Drone deliveries and immersive concept stores: RTIH presents August’s coolest retail technology plays
RTIH Editor, Scott Thompson, brings you his stand out ‘future of retail’ systems deployments from August, including a drone delivery milestone, a checkout free store first, a return to the 1980s, and tapping AI for customer reviews.
Walmart
Walmart is teaming up with Alphabet owned Wing to offer drone delivery from two stores in the Dallas area in the coming months, adding to its existing footprint of 11 hubs in Texas.
“Two years ago, we embarked on a journey to make the convenience of drone delivery a reality for our customers. Over that time we’ve grown to offer it across seven states and 36 stores, completing more than 10,000 safe deliveries,” says Prathibha Rajashekhar, SVP Innovation & Automation, Walmart U.S.
“Today, we’re continuing that momentum by teaming up with Wing, an on-demand drone delivery provider powered by Google’s parent company, Alphabet. The service will be offered from two stores in the Dallas metro area in the coming months, enabling us to reach an additional 60,000 homes.”
Toll Brothers
Toll Brothers has announced the installation of Amazon Just Walk Out tech at the convenience store within its Regency at Folsom Ranch retirement community located in Folsom, California.
This makes it the first residential community west of the Mississippi to adopt the solution as part of its on-site resident amenities.
The store allows residents to scan their Regency app (which includes credit card information) upon entry, grab the items they need, and leave the store without the need to check out.
The technology detects what residents take from or return to the shelves and creates a virtual shopping session.
When residents have completed shopping, they are able to leave the store without having to wait in line, and their choice of payment method through the app will be charged for the items they took with them.
EE
EE has opened a new Experience store in Kent’s Bluewater Shopping Centre.
The second of the company’s new concept stores showcases various experience zones and room sets, with each area curated to give shoppers a taste of future living and demonstrate how cutting-edge technology and connectivity can enhance their everyday lives.
The store, which is moving from EE’s existing space on the ground floor of Bluewater, is located on the first floor and combines two existing units to create what is pitched as “an open and dynamic tech filled space”.
Dolly Parton and TalkShopLive
American singer-songwriter, musician, actress, philanthropist, and businesswoman, Dolly Parton, has hooked up with live streaming, social selling network, TalkShopLive.
In a LinkedIn post, the letters CEO and Co-Founder, Bryan Moore, said: “Thrilled to welcome the iconic Dolly Parton back to TalkShopLIve. She has launched her last four products with us and tonight (Friday, 18th August) she brings multiple products, with multiple different fulfilment partners, into the same show.”
“The greatest testament to TalkShopLIve is when our talent, retailer, brand and publishing partners return time and again because they realise incredible success on the platform and move the needle in their overall sales numbers.”
He added: “On a personal note, not only does Dolly make me smile from ear to ear every time I see her or hear her, but it is such a pleasure to work with her incredible team who continues to be at the top of their game - always innovating to create the most dynamic fan experiences.”
“Thank you for trusting us and continuing to make TalkShopLIve part of your product launches.”
Huck’s
Huck’s, a US convenience store chain with more than 120 locations across Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee, has announced the launch of its revamped mobile app.
It says that the Huck’s Bucks Bigg Rewards app, powered by Rovertown, combines the latest in loyalty marketing, scan-and-go payments, and customer engagement strategies.
“Our focus is on providing best in class shopping experiences in our stores as well as on mobile devices,” says Murat Tokad, CEO at Huck’s. “Our new app assists guests with everyday functions and provides targeted offers within an easy to use, modern mobile experience.”
Walmart (again)
Wakefern
Wakefern Food Corp. is expanding Simbe Robotics’ business intelligence solution to additional ShopRite stores after a pilot.
Over the past several months, Wakefern vetted Simbe’s platform in more than 20 stores.
It first began integrating the solution, powered by Tally, to drive inventory optimisation at the stores and help retail associates do more impactful, customer facing work.
Tally is a robot that autonomously scans shelves of products using AI to identify out-of-stock, misplaced, or mispriced products, as well as generate product location data for efficient inventory replenishment.
Simbe then delivers real-time actionable insights to drive improved store operations.
McDonald's and Disney+
Ahead of the release of Marvel Studios’ Loki Season 2, the Disney+ series has teamed up with McDonald’s, which makes an appearance on the show’s timeline.
McDonald’s latest campaign, the As Featured in Meal, showcases a collection of fan favourite menu items that have appeared over the past few decades across film, television, and music, which also now includes crossing paths with the God of Mischief.
As part of this, the fast food giant has transported a Brooklyn, New York store back to 1982 as seen in the upcoming Loki season. This is running from Wednesday, 30th August through to Friday, 1st September.
University of San Diego
The University of San Diego has retrofitted a Smart Market mini-convenience store located within its Knauss Center for Business Education with AiFi technology.
This allows shoppers to select food and drink items and walk out without waiting in line or scanning to pay.
Customers scan a dedicated store app upon entry to identify themselves.
JUXTA
JUXTA reports that its inaugural product, Nomad, an autonomous, portable micro store, is now available throughout the USA.
The startup says that Nomad will “help retailers take their brand beyond the traditional bricks and mortar convenience store, allowing them to get closer to consumers than ever before”.
Newegg
Newegg, an online retailer specialising in technology products, has deployed Geek+’s shelf to person picking system that uses autonomous mobile robots (AMR) in its Ontario, California, warehouse.
The robots operate within a designated area before lifting and carrying mobile shelves to workstations where employees pick and scan products to prepare them for shipping to customers.
The Geek+ system includes 24,360 storage locations for products within hundreds of shelves.
Grubhub and Cartken
Cartken reports that, through its partnership with Grubhub, more than 50,000 autonomous deliveries have been made via its robots on the University of Arizona’s campus during the ‘22 - ‘23 school year.
Said robots first debuted on the University of Arizona’s campus in August 2022, just in time for the start of the school year.
The University of Arizona had an existing partnership with Grubhub Campus Dining that allows students to use their meal plans to order food from on-campus restaurants via the Grubhub app for pickup.
Through Cartken’s partnership with Grubhub, students are able to select robot delivery as an option when ordering from on campus restaurants.
The university’s more than 40,000 students can now order from 12 on-site restaurants and campus dining facilities and receive their order autonomously at one of the 60 drop-off stations throughout the nearly 400 acre campus.
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.”
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%.
Newegg (again)
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.
Coach
This lines up alongside launches in Tokyo's Harajuku and Salt Lake City’s City Creek, with more to come.
And it has now been taken over by Coachtopia, Coach’s new sub-brand which focuses on circular products and collaborations with creatives.
In a LinkedIn post, Giovanni Zaccariello, SVP Global Visual Experience at Coach, said: “Our Coach Play Singapore transforms into a fully immersive Coachtopia takeover.”
“The installation includes a new digital “cloud” installation and new cafe treats ☁️☁️☁️. The production is fully circular including inocra fixtures, neons, vm props and more. Congrats team on this launch.”
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.”
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.
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!”
Albert Heijn and Heineken
Downtown Spirits
Downtown Spirits, a Seattle-based beer, wine and spirits retailer, has opened 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.
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.
Habbo and Juniper Creates
Virtual world and chat room Habbo has announced a user generated content in apparel and toys partnership with Juniper Creates, a custom merchandising solution for online creators.
The aim here is to enhance the digital collectables and community experience within the metaverse.
Unlike traditional merchandise, where designs are determined solely by brand or company, this partnership invites the Habbo community to design and select lines of apparel and toys.
These will be linked to in-game digital collectables crafted by the Habbo team. Users can submit their designs, participate in the community selection process, and own and showcase their creations in both the real world and the digital realm.
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