Including Freedompay, BigCommerce, and Rovertown: last week’s biggest retail technology plays at a glance
RTIH rounds up the stand out retail systems deals, launches, deployments and pilots from the past seven days. Including Mango, Brompton, Mars, Family Express, PLUS Retail, RELEX Solutions, Bold Commerce and Wink.
Freedompay
Freedompay reports that its commerce platform is now available to all merchants in Spain.
This comes as the FinTech firm secures an integrated certification from Redsys, a Spanish payments processing provider.
“The needs of merchants and consumers are constantly changing and FreedomPay is always looking to stay at the forefront with solutions that respond to new demands,” says Cesar Diez-Rivera, VP Global Business Development and Country Manager of FreedomPay in Spain.
“Spain is a strategic market for us and this alliance with Redsys will allow us to join forces to improve the payment experience for businesses throughout the country.”
Brompton
BigCommerce has announced the launch of foldable bicycle company, Brompton, on its platform.
After struggling for years with its previous e-commerce platform and tech stack, Brompton sought a new platform that offered flexibility and the ability to scale as the company grows and its priorities shift.
“Our old system arguably could have been called composable, but it wasn’t purpose-built that way,” says Oliver Boardman, IT and Digital Director at Brompton.
“The components didn’t work together well, and we didn’t have nearly as much flexibility as we needed. BigCommerce showed us that they could provide a true composable platform capable of scaling with us and our customers.”
Manchester United
Manchester United has chosen SCAYLE as its official e-commerce platform partner.
The Premier League football club’s new e-commerce experience will launch later this year and continue to be evolved in alignment with the club’s ambition of delivering a best in class direct-to-consumer experience for its global fan base.
SCAYLE provides the technical backbone for more than 140 online stores and was specifically designed for B2C use cases with a strong focus on the fashion, lifestyle and sports sectors.
Manchester United’s Phil Lynch, CEO of Direct to Consumer Products & Experiences, says: “Manchester United is always looking for new and innovative ways to improve our fans’ experience.”
“We are delighted to be partnering with SCAYLE to further enhance our e-commerce offering, delivering an exceptional fan experience through personalisation and a premium best in class commerce platform.’
PLUS Retail
PLUS Retail, the third largest service supermarket organisation in the Netherlands, is expanding its partnership with RELEX Solutions. The goal is to optimise promotion planning, management, and the optimisation process.
PLUS Retail operates in 500+ stores in the Netherlands.
The RELEX tech will be implemented in every store of the PLUS, PLUS Vandaag, and COOP formats across the country.
Bold Commerce and Wink
Bold Commerce, a headless checkout company for omnichannel retailers and DTC brands, has announced the launch of its first biometric checkout powered by Wink.
Now, instead of having to manually fill out details like login credentials, delivery details, loyalty accounts and payment preferences, retailers can enable shoppers to use their face and voice to pre-fill all the information necessary to complete a purchase on any shopping channel or in-store.
They can integrate the technology into any mobile, desktop or in-store shopping experience, providing shoppers with the option to expedite checkout no matter where they are or what they’re buying.
Using Bold Checkout with Wink, retailers can authenticate customers with voice and face recognition using the camera on their personal device or in-store device (e.g. PoS terminals or self-checkout stations).
Once a shopper is verified, they’re automatically signed into their customer account and details such as delivery preferences, loyalty points, coupon offers and preferred payment method are pre-filled to complete the purchase.
Shoppers can identify their preferred payment method from a variety of choices, from credit cards to digital wallets, pay by bank and buy now, pay later.
Mango
Mango has entered Roblox with the opening of its first immersive store on the platform, located in the virtual Outfit Shopping Mall, where users will be able to purchase Mango Teen digital garments and products for their avatars.
The Outfit Shopping Mall is situated on a Mediterranean island and will open this month on Roblox.
A2Z
Mars
Mars and Einride, a freight technology company, are partnering to bring a fleet of 300 electric and digitally optimised, heavy duty trucks to the former’s network across Europe by 2030.
Across Europe it is estimated that the electric operations will save 20,000 metric tons of CO2e each year by 2030, which accounts for roughly a 10% reduction in Mars Europe’s road transport GHG emissions annually.
The first delivery happened last week, with Einride’s freight capacity offering deployed with two electric trucks and charging points powered by its operating system Saga.
The route is between the Mars Petcare factory in Verden, Germany and its distribution centre in Minden, Germany, which are approximately 90 km (56 miles) apart.
Following Germany’s lead, the partnership will begin expanding across Europe first with routes in the UK and the Netherlands expected to follow later in 2024. These fully electric operations will be complemented with an autonomous pilot, implemented in 2025.
Family Express
Family Express, a US-based chain of convenience stores, has announced the release of a new mobile app experience.
“It’s never been easier to order a Friday night pizza, or save big on a favourite snack or your next fill-up with F.E. Perks,” says Family Express Corporation’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Gus Olympidis.
“We’ve made considerable investments in a contemporary experience for our brand over the past few years, and we’re thrilled to take the next step by introducing a personalised app experience that meets the needs of today’s customers.”
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