Starring Vinted, Sitoo, Wonder, and Burberry: check out November’s most clicked RTIH retail technology articles

These are the RTIH retail systems articles that caught your fancy during November, including Paul Hornby departing online retailer The Very Group where he served as Digital Customer Experience Director, Sitoo securing funding from private equity company Verdane as it looks to accelerate global expansion, and the 2024 RTIH Innovation Awards winners being announced at a glittering ceremony in Central London.

2024 RTIH Innovation Awards winners announced, including Currys, Ikea, Clarks, Iceland, Tesco, and Super-Pharm

Last month, we announced the winners from the 2024 RTIH Innovation Awards, sponsored by Vista Technology Support, CADS, 3D Cloud, SCALA, Brightpearl by Sage’s Lightning 50, Retail Technology Show 2025, and Business France.

Our 2024 hall of fame entrants were revealed during an event which took place at RIBA’s 66 Portland Place HQ in Central London, and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by comedian Lucy Porter.

In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “The event is now into its sixth year and what a journey it has been. The awards started life as an online only affair during the Covid outbreak, before launching as a small scale in real life event and growing year on year to the point where we’re now selling out this fine, historic venue.”

He added: “Congratulations to all of our finalists. Many submissions did not make it through to the final stage, and getting to this point is no mean feat. Checkout-free stores, automated supply chains, immersive experiences, on-demand delivery, next generation loyalty offerings, inclusive retail, green technology. We’ve got all the cool stuff covered this evening.”

“But just importantly we’ve got lots of great examples of companies taking innovative tech and making it usable in everyday operations - resulting in more efficiency and profitability in all areas.”

Congratulations to our 2024 winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Lucy Porter, and all those who attended our 21st November gathering.

As Tony Hoggett joins Marc Lore’s Wonder, here’s why Amazon is struggling in the physical grocery space

As Tony Hoggett departs Amazon, where he served as SVP of Grocery, to join Marc Lore’s food delivery startup Wonder as Chief Operating Officer, supply chain consultant and former Amazon executive

Brittain Ladd has taken to social media to argue that his former employer is failing in its attempts to crack the physical grocery market.

In a LinkedIn post, Ladd said: “According to over a dozen sources I spoke with since Tony Hoggett left for Wonder, Amazon’s physical grocery strategy is failing.”

“On 6th July 2021, Amazon hired Tony to be SVP for both physical stores and online. Tony was recruited from Tesco. He is truly an expert in all aspects of running a successful grocery retailer. He learned very quickly that Amazon doesn't understand the grocery business.”

Ladd argues that, instead of solidifying a single integrated grocery offering supported by a best-in-class distribution and logistics network, Amazon chose to build a chain of competing offerings - Amazon Fresh and now Amazon Grocery - even though it had acquired Whole Foods Market (WFM) in 2017.

According to his sources, "Amazon Fresh is struggling to keep products on the shelves because our supply chain is so bad. The stores are nice but sales are low as customers know the products they want will be out of stock. The customer experience is terrible.”

Paul Hornby departs online retailer The Very Group and Digital Customer Experience Director position

Paul Hornby has left The Very Group after spending just under four years in the role of Digital Customer Experience Director.

He joined the multi-brand online retailer and financial services provider in January 2021, reporting to Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Andy Burton.

Hornby, who previously held roles including Head of E-commerce and Head of Transformation at The Very Group, rejoined from Matalan, where he was E-commerce Director for three years.

In a LinkedIn post, he said: “Over almost four years, we have achieved a huge amount together; most notably leading one of the biggest composable migrations in Europe, with the creation of our Skyscape platform.”

“I promised myself when I came back that I’d spend three great years here and then embark upon a new challenge, so now that I’ve broken that promise by a year, we have achieved our goal of migrating

Very.co.uk’s upper-funnel pre-peak, have signed a deal with Apply Digital which will see them complete the programme by the end of this FY, and successfully navigated pre-build with Apply Digital, it feels right to step aside and let the right people focus on the final leg of delivery.

SALESmanago buys SaaS marketing technology conversion platform Leadoo as it eyes European dominance

SALESmanago has announced the acquisition of Leadoo. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Leadoo SaaS platform specialises in identifying, activating and converting website visitors to become buyers, enhancing SALESmanago’s customer engagement solution.

Brian Plackis-Cheng, CEO at SALESmanago, comments: “This strategic move consolidates Europe's marketing automation sector with a formidable combination of Leadoo’s leading web conversion platform and our customer engagement platform.”

“It accelerates our mission to provide a comprehensive, yet simple, mid-market CEP, and is a significant step on our journey to becoming Europe’s number one mid-market platform.”

Fredrik Rönnlund, CEO at Leadoo, adds: "Joining forces with SALESmanago represents an exceptional opportunity for both companies to grow and better serve our shared customer base. We are confident that this merger will help both companies’ current and future customers drive more results from their marketing efforts."

Intermarché partners with Shopic and Capgemini to pilot AI powered smart carts at retailer’s store in France

As part of a collaboration with Shopic and Capgemini, Intermarché has become the first European retailer to trial a smart cart solution at its store in Provins, France (77 - Seine-et-Marne).

Using an AI powered device, each cart can automatically detect items. A clip on device, which can be attached to any standard cart, is powered by computer vision technology.

Customers can track their budget in real-time, check their loyalty points, and see offers and promotions directly applied to their cart total. A long-term goal is to integrate and personalise retail media features (such as advertisements and supplier offers throughout the shopping journey).

Sitoo bags funding from private equity company Verdane as it looks to accelerate global expansion

Swedish firm Sitoo, a provider of cloud-native POS and unified commerce platform solutions, has announced a €26 million minority investment from Verdane.

This will help the company take advantage of what it calls a “massive opportunity” in the US and global markets while strengthening its foothold in the UK and European regions.

“We have seen Sitoo deliver on its growth ambitions with best-in-class execution by Jens Levin and the team since we first met in 2019. Back then they were a local Swedish player with big ambitions and has now become the clear market leader in the Nordics and we look forward to partner with the team to help build the business into a global category leader” says Pål Malmros, Partner at Verdane. 

Burberry taps latest in web 3D and augmented reality technology for first virtual scarf try on experience

Burberry has announced a new immersive AR experience.

This festive season, it is launching its first virtual scarf try on offering.

In a LinkedIn post, Seema Kukadia, Digital Innovation Manager at Burberry, said: “Using the latest in web 3D and augmented reality technology, our new immersive experience encourages customers to virtually explore Burberry’s iconic scarves and visualise how the brand's best known accessory will look.”

Available online via Burberry.com and in select stores, customers can use their mobile phone camera to view the scarf styled on themselves in real-time.

The experience has been developed in partnership with WANNA, a provider of AR and 3D experiences for luxury brands.

Channel 4 Dispatches focuses on dark side of Vinted including fake products and misogynistic websites

A new Channel 4 Dispatches investigation aired on UK TV during October, entitled Vinted’s Dirty Laundry, in which journalist Ellie Flynn took a look into the darker side of the online marketplace for buying, selling, and exchanging new and secondhand items.

Despite going against Vinted’s terms and conditions, the documentary flags a significant number of fake products being sold on the platform.

Flynn also found that there were users who were selling prohibited products, such as open and used beauty items. Recalled products were also in circulation, such as baby sleeping bags and self-feeding baby pillows, as well as some prescription drugs.

Some users have also experienced harassment, hateful language and inappropriate and unwanted messages and images, including a man who suffered threats of violence over a cancelled order.

Elsewhere, Flynn discovered a website where people stole images of women demonstrating and selling items on Vinted and sexualised them alongside derogatory comments..

One of these women, 28-year-old Lydia, appears on the TV programme and comments: “It’s very disturbing. I had no idea this was happening, and it has made me feel extremely unsafe.”

The site, which went by the absolutely foul name of Vinted Sluts and had the tagline ‘When you sell your clothes, but you want the attention’, has now been closed down.