EE, Superdrug, itsu, and Kingfisher head up March’s biggest retail technology plays at a glance
RTIH rounds up the stand out retail systems deals, deployments and pilots from March, including UNTUCKit, Oracle NetSuite, Attensi, East of England Co-operative Society, Pricer, Dune London, OneStock, Wendy’s, Harrods, Enactor, Robert Dyas, Virtualstock, Boots, and Klarna.
UNTUCKit
UNTUCKit, an apparel brand known for creating “shirts designed to be worn untucked,” is using Oracle NetSuite to automate financial processes, helping to improve the speed and accuracy of reporting, and scale its operations.
Founded in 2011, UNTUCKit began as a direct-to-consumer e-commerce brand offering a single product – men’s button-downs. Today, it operates more than 80 storefronts in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom that offer a range of products from button-downs and Henleys, to swimwear and dresses.
To support its growth and expanding product portfolio and sales channels, UNTUCKit needed to replace its manual financial and inventory processes in QuickBooks in order to improve business visibility and operational efficiency.
Enter NetSuite as its new ERP system.
itsu
itsu, a healthy eating restaurant, is expanding across Europe with the help of Attensi AI, reducing the time it takes to make and translate training content.
By using Attensi AI, the International Training Manager at itsu has overcome several time-consuming barriers that previously added months in content creation time for staff training in multiple locations.
The company says that, as it expands at pace, its training team is now confident that their geographically dispersed colleagues are up-to-date with seasonal and changing training needs across the business.
AI features including automated voice-overs, auto-translations, creative prompts, and co-pilots enable a faster and more efficient roll-out of training across the whole itsu network, providing the same high standards of training in every region.
Lowe’s
RELEX Solutions and Accenture are working with Lowe’s Companies to support its seasonal inventory planning.
The collaboration will bring together delivery, advisory, and industry experience from Accenture, with RELEX’s AI driven technology.
“Our selection of RELEX was driven by their proven expertise in the home improvement retail sector. We were particularly impressed by their advanced, AI driven approach and the flexibility of their inventory management systems,” says Camille Fratanduono, Senior Vice President of Inventory, Replenishment and Planning at Lowe’s.
“RELEX is well known for their automation capabilities and exceptional dashboard. Working with both RELEX and Accenture aligns with our ongoing commitment to leveraging innovative solutions to enhance our business processes.”
East of England Co-operative Society
East of England Co-operative Society, one of the largest regional co-operatives in the UK, has signed an agreement with Pricer for an installation worth 50 MSEK in all 120+ of its food stores and involving the cloud-based platform Pricer Plaza and digital labels.
It has selected Pricer’s in-store automation and communication solution and the latest four colour electronic shelf labels.
The project will start in June and the plan is to have all installations finalised during spring 2025.
Pricer Plaza provides a cloud-based software solution that enables retailers to centrally manage and control pricing, product information, and promotions across all electronic shelf labels in all connected stores.
It eliminates the need for manual updates and reduces the risk of errors, helping with accuracy and efficiency in operations and overall store efficiency by enabling colleagues to focus on other more value-adding tasks.
Dune London
Dune London has implemented OneStock’s order management system (OMS), after consultation with digital commerce agency Tryzens.
Dune London has embarked on a journey to revolutionise and redefine its retail operations across online and offline channels, with the aim of providing a fully omnichannel experience for its customers.
Andy Grainger, Digital Director, comments: “In today’s fast-paced retail environment, staying ahead of customer expectations is key.”
“Our collaboration with OneStock and Tryzens enables us to create a seamless and personalised shopping journey for our customers. It’s more than an operational upgrade; it’s a step towards realising our vision of offering a truly omnichannel experience.”
Wendy’s
Wendy’s has selected PARTech’s loyalty and offer solution, PAR Punchh, to advance its customer engagement efforts.
Wendy’s will leverage PAR Punchh’s AI driven platform and Punchh Enterprise Support to boost its loyalty programme for customers who visit any of its nearly 6,500 locations across the United States and Canada.
It is looking to add gamified experiences, targeted offers designed to bring “great food for a great value” to its customers, and exclusive promotions tailored to individual customer preferences.
Kingfisher
Kingfisher has announced the launch of a home improvement e-commerce marketplace at Castorama France.
The launch follows marketplaces at B&Q in the UK, Brico Dépôt in Spain and Portugal and its Koçtaş joint venture in Turkey.
Castorama France will introduce over 500,000 new products from verified third-party merchants onto its e-commerce channels. This represents a sevenfold increase in the product choice available for the banner’s customers, complementing the c.70,000 products already available directly from Castorama.
Merchants will benefit from a presence on its website, which attracts between 10 and 15 million visitors per month. They will also be able to access retail media solutions offered by Kingfisher.
The marketplace leverages a scalable Kingfisher technology platform built in conjunction with partners at Mirakl. Kingfisher is preparing to launch a further marketplace harnessing this technology at its Castorama Poland banner later this year.
Bestseller
Avery Dennison has announced a partnership with fashion apparel company company Bestseller. It recently deployed Avery Dennison’s distribution centre (DC) solution.
In particular, Bestseller tapped Case Verification to RFID enable its DCs and boost inventory and shipping accuracy for millions of items per year.
Michael Kaufmann, Senior Director, Logistics, Identification Solutions at Avery Dennison, says, “The apparel industry has seen enormous benefits in bricks and mortar stores through RFID technology by boosting product availability and improving the consumer experience.”
“With our recent implementations, we have seen how much more can be unlocked when leveraging the technology more consistently throughout the supply chain to drive accuracy and product availability.”
“Case Verification is a natural next step for us to create more value for brands and consumers, and we are incredibly proud to be partnering with Bestseller on this implementation. Ultimately, this is an important building block for an efficient, fully digitised supply chain.”
Harrods
Enactor has announced implementation of a self-checkout (SCO) system in luxury department store Harrods.
Mike Carrell, Founder and Managing Director at Enactor, says: “The self-checkout market is changing rapidly and we are therefore thrilled that more clients are entrusting us to provide them with a modern solution and next-generation PoS solution powered by our single platform architecture.”
“The launch of this SCO pilot programme with Harrods is not just a business venture but a testament to our shared commitment to excellence, innovation, and mutual growth.”
“We are delighted to continue our journey with Harrods and provide their customers with a shopping experience like no other.”
Superdrug
Superdrug reports that Gophr will provide its pharmacy delivery service. This will allow the delivery of prescriptions across the UK to people who choose Superdrug to provide their medication.
Gophr’s strong standard operating procedures, its ability to track and trace all home deliveries digitally from store to door and how it would offer a best-in-class doorstep experience were cited as major factors in Superdrug’s decision.
The doorstep experience must replicate the security protocols that take place in the pharmacy itself and there are layers of protection in delivery to uphold standards ensuring that prescription medicines are given directly to the people they are intended for.
Robert Dyas
Robert Dyas reports that there are now 500 dropship suppliers on its online store, ranging from startups to well known brands.
Virtualstock's cloud-based SaaS platform links Robert Dyas to its network of suppliers.
This allows the retailer to swiftly and easily onboard new suppliers, and to rapidly expand its online product catalogue for an improved customer experience and enhanced online revenue.
Notably, 70% of the total gross merchandise value (GMV) for Robert Dyas now originates from dropshipping.
EE
The initiative replaces all the current devices used by the company’s guides in-store, allowing them to complete all sales, service and operational processes from one device.
It also delivers 200Mbps dedicated fibre lines in every store via EE’s BT Business SD WAN.
Along with a new cloud EPoS solution provided by Aptos, reducing infrastructure footprint. And new PED devices from Barclays, making everything wireless.
Boots
Boots has rolled out Klarna’s buy now pay later offering across its UK and Ireland online sites and mobile app.
In a LinkedIn post, Andrew Wood, Group Lead Solutions & Delivery UK, Ireland, BeNeFra and Southern Europe at Klarna, said: “Delighted to share that Klarna is now available on Boots.com and Boots.ie, plus the Boots app in the UK and Ireland.”
“It's been such a pleasure to work with the amazing team at Boots UK and my wonderful colleagues at Klarna on this exciting partnership.”
The retailer previously made Klarna’s BNPL service available in over 2,000 stores across the UK, and also for Boots Opticians.
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