Global grocery giants assemble! RTIH rolls out the biggest retail technology news stories of the week
It’s Friday, the weekend is almost upon us, so let’s kick back and reflect on another eventful week for the retail systems space. Here's your briefing on the most important stories from the past five days, including W23 Global, Best Buy, PLUS Retail, ICA, Wow Bao, Wolt, JD.com, and MediaMarktSaturn.
1. Ahold Delhaize, Tesco and other global grocery retail giants establish collaborative venture fund W23 Global
Ahold Delhaize, Tesco, Woolworths Group, Empire Company/Sobeys, and Shoprite Group, have teamed up to establish a venture capital fund, W23 Global, which will seek to invest in innovative startups and scaleups that deploy technology to enhance customer experiences, transform the grocery value chain and address the sector’s sustainability challenges.
Each retailer is an equal funder and partner in the initiative, while their CEOs will sit on the investment committee.
W23 Global CEO and Chief Investment Officer, Ingrid Maes, says: "W23 is a potentially game-changing international VC fund with a powerful proposition for both our investors and portfolio companies.”
“We aim to offer our investors incomparable access to transformative innovation in grocery and sustainability worldwide.”
“W23 Global will work with its investors to identify common unaddressed challenges and support entrepreneurs to develop solutions, offering faster pathways to global scale for portfolio companies.”
“With leading grocery CEOs on our investment committee, founders can rapidly develop ideas based on an accelerated understanding of retailers’ needs.”
2. Pricer, ProGlove, Shopopop and ReachFive amongst Retail Technology Show 2024 Innovation Awards finalists
The Retail Technology Show Innovation Awards finalists have been announced.
Retail Technology Show 2024 will take place at London’s Olympia on 24th and 25th April.
The “ten trailblazing solutions who are leading the charge in retail innovation, poised to drive businesses forward and ignite competitive advantage” are as follows:
🌟Flip
🌟Scaleflex
🌟Shopopop
🌟Teamwork Commerce
🌟Pricer
🌟Find & Order
🌟Orquest
🌟ProGlove
🌟ReachFive
🌟Solink
The winner will be revealed at the BIG Retail Party, happening from 4.30pm on day one of RTS 2024 at the Champagne Bar.
3. Best Buy picks Google Cloud as AI innovation and strategic partner for several key customer care initiatives
Best Buy, Google Cloud, and Accenture have announced a new collaboration that will involve deploying generative AI (genAI) to improve the experience for the former’s customers looking for support services.
By leveraging Google Cloud's generative AI technology, Best Buy says that it is creating new and more convenient ways for customers to get the solutions they need.
This work will provide customers a self-service option, allowing them to find solutions more independently and will also allow Best Buy customer service agents to better serve customers by providing them with new tools that make interactions more efficient and personalised.
It is anticipated that Best Buy's US customers will be able to connect with a genAI powered virtual assistant for self-service support starting in late summer.
The assistant can help with things like troubleshooting product issues, rescheduling or combining order deliveries, or managing software, Geek Squad subscriptions and My Best Buy Memberships.
Customers will be able to access all of these services while shopping on BestBuy.com, using the retailer’s mobile app, or calling the customer service line directly.
4. Finnish food delivery and technology company Wolt goes live with Wolt Ads service following beta period
Wolt has announced the launch of its own advertising service, Wolt Ads.
Following a beta period, the company is now looking to scale this across its 27 markets.
“We’re delighted to be able to introduce Wolt Ads to more partners. Over the past months, we’ve seen our partners record significant growth in their sales and return on advertising spend,” says Catalina Salazar, Global Head at Wolt Ads.
“While it’s still very early for us in this area, the initial results and feedback from our partners are extremely encouraging and give us confidence that we’re on the right track.”
Wolt, which was acquired by DoorDash in 2022, currently has over 36 million registered users across 27 markets and over 500 cities.
5. Plus Retail teams with commercetools, Contentful, OutSystems to launch new e-commerce platform
PLUS Retail, the third largest service supermarket organisation in the Netherlands, has gone live with a new e-commerce platform.
In a LinkedIn post, Arvid Nieuwsma, Head of Product at PLUS Retail, said that this was inspired by the MACH Alliance.
“We created a headless and composable architecture, as this empowers us to differentiate locally on store level, and keeping up with the day-to-day innovation/best-of-breed choices,” he commented.
Key features: E2E event driven composable architecture, new e-commerce backbone courtesy of commercetools, new CMS (Contentful), new CIAM application (Thales Digital Identity and Security), and new headless front-end (OutSystems).
Nieuwsma said: “One of our ambitions was a faster time to market with features, in order to offer direct value and impact to our end customer. Thanks to feature toggle development and low code velocity we achieved this.”
“Second ambition was to be more flexible to make future choices in the underlying application landscape that better meet the needs, without having to overhaul the entire architecture.”
“Can you imagine the possibilities in differentiation on a local store level in terms of assortment, promotions and loyality programmes?”
He concluded: “We are over the moon that the time has come to accelerate on feature development, on value for the customer, our entrepreneurs and stores with this tech stack.”
6. Swedish retailer ICA teams with Cleveron to deploy robotics-based parcel delivery network in stores across Sweden
Swedish grocery retailer, ICA, has partnered with Cleveron, a specialist in robotics-based parcel handover solutions.
ICA is using Cleveron’s technology to automate manual pick-up points in its stores.
A pilot project between the pair finished in April 2022, and by the start of 2024, the companies had automated 75 in-store pick-up points.
Customers can use these to have their third-party parcels delivered to an ICA store of their choosing.
Cleveron board member Ott Pabut says: “We are thrilled to collaborate with ICA, a leader in the Swedish grocery sector, to redefine the parcel delivery landscape.”
“Our innovative robotic technology, integrated into ICA's network, is not just about automation; it's about revolutionising customer service and store operations.”
“This partnership is a leap forward in our mission to make parcel handover more efficient, customer-friendly, and sustainable. It's an exciting era for retail logistics, and together with ICA, we are setting new benchmarks in the industry."
7. Digital and physical worlds collide as fast casual restaurant Wow Bao hits Roblox and lays claim to a metaverse first
Wow Bao has announced a full integration of its Hot Buns Club rewards programme in the metaverse.
In doing so, it lays claim to being the first fast casual restaurant to integrate a rewards programme and in real life perks in the metaverse.
US-based Roblox players who visit its virtual experience, Dim Sum Palace, can search for clues to unlock a free Bao themed head UGC accessory, free Wow Bao product, and a chance to win Wow Bao for a year.
After they join the Hot Buns Club to claim the limited supply UGC items, they will receive a link via email for a free box of Wow Bao at their local grocer and be enrolled for a chance to win free bao for a year.
Additionally, as a member of the Hot Buns Club they are eligible for exclusive rewards and benefits.
8. RELEX Solutions and European retailer MediaMarktSaturn extend supply chain technology partnership
RELEX Solutions and MediaMarkt Saturn Retail Group (MediaMarktSaturn) have announced an extension to their collaboration.
Since 2017, RELEX has provided MediaMarktSaturn with forecasting, replenishment, and allocation solutions for its around 1,000 stores and 11 distribution centres across Europe.
In early 2022, the RELEX space and assortment planning solutions were added to provide a unified approach to store planning and space optimisation based on consumer demand.
MediaMarktSaturn is now expanding its use of RELEX tech to include advanced planning and analysis capabilities.
This will help it digitalise sales and operations planning, optimise inventory replenishment within sales and inventory targets, and provide planners with advanced insights to diagnose and explain supply chain issues.
9. Innovation in mind: JD.com stumps up one billion yuan in cash incentives to pull in more creators and institutions
Chinese e-commerce giant, JD.com, has announced an investment of one billion yuan in cash incentives aimed at attracting a wider pool of video content creators and institutions to its platform.
It says that the move confirms its commitment to leveraging short videos and live streams in innovating the online shopping journey for its users and providing brand merchants with novel avenues for growth.
For individual content creators, the platform offers cash subsidies across more than 20 product categories, including electronics, home appliances, fashion, and health.
Creators who meet the platform’s recruitment criteria can receive weekly bonuses of up to 30,000 yuan, alongside additional incentives such as video playback subsidies and sales commissions.
On the institutional front, JD has established a separate five-million-yuan incentive programme. Institutions that successfully onboard a significant number of influencers will receive monthly cash subsidies.
JD will also provide one-on-one guidance and support.
10. Parcel lockers specialist InPost brings in DHL and Global-e veteran Neil Kuschel as UK CEO
InPost has announced the appointment of Neil Kuschel as UK CEO with immediate effect.
After a 20-year career with DHL, Kuschel joined the cross-border e-commerce firm, Global-e, as European CEO, taking it through a Nasdaq IPO.
Michael Rouse, CEO InPost International, comments: “We are delighted to welcome Neil to the InPost team at a pivotal time in the UK market as we continue to expand our reach and drive locker volumes.”
“His extensive experience and in-depth knowledge of the industry will prove invaluable as we build on our achievements and continue to accelerate our growth strategy in the UK.”
“I am confident that under Neil’s leadership, InPost is best placed to continue disrupting the UK out-of-home e-commerce logistics market and I look forward to working with him closely.”
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