Lionel Messi, MLS, and checkout-free stores: RTIH presents the retail technology week in numbers
Do you like numbers? Do you like retail systems news? Then this is the article for you. Including Zippin, Shoptalk 2024, Retail Technology Show 2024, Walmart, REISS, DPD UK, Amazon, and Ubamarket.
4…American soccer club Inter Miami CF (you know, the one that Lionel Messi plays for) has opened Zippin powered checkout-free stores at Chase Stadium, its home ground.
These have gone live ahead of the new MLS season, which kicks off this week.
“We’ve been working tirelessly during our short offseason to introduce technology to decrease wait times and expand the variety of our exceptional food offerings with the goal of elevating and providing a memorable match day experience to our fans at Chase Stadium,” says Laurence McMillon, Director of Food & Beverage.
10,000 and 225…Shoptalk has announced the speaker lineup for its 2024 conference taking place 17th-20th March at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
This will bring together more than 10,000 attendees and more than 225 senior level speakers from top retail companies that include Macy’s, Mattel, Amazon, Canada Goose and P&G, who will share their insights on critical topics such as using AI to transform retail, building brand trust and loyalty, creating unified retail experiences, and navigating changing industry relationships.
Following his special guest appearance alongside Usher during the Super Bowl LVIII halftime show, Grammy Award winning rapper and actor Ludacris will headline the annual Shoptalk Beach Party.
73%…With supermarkets including Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, M&S and Co-op following Tesco’s lead, launching discounted prices exclusively for loyalty scheme members, the popularity of these programmes has risen among price conscious shoppers, according to research from Retail Technology Show (RTS).
However, while discount driven consumers are flocking to sign-up to access member only offers, there remains concern around the use of their data and the fairness of a dual pricing system.
A survey of over 1,000 shoppers by RTS, which takes place at London Olympia on 24th and 25th April, revealed 73% feel loyalty prices are an effective way to encourage them to sign-up as a member.
9.8…Vista Technology Support recently appointed independent industry analysts PMSi to complete a market survey interviewing its tier 1 and tier 2 customers in retail and hospitality businesses.
The survey also included tier 1 retailers that are currently not Vista customers.
The result of the survey was a 9.8 out of a possible 10 and Vista outperformed its competitors in several areas, including the unique capability to provide a full end-to-end suite of IT services to its customers.
$2.3 billion…Walmart and VIZIO have entered into an agreement for the former to acquire the latter for $11.50 per share in cash, equating to a fully diluted equity value of approximately $2.3 billion.
The deal is subject to regulatory clearance and other closing conditions specified in the merger agreement.
Walmart says that the acquisition of VIZIO and its SmartCast Operating System (OS) will enable it to “connect with and serve its customers in new ways including innovative television and in-home entertainment and media experiences”.
2 and 3…Payments firm JCB International Co and Value Retail, creator and operator of The Bicester Collection, have announced the expansion of their partnership for another two years, following an initial three-year tie up.
This offering will be available in eight luxury shopping destinations across Europe.
In line with JCB’s commitment to expand card acceptance across Europe, the partnership started in April 2019.
Beginning with JCB card acceptance at boutiques in Bicester Village (London) and La Vallée Village (Paris), this has extended to additional Villages across Europe.
Over the past two years, this collaboration has resulted in a 51% YoY growth in spending by JCB cardmembers at The Bicester Collection (as of June 2023).
Card acceptance has also expanded to an additional shopping destination, Maasmechelen Village (Brussels).
9…Teamwork Commerce has deployed its mobile Point of Sale (PoS) solution to REISS, the British fashion brand, in all of its US bricks and mortar stores.
The technology has gone live in nine locations across the country.
1…American singer, songwriter and businesswoman Beyoncé’s new haircare brand, Cécred, has gone live on Shopify.
After teasing her fans (aka the BeyHive) about the venture last May, Beyoncé recently took to social media to announce her first ever beauty brand.
Captioning a post on Instagram with “hair is sacred”, an accompanying video interspersed archive footage of her mother’s old hair salon in Houston with clips of hair washing, braiding and Queen B herself.
The brand arrives alongside a world stadium tour announcement and two new singles – Texas Hold ‘Em and 16 Carriages – from the second part of the Renaissance project, set to drop next month.
£1.25 million…IW Capital has announced a further investment of £1.25 million into its portfolio company, Ubamarket, a UK-based firm whose scan, pay and go app enables a frictionless shopping experience, with people using a mobile device with little or no in-store staff involvement.
Ubamarket is live in a number of UK stores and enables retailers to save money on staffing and hardware, while giving them the opportunity to engage and understand their customers better with the data insights collected through the app.
Following technical integrations, store group launches and ongoing retail roll-outs, particularly with Central Co-op, shoppers can use Ubamarket’s patented Magic Shopping Listtechnology to write (and share) lists, be guided around stores, receive personalised app only offers as they go, collect loyalty points, verify their age, tap to checkout and receive a digital receipt all on their own device.
1…DPD UK has topped Money Saving Expert's parcel delivery poll for a ninth time, ending Amazon Logistics two-year winning streak.
52% of retailers plan to use AI enabled video to boost their sales by better understanding the demographics of those leaving stores without a purchase, new research from Hanwha Vision has found.
A further 41% will leverage the technology to better understand how shoppers browse store sections as well as how to optimise store displays.
Overall, leaders consider AI video as a significantly more important tool in boosting their productivity than automation and robotics.
1…An Amazon Just Walk Out technology powered store has opened at Lesley University in the US.
Lesley University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Its students can now experience a frictionless shopping experience on campus, with the likes of snacks and drinks available to buy.
In a LinkedIn post, Brisbane Vaillancourt, Regional Vice President at Aramark Collegiate Hospitality, said: “Today (Friday, 16th February) we opened our first Just Walk Out Store in the Northeast, at Lesley University. Students can now access fresh food, 24/7 and use their meal plan.”
“Technology sure is changing the game in higher ed and it’s tons of fun being a part of it!”
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