Starring Ocado, Tesco, and Picnic: RTIH’s most read retail technology articles from a sizzling September

Check out the articles on this here website that caught your fancy during September, including the FT Live: Future of Retail 2024 conference, and the 2024 RTIH Innovation Awards.

Ocado customers left fuming as online grocery retailer says sorry and cancels deliveries at last minute

Ocado customers took to social media to vent spleen after the online grocery retailer cancelled deliveries at late notice earlier this month.

In an email sent to customers, Laura Harricks, Chief Customer Officer, Ocado Retail, said: “We’re very sorry, but we’re unable to deliver your Ocado order. Of course, you won’t be charged for this order.”

She added: “You can rebook the same order if you like. Just log in to ocado.com as normal and select ‘Rebook’ to choose a new date and time.To make it up to you, here’s a £20.00 voucher. It’s valid until 16/12/2024. Thank you for your understanding. Sincerest apologies.”

Tesco sets sights on Ocado by offering its store pick technology to international grocery businesses

Transcend Retail Solutions, a Tesco subsidiary led by its Strategy Director Oliver Vogt, is providing the UK supermarket giant’s software and hardware to international grocers, leveraging its vast experience in this space to enable them to fulfil online orders from their own stores.

According to The Sunday Times, a first deal has been signed with New Zealand’s biggest grocery retailer, Foodstuffs North Island, and talks are being held with other companies.

Tesco currently handles more than a million online orders a week, 85% of which are picked from its supermarkets.

“Our solutions are tried and tested,” Vogt told The Sunday Times. “We set up Transcend because we truly believe we have something to offer the market.”

Foodstuffs is tapping Tesco’s cloud-based picking software, which receives online orders and then maps, on handheld devices, the most efficient route for staff to pick the items from supermarket shelves.

The technology is live in two stores, operating under the PAK’nSAVE and New World brands, and plans are afoot to expand the roll-out across 150 locations. Transcend will also be able to deploy micro fulfilment centres inside retailers’ stores.

Tesco’s new venture sees it square up to UK rival Ocado, whose Ocado Solutions spin off offers smart e-commerce technology to global retailers.

2024 RTIH Innovation Awards: don’t delay, enter today!

There are only four weeks left to submit your entries for the 2024 RTIH Innovation Awards. 

Deadline for submissions is Friday, 25th October.

The awards, sponsored by CADS, 3D Cloud, Retail Technology Show 2025, and Business France, celebrate global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.

It’s free to enter and you can do so across multiple categories.

Key 2024 dates

Friday, 25th October: Award entry deadline 

Tuesday, 29th October: 2024 shortlist revealed

30th October-6th November: Judging days

Thursday, 21st November: Winners announced at the 2024 RTIH Innovation Awards ceremony, to be held at RIBA’s 66 Portland Place HQ in Central London.

FT Live: Future of Retail 2024 review – Tesco CEO Ken Murphy talks about the seismic impact of AI

“AI will revolutionise how customers interact with retailers. It will be seismic,” said Ken Murphy, CEO at Tesco, at FT Live: Future of Retail 2024, taking place last month at Convene in the City of London.

“There have been waves of technology disruption historically. We are on the cusp of another one with AI,” said Murphy in conversation with moderator, Laura Onita, Retail Correspondent at the Financial Times, during the opening session of the conference. “AI will impact every facet of our business.”   

Murphy argued that we’re already on the fourth or fifth generation of AI, starting in the late 2000s and moving into machine learning applications last decade to improve supply chains, promotions in retail and so on.

“AI has already had a huge impact,” he commented. “But we’re now into the generative AI era with ChatGPT and the like, which is even more powerful.”

“You still need to be careful and have good oversight when introducing it. But it is developing so fast you do need to embrace it. Allow yourself to make mistakes in a controlled environment.”

Iceland and CALM partner on Missed Birthdays installation at Westfield White City to combat youth suicide

The Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) and Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation (IFCF) have unveiled an installation of 6,929 birthday balloons in Westfield shopping centre, marking the missed birthdays of young people lost to suicide.  

Suicide is now the leading cause of death for young people aged 15-24 in the UK, with data revealing that two fifths of those people aged between 18-34 have experienced a mental health crisis or suicidal thoughts over the past five years. 

Earlier this year, Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation pledged £300,000 in funding which could help CALM have over 37,000 life saving conversations via their helpline –and now the retailer has donated an additional £350,000 and joined forces with CALM for the aforementioned installation.  

The Missed Birthdays installation at Westfield White City, London, marks the launch of a new report from CALM which reveals that only 20% of parents and adults in the UK have discussed suicide with children aged 16-23.  

Travis Kalanick's digital food court Picnic is now serving San Francisco and Mountain View

Earlier this year, City Storage Systems, owner of CloudKitchens, and led by Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick, launched Picnic, which brings people their favourite meals from 100+ restaurants straight to their office with no delivery fees and no tips.

“It’s just like using a food delivery app, but we bring everyone’s order together at the same time,” according to a Picnic spokesperson.

The LA-based venture is now serving San Francisco and Mountain View. It’s the next big thing, according to Brittain Ladd, a supply chain consultant and former Amazon executive.

Picnic’s business model aligns with City Storage Systems’ stated goal to make food delivery “more affordable, higher quality and convenient for everyone.” The wide selection and low prices are driving business to CloudKitchens and Otter - also part of City Storage Systems (CSS), he noted in a LinkedIn post.

FT Live: Future of Retail 2024: Tesco CTO overhauls legacy IT and shows how to maximise digital RoI

Tesco had an “ageing tech stack” when Guus Dekkers joined them last decade, admitted the grocer’s Chief Technology Officer at the FT Live: Future of Retail 2024 event in London last month.

He outlined how this has been overhauled, alongside seeking a return on digital investment by adopting a build and tech reselling approach.

A new micro-fulfilment in-store picking software solution was recently rolled out at Tesco as an example of this approach. It has been offered to non-core rivals in New Zealand as a way to monetise its build, not buy technology approach but a wider roll-out is imminent.

The future of logistics and warehousing: UPS teams with Verity to implement autonomous inventory tracking

UPS is working on a project with autonomous indoor drone systems specialist Verity.

In a LinkedIn post, it said: “We’re raising the game in warehouse automation.”

“We’ve recently teamed up with Verity to implement autonomous inventory tracking to better serve our customers. Keep an eye out as we share more on how we’re shaking up the future of logistics and warehousing.”

Further details here.