Automation, sustainability, and virtual worlds: RTIH pulls together this week's coolest retail technology plays
RTIH Editor, Scott Thompson, brings you his top ‘future of retail’ systems launches and deployments from the past week, including Carrefour Belgium, Magnum, Aldi, Luxe Collective, EE, Ikea, Gopuff, HelloFresh, Decathlon, Eileen Fisher, and Hugo Boss.
Carrefour Belgium
Carrefour Belgium has opened a Carrefour Reeborn pop-up for second-hand items in the centre of Brussels.
In what the retailer is labelling a European first, people can use this to sell second-hand non-food items such as clothing, furniture, bicycles, and toys.
In doing so, they can collect Carrefour Bonus Points and use them to do their shopping in a Carrefour store of their choice.
Said stores are also able to sell their surplus stock of new non-food products through Reeborn.
Further details here.
The pop-up will run from 18th April to 15th September, from Thursdays to Sundays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. It can be found at Chaussée d'Ixelles, 313 in 1050 Ixelles
Luxe Collective
Confer With has announced a partnership with pre-loved luxury industry specialist Luxe Collective.
In a LinkedIn post, Confer With said: “This partnership marks the fusion of live video shopping tech with the epitome of luxury fashion. Dive into a new era of online shopping at Luxe Collective.”
“Luxe Collective's customers can now enjoy a tailored one to one personal shopping experience, bringing the elegance of the store to your screen. 🚀 Join us on this glamorous journey as we bring innovation to the runway of online luxury. Stay stylish, stay innovative!”
Aldi
In partnership with Aldi, Grabango has launched Aldigo checkout-free shopping at a Chicago area grocery store.
Aldi lays claim to being the first major US grocery retailer to deploy checkout-free technology in an existing, full size store.
“The launch of Aldigo is a pivotal moment for the grocery industry,” says Will Glaser, CEO at Grabango.
“Although more challenging, it was important to us to launch this technology in a typical store and not one purpose built for us. Aldi is one of the most innovative retailers in the world, and we are honoured to partner with them to give their shoppers an exciting new way to shop the store.”
The Grabango system was added to an existing store without the need to make any changes to its planogram or product displays.
The technology, which uses computer vision to identify and keep track of every item in the store, allows shoppers to exit the store without waiting in line or scanning items.
Eileen Fisher
Veesual, a Paris-based AI powered virtual try-on platform for the fashion industry, has announced the closing of a $7.5 million dollar seed round led by AVP (AXA Venture Partners) and Techstars.
The investment will accelerate the company’s plans to expand into the US market by opening its first office there, recruiting senior talent, and enhancing its current product offering for American apparel companies.
A cornerstone of this expansion is a new partnership with women’s fashion brand Eileen Fisher.
This will see Veesual’s virtual try-on technology integrated into the latter’s online shopping experience.
"We are thrilled to be the first US brand to partner with Veesual on this innovative new virtual try-on tool,” says Blair Silverman, Vice President of E-commerce at Eileen Fisher.
“We are committed to inclusivity, designing clothes that cater to every body shape. Navigating online shopping poses challenges, particularly in predicting how garments fit diverse body types.”
“Our collaboration with Veesual addresses these challenges head-on and we are proud to be launching a tool that is sure to be a new standard for e-commerce.”
Ikea
Ikea Ireland has opened a distribution centre in Rathcoole, Co. Dublin.
The facility, employing over 200 people, follows investments in six plan and order points, upgrades to the Ballymun store, and a collaboration with Tesco Ireland on an affordable collection service.
Ikea claims that the DC will result in its business in Ireland having one of the shortest delivery times in Europe. Before now, deliveries to Irish consumers required dispatch from the UK. Delivery times will now reduce to three days.
The DC is over 27,000 square metres, has a storage capacity of 20,000 cubic metres – equal to over 258,000 flatpack BILLY bookcases or double the size of Croke Park pitch – and is capable of housing up to 9,000 different product lines, spanning across almost every product in the Ikea range.
The retailer expects the facility to be making more than 300,000 deliveries in the first year of operation, with that figure almost doubling to nearly 600,000 within five years. Eventually the plan is to be able to deliver up to three million items a year from the centre.
Kavanagh’s
A central London grocery store says it is saving almost 1,000 products from being thrown away needlessly, each month, using AI and a monitoring system that reveals when products are close to their use-by dates.
Belsize Park supermarket Kavanagh’s has worked with Smartway, which helps retailers combat food waste, and VusionGroup, a specialist in digitalisation solutions for physical commerce, to install Smartdetection Flash Evo.
The system uses Smartway’s technology to list products that are about to expire. Intelligent flashing labels on shelves, created by VusionGroup, lead workers to each item.
The Smartway AI then guides supermarkets on the best way to discount items to make them appealing to shoppers or facilitates donating the food to charity.
On average, the shop has avoided disposing of 215 products a week, since the system was installed, the equivalent of 1.2 tonnes of CO2 reduction per month.
JLL Retail Property Management
Imaginuity has developed and launched a virtual shopper named Cindy for JLL Retail Property Management at 13 shopping centres across the US.
Created to be a consistent and replicable virtual spokesperson online, Cindy embodies multi-ethnic characteristics designed to resonate across geographically dispersed shopping centres.
She is an extension of Imaginuity’s Pylot platform that aims to create “beautiful, human centred website experiences.”
The Dallas agency’s AI Lab developed Cindy in partnership with The Dealey Group, lead brand agency for many of JLL’s managed shopping centre properties.
The Dealey Group took the lead on creative and content around the vision of making Cindy a “virtual shopping bestie” while Imaginuity brought her to life with a mix of generative AI tools driven by a proprietary recipe of procedures, prompts and modelling.
Informed by JLL’s shopping centre customer profiles, Cindy was created to feel authentic, relatable, and work in different market geographies, from small to large, each with different shopper demographics and psychographic characteristics.
Gather AI
Gather AI, a specialist in computer vision-based AI for warehouse inventory monitoring, has announced two new capabilities - inferred case counting and location occupancy.
With its solution, warehouses can scan up to 900 pallets per hour.
Drones take pictures of each location. The AI analyses the pictures, reading multiple barcodes and text and detecting empty locations.
With this latest release, the solution will show inferred case counts for full and partial pallets and location occupancy percentages on the customer web dashboard, reducing the time and labour of verifying case counts.
It will also help warehouses find space to consolidate inventory, avoiding honeycombing.
Decathlon UK
Decathlon UK has announced Fifty as its media agency partner in a deal that will see the sports retailer utilise AI powered audience insights technology.
Fifty will be responsible for developing and executing its integrated media strategy across all media and channels.
“We're thrilled to partner with Fifty," says Oliver Simpson, Head of Performance Marketing at Decathlon UK.
“Their capabilities perfectly align with our growth goals, with the AI platform showcasing how we can adapt to market trends quickly and more accurately.”
“Early on the Fifty team showed us where we had opportunities to reach new audiences in key growth segments and importantly how to connect with them, an approach that will support long-term brand building and sustainable growth.”
Hugo Boss
Emperia has announced a new collaboration with Hugo Boss, the Boss House Bali virtual experience.
To promote the launch of its spring/summer 2024 collection, the company has opened the doors of the Boss House Bali to a select group of Hugo Boss Experience members, VIP customers, media, and key tastemakers from the Asia-Pacific region.
Taking over a villa on the island of Bali, built by architect Alexis Dornier, the physical activation is an immersive space that showcases the Boss lifestyle, from gourmet dining and cooking classes to wellness workshops and active adventures.
Coinciding with the opening, the brand is extending this to audiences worldwide, launching the virtual experience, developed by the Emperia platform, available globally on hugoboss.com.
The virtual world offers an opportunity to explore the Boss House Bali and shop for Boss products, namely items from the menswear, womenswear, and fragrance collections and additionally to book a physical stay at Boss House Bali.
There is also a gamification element, providing special discounts.
Gopuff
Gopuff has announced the launch of Powered by Gopuff, a logistics and technology platform that, according to the quick commerce big hitter, enables brands to offer affordable delivery from their owned and operated online stores in as fast as 15 minutes.
“We’ve spent the last ten years building and scaling our own hyper-local logistics network and operations to consistently meet customer demands for fast, affordable, and reliable delivery,” says Daniel Folkman, SVP of Business at Gopuff.
“As a result of this work, we've established ourselves as the face of instant commerce. Now, with the launch of Powered by Gopuff, we're also becoming the fabric of instant commerce by extending our proprietary fulfilment and logistics capabilities beyond our app for the first time."
The platform will offer a suite of solutions that help brands deliver on rapidly evolving consumer expectations around delivery speed by leveraging Gopuff’s logistics network, instant fulfilment infrastructure and technology to power their own direct-to-consumer websites.
CPG brands can utilise online ads and marketing to drive sales from their own websites.
Magnum
Magnum has launched its first ever 3D OOH billboard in locations across the UK to celebrate its latest flavours Euphoria & Chill.
The 3D billboard creates a platform to build on the ice cream brand’s latest advert – The Pleasure Express - with the aim of offering audiences an engaging blend of the physical and digital worlds.
The Pleasure Express 3D OOH creative kicks off a summer campaign to support the launch of NPD Magnum Euphoria Pink Lemonade and Magnum Chill Blueberry Cookie.
The immersive 30 second 3D ad welcomes viewers onboard the magical Pleasure Express train to journey to a station marked “Wherever Pleasure Takes You”, showcasing that Magnum is truly ‘pleasure worth waiting for’.
The live action billboard is pitched as the UK’s largest ever 3D OOH campaign - running in 324 sites including malls, D6 and four spectacular large format sites: DeepScreen by Ocean locations Piccadilly Lights in London, New Street in Birmingham, Printworks in Manchester and Liverpool Media Wall.
The solution is designed to generate buzz on social media and earn media coverage.
HelloFresh
UK-based recipe box company and food solutions group, HelloFresh, has opened a flagship automated production facility in Derby. The site, named The Windmill, was opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony by UK CEO Adam Park and Pauline Latham, MP for Mid Derbyshire.
It has created around 300 jobs for the local community to date with more expected in the coming months as it ramps up production.
The Windmill has been developed in partnership with SmartParc SEGRO Derby, a low-carbon food manufacturing campus in Spondon, Derby, to be one of the most sustainable production facilities in the country.
Features include a rainwater harvesting system, a 22 MVA rooftop solar panel array, and a shared heating and cooling system which recycles heat from refrigeration plants and reuses it to heat water and offices across the estate.
The site achieved an ‘Excellent’ BREEAM rating for its energy efficiency and will derive 100% of its energy from renewable sources.
It will also have EV charging spaces, local bus services that are aligned with production times and provide secure bike storage (alongside a cycle-to-work scheme).
Ikea (again)
Ikea has announced an initiative to embed artificial intelligence (AI) literacy across its organisation.
The retailer’s training programmes aim to ensure that co-workers are not just prepared but empowered to lead into the new age of AI.
“Our vision is clear. It’s about enhancing the capabilities of co-workers through technology, ensuring that Ikea continues to be the place where innovation and compassion go hand in hand,” says Parag Parekh, Ikea Retail (Ingka Group) Chief Digital Officer.
Since FY24, Ikea has set targets to provide AI literacy training to approximately 3,000 co-workers and 500 leaders.
According to Parekh, “this effort is a testament to the Ikea belief in the power of its people to harness technology for greater creativity, efficiency, and results’’.
He adds: ‘’Our vision is clear. It’s about enhancing the capabilities of co-workers through technology, ensuring that Ikea continues to be the place where innovation and compassion go hand in hand.’’
EE and Calm
EE is looking to take the stress out of shopping this Stress Awareness Month, by teaming up with Calm, a mental health brand with an app for meditation, sleep and relaxation, to launch three new soothing soundscapes in its Digital Spa.
It comes as research from EE reveals that two-thirds of Brits prefer a relaxing and calm environment when shopping, with 19% admitting they find the in-store experience to be stressful.
When asked about their biggest source of worry while out shopping, Brits admit they dislike overcrowding (22%), while 60% suggest that helpful and knowledgeable staff are important for the overall shopping experience.
The three new soundscapes, Ocean, Rain, and Thunderstorm, feature in the immersive sensory room in EE’s Digital Spa at the EE Studio in Westfield London, White City. They have been curated with Calm to help people take an intentional pause and unwind while out shopping.
ZERO10
ZERO10, which specialises in AR and AI business solutions, has been selected by The Wall Street Journal to participate in this year's The Future of Everything Festival in New York City.
Part of The Lab, an immersive showcase of pioneering technologies and engaging product demos, ZERO10 will be showcasing its AR Mirror offering.
The Future of Everything will be hosting its first annual Lab Preview Night on Monday, 20th May at Spring Studios in New York City from 6:00 p.m. -9:00 p.m.
The Preview Night brings together leading thinkers, doers and change makers for a look ahead at the innovations and ideas that are transforming the way we live, work and play.
Guests will receive an exclusive first look at technological innovations and products the night before the three-day festival begins, including AR Mirror.
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