Featuring Pixevia, Mercaux, and Xiatech: RTIH’s biggest retail technology articles on LinkedIn right now
Let’s face it, X (Twitter) sucks these days (thanks for nothing, Elon Musk!). LinkedIn is where it’s at as far as RTIH is concerned, which is why we’re busy building an amazing community of retail tech enthusiasts on the social media platform. These are the articles that are currently on their radars, including Badger Technologies, Volumental, Asda, The Very Group, Zapp, Star Micronics, True Fit, Forest, and Whole Foods Market.
Retail Technology Show’s Matt Bradley joins 2023 RTIH Innovation Awards judging panel
We’re pleased to announce the addition of Matt Bradley to the 2023 RTIH Innovation Awards judging panel.
Bradley is Director and Founder of Retail Technology Show, the 2024 edition of which will take place at Olympia, London on 24th-25th April.
We’re also pleased to announce Retail Technology Show as a 2023 RTIH Innovation Awards sponsor.
This is an extension of our long running media partnership.
Retail Technology Show brings together Europe’s most forward thinking retailers and leading tech innovators.
Aimed at retailers both in-store and online, it helps businesses thrive in the highly disruptive retail sector.
It is the must attend event for retail and hospitality organisations looking for the right tools, solutions and advice on how to run their business more effectively, more efficiently and more profitably resulting in seamless multi-channel operations and enhanced customer experience.
THE 2023 JUDGING PANEL NOW LOOKS LIKE THIS:
Mike Cadden, IT Director and CIO with 25 years’ experience running tech teams and strategic delivery for many leading UK and international retailers
Peter Waugh, Director, International Digital (EMEA, LAC & AP), Starbucks
Carole Kingsbury, Former Director of IT, Ted Baker
Christine Russo, Industry Analyst and Retail Influencer
Paula Bobbett, Chief Digital Officer, Boots
Sarah Curran, Founder & Chief Menopause Officer, Just Hotter
Warren Richmond, Founder and CEO, Situ LIve
Matt Bradley, Director and Founder, Retail Technology Show
Scott Thompson, Editor and Founder, Retail Technology Innovation Hub
Toby Pickard, Global Insight Leader, IGD
Matt Taylor, Technology Transformation Leader at EY, Retail and Consumer Products
Amodini Chhabra, Investor, Compass Digital Ventures
Gary Newbury, Supply Chain Advisor and Delivery Executive
Nadine Neatrour, Marketing Director, Selfridges
David Polinchock, Co-Founder/President, Unified Brand Experience Lab
Pixevia works with REWE Group owned IKI to launch fifth autonomous store in Vilnius, Lithuania
Pixevia has partnered with IKI, a member of REWE Group, to launch a fifth autonomous store in Vilnius, Lithuania.
The IKI GO store is located next to the Green Bridge public transport stop. It is the seventh location overall powered by Pixevia technology.
Contained in a small format pavilion, it operates without staff for approximately 95% of its opening hours, only requiring occasional restocking.
Shoppers can choose from over 200 items – from hot coffee beverages and chilled ready-to-eat meals to ice creams, snacks, drinks, and essential non-food items.
The store features Pixevia’s proprietary real-time checkout technology, which allows customers to enter by tapping a payment card.
People take what items they want from the shelves while cameras and shelf sensors compile a virtual shopping basket. They then tap the same payment card to exit the store, and receive a real-time receipt which can be printed upon leaving.
Volumental hands Brent Hollowell key role as FitTech firm expands into North America
Volumental, a Swedish company that has developed a platform for recommending perfect fitting shoes, is expanding into North America.
It is appointing current CMO Brent Hollowell as General Manager for its North American operations.
"The establishment of a North American presence is driven by escalating demand for Volumental's unique omnichannel fit solutions from top global footwear retailers and brands," says Alper Aydemir, Volumental's CEO.
"Brent's extensive experience, including senior leadership roles at Foot Locker, adidas, and Fleet Feet, and his deep understanding of our product value, positions us to effectively serve this critical region."
Mercaux and Xiatech look to accelerate transformation of physical stores into omnichannel destinations
Mercaux, an omnichannel store platform specialist, has partnered with Xiatech, the company behind machine learning powered composable hyper-integration platform, Xfuze.
This will see Mercaux leverage Xfuze to accelerate the digital transformation of physical retail stores into omnichannel destinations by automatically connecting systems, unifying data and providing actionable insights staff need to successfully understand and provide hyper personalised omnichannel shopping experiences when it matters most to customers in-store.
The Very Group extends Kyndryl tie up as online retailer focuses on retail technology transformation
The Very Group has been working with Kyndryl to migrate applications to the public cloud. And the online retailer is now extending the agreement and moving over more applications.
Kyndryl will combine The Very Group’s core service management toolset with cloud native tooling and the implementation of Kyndryl Bridge and AIOps, enabling greater links between global teams.
It says that this process will “build an optimised, integrated service that is simple, flexible, automated, and delivered with velocity with improved service observability”.
New and improved: Badger Technologies and Stop & Shop upgrade Marty the Robot at 300+ locations Stateside
Badger Technologies is working with Stop & Shop, an Ahold Delhaize USA company, to expand its use of Marty the Robot at more than 300 stores throughout the US Northeast.
The robot now conducts product checks to help ensure greater on-shelf availability for customers by alerting store associates when items need re-stocking. Marty also detects misplaced items while continuing the usual task of spotting potential floor hazards and spills.
Badger Technologies’ autonomous robots were rolled out at Stop & Shop stores starting in January 2019.
Zapp agrees rapid delivery tie up with at home, self-diagnostic tests provider Newfoundland
Newfoundland, a provider of at home, self-diagnostic tests in the UK, and rapid delivery firm, Zapp, have announced a new partnership in London.
Customers can now quickly test for various illnesses and diseases, while also knowing that Zapp has them covered with various personal health and hygiene products, over-the-counter medicines, and everyday essentials.
Athletic Propulsion Labs boosts e-commerce performance with True Fit AI powered fit guidance
Luxury performance trainer brand, Athletic Propulsion Labs (APL), has worked with True Fit to achieve a boost in e-commerce revenue while reducing fit related returns from those customers leveraging the latter’s recommendations.
APL first began its partnership with True Fit as it scaled its direct to consumer (DTC) business, with the goal of offering its shoppers fit guidance.
It now leverages True Fit’s Fashion Genome platform to provide fit recommendations powered by the demographics, fit preferences and buying behaviours of millions of global shoppers, and then enhanced by artificial intelligence (AI).
This data delivers high fidelity size and fit guidance to 100% of traffic, from zero click product size guidance for all traffic to personalised fit recommendations to shoppers who register and create a True Fit profile.
The partnership increased conversions resulting in a 2% uptick in site-wide revenue. APL also reports a 5% reduction in returns from shoppers leveraging True Fit.
Forest launches Points of Interest partnership with Whole Foods Market, live across five London stores
London-based Forest has launched a partnership with Whole Foods Market UK, allowing the retailer to highlight its store-based promotions within the shared eBike app.
Forest created the AdTech map function, a ‘Point of Interest’, to allow partner companies to showcase their products, services and discounts within its home page map.
Whole Foods Market’s Point of Interest will become a permanent feature of the map during the period of the partnership, reinforcing the brand every time a rider uses the dockless eBikes.
The launch of the partnership is the inaugural Point of Interest tie-up for the micromobility company which has developed the AdTech feature itself.
Going live: Star Micronics announces launch of managed cloud service StarPrinter.Online
PoS hardware solutions provider Star Micronics has announced the launch of its managed cloud service, StarPrinter.Online, which allows businesses to print directly from a web server, web page, web client app/PWA, native app or even via email, as well as benefit from device management of the entire PoS printer estate.
Amazon works with Avery Dennison to combine Just Walk Out technology and RFID in checkout-free stores
Amazon has announced a new capability to its Just Walk Out technology that will enable relevant stores to start selling clothes.
This leverages RFID, supplied by Avery Dennison, and enables customers to grab clothes, hats, shoes etc, and walk out of the store through an exit gate (even while wearing their purchases) by tapping their credit or debit card, or hovering their palm over an Amazon One palm recognition device.
It is currently available at Lumen Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks.
“Delivering a great fan experience is central to everything we do here at Lumen Field, and our customers love the convenience of Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology,” says Zach Hensley, Seahawks Vice President of Operations and General Manager at Lumen Field.
“Eight of our concessions locations are already using Just Walk Out technology and seeing great results.”
“Now, we are excited to be the first NFL stadium with an RFID enabled Just Walk Out technology store so fans can grab their favourite hats, jerseys, and more, and simply walk out. We are seeing great traction for this new store, and our fans are enjoying the experience.”
Cart.com boosts fulfilment centres network as it snags US fulfilment operations deal with Pacsun
Cart.com has announced a new partnership with Pacsun.
This will see the company leverage its logistics expertise and order and inventory management capabilities to support US fulfilment for the brand.
Pacsun will also transition management of its Groveport, Ohio fulfilment facility to Cart.com.
The two million square foot automated facility, which includes advanced sortation and over 25 miles of conveyance as well as dynamic storage solutions, is the 14th warehouse in Cart.com’s nationwide network of omnichannel fulfilment centres.
Grocery giant Asda makes senior retail technology appointments as it moves away from Walmart days
Asda has announced the appointments of Rob Barnes and Adrian Berry to its technology team to oversee the oversee the development of its new strategy and separation from Walmart.
Barnes is currently Chief Technology Officer at Marks and Spencer and will join Asda early next year as Delivery Director.
He will be responsible for the design, build and delivery of all colleague and customer facing technology and will also act as Deputy Chief Information Officer.
Prior to joining M&S, he was MD of Accenture’s Retail Tech Advisory business, where he managed technology delivery for a range of clients including Dyson, Clarks, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Best Buy.
Berry also joins in the new year as Chief Technology Officer and will have responsibility for all core technology teams including service delivery, infrastructure, application engineering, platform teams and enterprise technology services.
He most recently served as CIO at Aston Barclay Vehicle Remarketing, and prior to that as UK CIO and Group CTO at Lowell Credit Management.
Carl Dawson, Asda’s CIO, says: “We are delighted to welcome Rob and Adrian to the Asda Technology team. With their combined experience,I am confident that we will now have the necessary expertise and experience to build best in class retail technology systems as we continue our separation journey from Walmart.”
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