Including Grubhub, Zalando, and Foodstuffs: RTIH presents 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 Ocado Retail, Polytag, Grubhub, Incognia, Majid Al Futtaim, Zalando, 7-Eleven, Boots, Levi Strauss & Co., Liverpool ONE, and MRI Software.

Ocado Retail

Polytag has bolstered its partnership with Ocado Retail, with the online grocery retailer expanding its range of products that use the firm’s technology.

Over 60 of Ocado’s food, drink, and household product ranges now feature Polytag’s Digital Link QR codes, enabling consumers to delve deeper into product information and sustainability practices with a simple scan.

The expanded range of Polytag enabled packaging follows the success of the project Polytag ran with Ocado Retail in 2023 to deliver a nationwide digital deposit return scheme (DDRS) trial.

Over eight weeks, 20,000 20p rewards were given to consumers that had purchased - and recycled - Ocado's milk bottles via standard kerbside collection methods. Post-trial surveys revealed that 93% of the pilot users felt ‘positively’ towards the idea of a DDRS in the UK. 

The initiative will now see the online grocer package dry food and cleaning products in refillable containers to reduce single-use plastic and encourage reuse behaviours. Polytag’s QR codes will be used to educate customers on how to take part in the refill scheme and return their products.

Grubhub

US food ordering and delivery marketplace Grubhub is leveraging Incognia’s fraud prevention technology with the aim of increasing security on the platform and providing a seamless experience for its community of customers and delivery partners.

“We aim to provide a seamless and enjoyable experience for everyone who uses our platform, and maintaining safety and security is key to that commitment,” says Jared Horton, Senior Director of Logistics at Grubhub.

“Our partnership with Incognia strengthens our ongoing efforts to enhance safety across the platform. Their expertise in keeping marketplaces secure makes them an ideal partner for addressing the unique and complex trust and safety challenges facing platforms like ours.”

SimplyFresh and SimplyLocal

SimplyFresh and SimplyLocal have opened a new LittleFresh store at GRIDSERVE ’s electric forecourt in Stevenage.

This is powered by Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology, with a third location in the works.

“Simply Fresh has always been at the cutting-edge of convenience retail, and our second collaboration with Amazon and GRIDSERVE solidifies this commitment,” says Kash Khera, MD at SimplyFresh.

“Little Fresh, powered by Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology, is designed to provide an effortless and quick shopping experience that perfectly complements the state-of-the-art EV charging facilities at the Stevenage electric forecourt.”

“With Stevenage, we’re excited to lead the evolution of convenience shopping, making it faster and more intuitive than ever, this is more than a store; it’s a glimpse into the future of retail."

Zalando

UNiDAYS, a verification enabled platform for students, has announced a new partnership with German online retailer Zalando. 

This offers the student community a 10% discount on its catalogue of shoes, clothing and accessories .They can access this by purchasing gift cards from Zalando through an exclusive UNiDAYS link.

The collaboration marks Zalando’s first and only student discount scheme. In addition to the German market, the partnership is also live and available to students across Europe, including in France, the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain, offering over 12 million UNiDAYS members access to the deal.  

Majid Al Futtaim

Majid Al Futtaim, a shopping mall, communities, retail, and leisure specialist across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, has announced the launch of Precision Media, a new digital business offering that leverages AI powered technology to improve the way brands engage with customers. 

The business offers a suite of retail media solutions, including in-store touchpoints across the Group’s 450 Carrefour and retail grocery stores in 13 different countries around the region: in addition to its numerous, e-commerce assets.

Precision Media also provides partner brands with offsite advertising solutions, enabling engagement with Majid Al Futtaim consumers on partner networks, outside of the Group’s ecosystem.   

More than 150 brands and advertising agencies are currently accessing Precision Media, leveraging Majid Al Futtaim’s network to drive tailored outreach to millions of potential consumers, including the 600 million annual visitors to its physical assets, 270 million online sessions, and the 20.5 million members subscribed to both Majid Al Futtaim’s SHARE loyalty programme and MyClub platform.  

Liverpool ONE

Liverpool ONE has selected MRI Software’s OnLocation for Footfall Analytics solution to provide insights into visitor flow across its 2.5 million sq ft estate.

Iain Finlayson, Estate Director at Liverpool ONE, says: “Collaborating with MRI Software is key to our ongoing commitment to innovation and growth. With footfall data and insights at our fingertips, we will better understand the needs of our visitors, optimise our operations, and continue to provide a meaningful contribution to the city of Liverpool.

“The technology will not only improve our ability to adapt to market trends but also strengthen our position as a forward-thinking retail destination, ensuring we remain vibrant for years to come.”

Skip

Rokt, an e-commerce company using machine learning and AI to make the shopping experience more relevant to customers, is partnering with Skip, a Canadian delivery network, to launch a retail media offering across multiple points in the Skip app.

Rokt will enable endemic and non-endemic advertisers to offer relevant messages to its millions of customers.

Skip serves more than 50,000 restaurants, retailers, and convenience stores across Canada. The new partnership will enable advertisers in the Rokt Ads network to offer tailored messages on the order confirmation and order tracking pages of Skip's app.

Wild Island Adventure Park

Wild Island Adventure Park in the US has implemented a new automated food and beverage ordering system leveraging Epson m-Series PoS printers to streamline operations and improve guest experiences.

It has deployed the Truffle GoBox, a contactless food and beverage locker, along with Epson printers, and today has 16 of these throughout the water park’s various food and beverage facilities.

“The kitchen was having a hard time keeping up with the increase in park attendance,” says Kelly Smiley, Food and Beverage Director, Wild Island Adventure Park.

“Our tickets were slow and most of our guest complaints and poor reviews were regarding food wait times. We needed another option that removed guests from a classic queue line and gave them the opportunity to wait elsewhere while still enjoying the park.”

“Today our guests scan a QR code that is posted throughout the park and choose their menu items, which are then sent to the kitchen to be prepared. Once ready, the food and beverages are placed into one of the GoBoxes, which can only be unlocked by a QR code that the customer receives when the order is ready for pickup.” 

The Jacksonville Jaguars

The Jacksonville Jaguars have partnered with Shift4 to power payments for the NFL team’s ticket sales at EverBank Stadium.

“We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with the Jaguars,” says Dustin Alpert, Shift4’s Head of Sports & Entertainment. “Together, we will give their fans a frictionless ticket-buying experience to help make game day as memorable and enjoyable as possible.”

“The first commercial step in a fan’s engagement with the Jaguars is purchasing their tickets, so it’s really important that we make this transaction as smooth as possible," says Scott Massey, Jaguars Senior Vice President of Corporate Partnerships. “Shift4 will play an important behind-the-scenes role in making the purchase process straightforward, secure and seamless.”

Costa Vida Fresh Mexican Grill

Sparkfly has announced results from its partnership with Costa Vida Fresh Mexican Grill, highlighting significant improvements in the restaurant brand's customer engagement and loyalty initiatives.

Since implementing its suite of solutions less than 12 months ago, Costa Vida reports: 12% growth in reward redemptions; 6.5% increase in email deliverability; 15% increase in email click-through rates.

Costa Vida, known for its fresh, Baja inspired Mexican cuisine across more than 95 locations in the US and Canada, selected Sparkfly to revamp its rewards and offer management technology while improving integration with its customer engagement platform’s email solutions.

The partnership includes implementation of Sparkfly's Offer Management, Loyalty, Digital Wallet, and PoS Middleware Platform.

“Our focus is on operational excellence and we are committed to serving ‘amazing’ – one person, one meal, one experience at a time,” says Wade Allen, President at Costa Vida.

“Sparkfly shares our commitment to quality and has helped us implement a stable, powerful system on a flexible platform that easily integrates with our other key partners. The team has been incredibly collaborative, working closely with us to ensure seamless operations and continuous improvement.”

Boots

LiveRamp has announced a tie up with Criteo, and Boots is onboard as a launch partner.

Uniting Boots’ Advantage Card data with online exposure and offline sales data, the collaboration aims to provide advertisers with more transparent attribution across the retailer’s digital and physical retail environments for improved ROAS.

Ollie Shayer, Omni-Media Director, Boots UK and Boots Media Group, says: “I am proud Boots is at the forefront of this groundbreaking collaboration with two of our key retail media partners. As omnichannel behaviour among consumers accelerates, we now possess unparalleled insights into our customers' shopping journeys.”

“This powerful partnership empowers our brand partners to fully grasp the true omnichannel impact of their on-site activities on Boots.com, driving enhanced performance and deeper consumer understanding."

Meridian Farm Market

Codeless Platforms reports that Meridian Farm Market, a Canadian-based retailer of meat and farm produce, has automated its sales orders and data transfers between SYSPRO, Shopify and its PoS system using BPA Platform.

The business says it has now removed vast amounts of manual data entry, which has improved its overall business processes, and provided access to real-time data and better insight into its sales.

“We're a retail company, so we are using BPA Platform to connect our PoS system to SYSPRO. It pulls the product pricing from the PoS software and updates SYSPRO. BPA Platform then takes that pricing information from SYSPRO and updates Shopify,” says Brody McDearmid, CFO, Meridian Meats & Meridian Farm Market.

“It also uploads the product information, titles, names, and descriptions from SYSPRO to Shopify, as well as updating the inventory levels. All sales data is downloaded from Shopify into SYSPRO, and once it's in SYSPRO we then fulfil the orders. When the orders are fulfilled, BPA Platform then marks the orders as fulfilled in Shopify.”

7-Eleven

7-Eleven has announced an expanded deployment of Gulp Radio programming to 5,000 stores across the US by the end of 2024 and more than 12,000 stores by the end of 2025, which includes all 7-Eleven Speedway and Stripes locations nationwide.

Currently, in more than 4,000 stores, Gulp Radio network offers an opportunity to influence the shopper at the point of purchase by deploying advertising and messaging via in-store audio.

The Gulp Radio network’s expansion is the result of an extended partnership with audio retail media platform Qsic, which has allowed 7-Eleven to more quickly develop and bring audio messaging to market.

Through Qsic’s AI powered creative audio development, 7-Eleven more efficiently generates localised audio advertisements that reach target audiences during peak times, backed by first-party data to measure the impact and determine revenue lift. On average, 7-Eleven store locations with Gulp Radio network (or programming or broadcasting) capability have experienced between 5 – 9% overall sales lift.  

Harrods

Global-e, a platform powering global direct-to-consumer e-commerce, has announced a partnership with luxury department store Harrods.

The collaboration will enable Harrods to bolster its e-commerce strategy in over 200 markets worldwide, woyj the aim of offering customers around the globe a seamless online shopping experience.

Harrods will leverage Global-e’s platform to offer a localised experience for its customers.

Key features include browsing and payment in local currencies, a wide range of local and alternative payment methods, attractive shipping offerings, advanced duty and tax calculations and prepayment for a guaranteed final cost of purchase, and an easy return process.

Levi Strauss & Co.

Levi Strauss & Co. has announced the Levi’s Jeans Fit Guide, leveraging Amazon Alexa technology to help shoppers find the right style and size using interactive voice technology. 

Launching in Germany, the tool guides consumers through a series of questions, ultimately recommending the perfect pair of jeans based on their preferences and body type.

“The Levi’s Jeans Fit Guide underscores our focus on being DTC first by offering our Germany consumers an innovative way to find their perfect jeans fit,” says Lucia Marcuzzo, Managing Director for Europe at Levi Strauss & Co. “It brings elements of the in-person shopping experience to the comfort of their homes and helps to remove some of the uncertainty around style and fit that comes with making an online purchase.”

Foodstuffs

Lobyco has announced a new three-year partnership with New Zealand grocery retailer Foodstuffs to launch an in-house, reward and currency-based loyalty programme across all New World stores.

With a network of over 140 stores throughout New Zealand, New World will use the programme to simplify rewards, improve transparency around value, and enhance customer engagement through several new mobile app features. 

The new rewards currency replaces the previous coalition points-based scheme with a more straightforward system where every dollar spent earns New World Dollars, making it easy for customers to track and redeem rewards. Lobyco will manage the administration of this new programme, integrating with New World’s Point of Sale and e-commerce platforms, as well as its New World app.  

DSQUARED2

DSQUARED2 is partnering with ESW to power its international DTC expansion.

Through the tie up, ESW has enabled DSQUARED2 to offer ship-from-store capabilities, which has resulted in a 12% increase in GMV across its entire online business in the first four months of implementation.

In addition, the latter has seen an 8% increase in checkout conversions this year and an improvement in customer satisfaction ratings, up from 1.5 to 4 on Trustpilot.

"Partnering with ESW has been a game-changer for us,” says Raffaele Nardo, Chief Digital Officer at DSQUARED2. “Its expertise in luxury e-commerce has helped us expand globally and improve our operations. With ESW’s support, we’ve streamlined our import processes and enhanced our online shopping experience, making ESW a key part of our success in reaching more customers around the world."