Including Cimcorp and BigCommerce: RTIH’s biggest retail technology articles on LinkedIn this week
We’re big fans of LinkedIn and are busy building an amazing community of retail tech enthusiasts on the social media platform. These are the articles that are currently on their radars, including REWE Group, White Stuff, Ann Summers, Colruyt Group, Kingfisher, and Piglet in Bed.
REWE Group addresses labour shortages with automated fresh food solution from Cimcorp
REWE Group has partnered with Cimcorp on a project involving an automated fulfilment system for fruit and vegetables at the REWE logistics centre in Oranienburg, Germany, approximately 50 km north of Berlin.
Cimcorp’s intralogistics solution provides order picking for fresh products in plastic crates. The agreement also includes a 24/7 customer support contract.
“Fruit and vegetables are an extremely important commodity group for our customers,” says Lars Sibel, Director SCM and Logistics at Rewe Markt.
“But characterised by heavy physical labour in the warehouses, which makes it difficult to recruit personnel.”
“Cimcorp offers a unique solution to automate fruit and vegetable picking and alleviate physical labor for warehouse workers and thereby ensure the reliable delivery of fruit and vegetables to stores in the future as well.”
RELEX Solutions looks to optimise DC replenishment and inventory management for Colruyt Group
RELEX Solutions has announced a long-term partnership with Belgium-based retailer Colruyt Group.
This is aimed at enhancing Colruyt Group’s inventory management capabilities in order to manage product flow, in line with end customer demand.
The project includes all distribution sites of Colruyt Group that deliver products to the company’s retail banners.
White Stuff makes BigCommerce move to keep pace with customer expectations and evolving shopping habits
BigCommerce has announced the launch of White Stuff, a British fashion and lifestyle brand, on its platform.
“We now have more flexibility to do everything we want in the short-term, and we are ready to adapt to whatever the future holds,” says Steve Borg, Technology and Transformation Director at White Stuff.
Established in 1985 and with over 110 physical stores, White Stuff, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, had prioritised its bricks and mortar stores, but realised it needed to invest in its e-commerce operations and improve agility to keep pace with customer expectations and evolving shopping habits.
SOTI - underwhelming store experiences temper consumer excitement for AI powered retail technology
New research from SOTI finds that, while 95% of UK consumers have used in-store tech, only 23% believe in-store devices – such as kiosks, tablets, scanners and mobile computers – enhance their experience.
The data suggests this is having a knock-on effect on enthusiasm for AI powered retail tech, with only 20% of consumers excited for its arrival in the market.
SOTI surveyed 11,000 global consumers, including 2,000 in the UK.
It found that retailers are failing to meet shoppers’ expectations for in-store tech, with security concerns and lack of staff support compounding consumer dissatisfaction.
When provided with a list of several in-store device options – including self-serve checkouts, in-store tablets and PoS devices – only handheld store scanners were considered by the majority of respondents (51%) to improve the shopping experience.
Common tech complaints included issues with self-serve checkouts (51%) and a lack of guidance on how to use various in-store technology (46%).
Piglet in Bed selects Origin, a PIM solution from Retail247, to manage the brand’s product data
Retail247 reports the selection and deployment of Origin as the product information management (PIM) solution for Piglet in Bed, a bedding and homeware brand.
Recognising the critical role of comprehensive product data management when it comes to saving employee time, as well as enhancing customer experiences, Piglet in Bed chose Origin to streamline and optimise its product data journey.
The first phase of deployment includes product creation with product code and EAN generation, customised logic for mapping commodity codes and setting of the initial price for all price zones.
Future phases will see Origin extending its capabilities to full price change management and digital asset management, as well as integration into Piglet in Bed’s ERP and web platforms.
Vista Technology Support CEO James Pepper talks retail and hospitality technology trends to watch in 2024
2023 brought with it a broad range of macro-economic challenges for the retail and hospitality industry, not only did organisations continue to adapt to post-pandemic changes in consumer buying behaviours but had to contend with rising operational costs, staff shortages and significant increases in stock loss through theft.
In late 2023, there was a noticeable trend that retailers that had previously held back on technology investments, were now committing to introducing new technology in stores; these technologies provide the invaluable connection between online and physical retail.
Fuel Ventures heads up £2 million funding round for post-purchase customer experience specialist PRIMIS
Fuel Ventures has led a £2 million funding round for customer experience platform PRIMIS.
The idea of PRIMIS was first considered in 2020 when CEO and founder, Rebecca Griffiths, pictured below, stepped into the post-purchase customer experience world and saw gaps in the solutions being offered.
In the past 18 months, the startup has launched three products, the main being PRIMIS Track.
It has also signed a partnership agreement with a large UK carrier to support its post-purchase comms journey. The team has grown from a single founder to eight people, including a CPO and COO.
Ann Summers picks Evri to handle all its business-to-customer parcels
Ann Summers, a lingerie and sex toys retailer, has awarded Evri a multi-million-pound delivery contract.
It has been selected as the sole partner to handle all of Ann Summers’ business-to-customer parcels including delivery pick-up, drop-off (PUDO) and returns.
Evri has a network of more than 13,000 PUDO locations including ParcelShops and lockers.
According to the company, delivery to ParcelShops, which are often located in Tesco Express stores, Post Office branches or independent convenience stores, and usually within a ten-minute walk, typically reduces carbon by 45% compared to a traditional home delivery.
Delivery to ParcelShops can also be a more discreet way to receive a parcel, if you, ahem, catch our drift.
Other sustainability initiatives include the use of electric delivery bikes, bio-methane fuelled vehicles and electric ParcelShop vans.
Customers can also upgrade to next day or Sunday delivery with a one-hour or two-hour delivery window. In-flight diversions, branded customer communications and delivery photo for every parcel will typically come as standard.
This announcement follows news in September 2023 that Ann Summers hit over £100 million turnover and revealed plans to open more stores across the UK.
Kingfisher taps Cornerstone OnDemand AI powered solutions for workforce development push
Home improvement retailer, Kingfisher, is leveraging Cornerstone OnDemand’s employee learning and performance management solutions.
With over 2,000 stores and 80,000+ employees, Kingfisher operates in eight countries across Europe under retail banners including B&Q, Screwfix, Castorama, Brico Dépôt, TradePoint and Koçtaş.
It says that Cornerstone’s AI powered learning and talent solutions will enable it to deliver modern learning at scale, ensure compliance, adhere to local legislation and optimise continuous talent development.
A key benefit for Kingfisher is that both Cornerstone Learning and Performance are incorporated into the same organic solution without the need for bolt-on technologies or workarounds.
Biometric payments 'make stores more distinctive destinations for shoppers, boosting their resilience'
Juniper Research is forecasting a substantial growth of 138% in the number of transactions carried out via biometric enabled PoS terminals, up from 19.5 billion in 2023.
It says that in-store biometrics can enable a better consumer experience; allowing retailers to create a highly differentiated physical offering.
This differentiation is key for the under pressure bricks and mortar retail sector, which faces stronger than ever competition from e-commerce, alongside reduced consumer spending, due to the cost-of-living crisis in many markets.
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