits, a Seattle-based beer, wine and spirits retailer, is gearing up to open the doors to its new, 4,200 square-foot location on 7th Avenue between Olive and Stewart, across from Pacific Place, featuring a fully checkout-free shopping experience powered by Amazon Just Walk Out technology.
This will take place on Thursday, 10th August.
Downtown Spirits is the first ever beer, wine, and spirits retailer to implement Just Walk Out technology made possible by artificial intelligence like computer vision and deep learning techniques, including generative AI, to accurately determine who took what in any retail environment.
Guests enter the store by using the Downtown Spirits app at the front door.
The technology detects what shoppers take from or return to the shelves, and creates a virtual shopping session.
When people have completed their shopping experience, they are able to leave the store without having to wait in line, and their choice of payment method will be charged for the items they took with them.
4. DFS Group partners with Ant Group to boost payments and marketing digitalisation across its retail and online stores
DFS Group and Ant Group have announced a partnership which will see the former leverage Alipay+ to engage with its customers pre, during and post shopping, across 36 stores in 15 markets, and 12 online shops in four markets.
This will involve: increasing visibility of DFS directly within Alipay and Alipay+ partner wallets' apps and mutually offering more targeted, personalised and relevant rewards for shoppers, including exclusive offers.
5. Amazon reports second quarter 2023 results, $100 million generative AI investment announced
Amazon sales hit $134.4 billion, up 11%, for the second quarter of 2023 as retail and AWS sales rose.
The US e-commerce giant also announced that $100 million is being invested in a AWS Generative AI Innovation Centre, which will “connect AWS AI and machine learning experts with customers around the globe to help them envision, design, and launch new generative AI products, services, and processes.”
6. Currys selects Circana technology to boost customer decision making understanding efforts
Circana (formerly IRI and The NPD Group) has announced a partnership with Currys.
The firm’s Insights Gateway, which will be launched and branded as Currys Tech Insights, will provide the UK retailer’s supplier partners with access to sales performance and customer insights across the Currys business.
Susie Moan, Chief Data Officer at Currys comments: “We are thrilled to be unveiling the powerful new Currys Tech Insights platform to our suppliers.”
“The platform will allow our brands to take an even more forensic approach to understanding the data behind our customers’ decision making. Together, we will have a holistic view of our customers and be able to better anticipate their current and future needs, so that we can help more people than ever enjoy amazing technology.”
7. Bookseller Thalia kicks off roll-out of new Diebold Nixdorf self-checkout solutions in stores
Thalia, an omnichannel bookseller in the DACH region with around 6,000 employees, has selected Diebold Nixdorf to introduce new self-checkout solutions.
Planned through mid-2024, the project will involve a total of 500 modular DN Series EASY eXpress systems for the German market, and more than 100 systems for Austria and Switzerland.
In addition, Diebold Nixdorf will leverage its services technician network to provide on-site troubleshooting and support services for Thalia in all three countries.
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