Starring Ikea, eBay, and Heineken: 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 Retail Technology Show 2024, MUJI, Fortnum & Mason, RELEX Solutions, Blue Yonder, Walmart, Sainsbury’s, and the 2024 RTIH Innovation Awards.
1. Ikea UK updates on Oxford Street London city store with grand opening set for spring 2025
Ikea UK reports that its Oxford Street city store will now be opening in spring 2025, as an extensive renovation project across all seven floors of the Grade II listed building continues.
It says that significant progress has been made throughout the project – led by Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group, the largest Ikea retailer – which involves creating a home for the Oxford Street city store and developing four floors of office space.
A press release notes: “A renovation of this scale and significance is hugely complex, with some unexpected conditions revealed as the renovation programme has progressed.”
“A need for unforeseen additional work on the lower of the two basement levels was recently discovered to control water ingress, which is now underway.”
Peter van der Poel, Managing Director, Ingka Investments, says: “Ikea Oxford Street is a one of a kind project, involving the sensitive and sustainable upgrade of a Grade II listed building that is over a hundred years old.”
“Following the discovery of an unforeseen water ingress issue, we’re now taking vital steps to mitigate long-term flood risk, and to protect and future-proof this historic building for many years to come.”
2. Retail Technology Show grows number of senior level retailers and retail decision-maker visitors in 2024
Last month, RTS delivered its biggest ever showcase, with almost 400 tech exhibitors on the show floor and 120+ industry luminaries and leaders speaking on its stages discussing the industry’s hottest topics.
As well as drawing an audience of 12,752 retail professionals to the two-day event at London Olympia, it continued to pull in a senior level audience in 2024, according to its latest Post Show Report.
82% of RTS attendees operate within C-suite, senior management or ‘head of’ roles within their respective retail organisations, with the number of C-level visitors growing by +2 percentage points compared to 2023.
This senior level of retail attendees also meant 83% of those retailers attending the RTS either influenced or authorised decisions on retail technology spend within their organisations, +1% higher than 2023.
As with 2023, once again visitors to RTS indexed highly among fashion and grocery retailers, with the highest number of attendees coming from the fashion and apparel sector (27%), up +6 percentage points year-on-year, followed by grocery (22%), which also grew +8 percentage points compared to last year.
Other categories of retailer visitors included DIY, home and garden (9%), general merchandise and health and beauty (both 5%).
One of the biggest draws for retailers was to stay ahead of industry trends and consumer insights (28%).
3. New EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg EV charging station includes REWE Ready autonomous microstore
EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg has opened a NextLevel Ladepark EV charging station in Chemnitz, Germany.
This includes a Reckon AI powered REWE Ready microstore.
In a LinkedIn post, Francisco Vasconcelos, COO at Reckon.ai, said: “Another state-of-the-art microstore, powered by Reckon.ai.”
“Last week was the official opening of EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg NextLevel Ladepark in Chemnitz. This EV charging station has 24 high power charging points and is the first of many.”
He added: “With game changing developments to address different aspects of sustainability, the customers of this charging station have a 24/7 fully autonomous microstore from REWE Ready with approximately 200 products.”
4. Retail technology analyst and influencer Natalie Berg added to 2024 RTIH Innovation Awards judging panel
The awards celebrate global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.
Our 2024 winners will be announced at the 2024 RTIH Innovation Awards ceremony, which will be held at RIBA’s 66 Portland Place HQ on Thursday, 21st November.
Entry forms and FAQs can be found here.
Natalie delivers valuable insights on the trends shaping the global retail sector, with a particular focus on the convergence of physical and digital commerce.
She is passionate about how retailers can enhance the customer experience and has co-authored two books on retail, including Amazon: How the World’s Most Relentless Retailer Will Continue to Revolutionise Commerce.
Natalie hosts the Retail Disrupted podcast and is a regular keynote speaker on the retail conference circuit.
She is an objective TV and radio commentator with frequent appearances on the BBC, Bloomberg and Sky News, and also writes a guest column for Retail Week and Forbes.
In addition to her media work, she is an elected member of the KPMG Retail Think Tank where she provides quarterly insights and analysis on the health of the UK retail sector.
5. eBay taps Certilogo digital ID technology to give brands a new way to encourage circularity of products
eBay has announced a new ‘resell on eBay’ feature that enables users to list their clothing on the platform in a couple of clicks of a button.
Developed as part of eBay’s commitment to creating easier ways for brands and buyers to participate in the circular fashion economy, this will be built into Certilogo’s (acquired by eBay in 2023) Secure by Design digital ID, accessible by scanning a connected product’s smart label.
Italian outerwear and lifestyle brand Save The Duck will be the first brand to pilot the new feature, with its connected garments featuring the new resell button rolling out from May.
eBay plans to expand the service to other brands using the Certilogo Digital ID in the near future, with the goal of making it a default function of its Secure by Design technology.
6. Japanese fashion and lifestyle brand MUJI eyes European growth with new online stores on BigCommerce platform
MUJI has launched new online storefronts on the BigCommerce platform.
With more than 1,000 physical stores around the world, MUJI sells over 7,000 Japanese influenced items ranging from clothing to household goods to food. In Europe, it operates physical stores in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Finland, and online stores that ship to 15 European countries.
“We have an ambitious growth plan in Europe, and we needed a platform to replace our outdated system and provide immediate access to industry leading technology,” says Chuan Huang, Head of E-commerce at MUJI Europe.
“BigCommerce quickly emerged as our best option because of its total cost of ownership, fast deployment, platform agility and flexibility to future-proof our operations. We are already seeing improvements in traffic and conversions since our launch on BigCommerce.”
7. Heineken taps Blue Yonder retail technology as beer brand looks to improve demand planning
Heineken has announced a supply chain planning capability partnership with Blue Yonder.
The global brewer will implement Blue Yonder Cognitive Demand Planning, a cloud native, microservices-based SaaS solution, that utilises artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to improve forecast accuracy and reduce bias by considering dynamic external and internal variables.
Heineken has been implementing Blue Yonder solutions for multiple years.
It has selected the company as one of its current major supply chain solution providers, as it looks to future proof its demand planning process and leverage AI/ML, autonomous scenario planning, planning process orchestration and solution extensibility.
8. Luxury department store Fortnum & Mason taps RELEX Solutions supply chain technology for forecasting and replenishment push
Fortnum & Mason has selected RELEX Solutions for forecasting and replenishment capabilities.
By replacing its existing legacy system with RELEX, the retailer’s goals for the project align with its strategic objectives to reduce waste and ensure world class customer satisfaction.
RELEX partner Demandtex will support the project with implementation and consulting services.
As well as its flagship store at 181 Piccadilly, London, Fortnum & Mason operate several additional travel terminal stores in the UK and Hong Kong; a wholesale and e-commerce business; and several seasonal pop-up stores at various events, all supported through three DCs.
With the new tech, Fortnum & Mason will be able to align demand with supply, ensuring optimal stock levels for both seasonal and event specific products.
The aim is to optimise product availability, increase sales and ultimately elevate the customer shopping experience. By automating and refining replenishment processes, Fortnum & Mason will be able to accurately stock shelves with the right products across a broad range of categories, boost team efficiencies, reduce waste, and streamline supply chain operations.
9. Walmart announces global launch of Luminate as part of mission to become data analytics and insights leader
In 2021, Walmart established Walmart Data Ventures, a division dedicated to bringing to life new business applications of the US retail giant’s first-party data. The aim here is to enhance the customer experience across the entire value chain through Walmart Luminate, a data analytics product suite.
And it has now announced the international expansion of the Walmart Luminate platform beginning with Walmex in Mexico followed by Walmart Canada later this year.
Mirroring the strategy used in the US, this will be a phased launch, starting with shopper behaviour followed by channel performance and customer perception.
10. Sainsbury’s and Microsoft connect as grocery giant looks to boost customer and colleague experience with artificial intelligence
Sainsbury’s and Microsoft have announced a new five-year strategic partnership, using the latter’s artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities and Sainsbury's datasets to help accelerate the retailer's recently announced Next Level Sainsbury’s strategy.
The tie up aims to improve store operations, drive greater efficiency for colleagues and provide customers with more efficient and effective service, delivering stronger returns for shareholders under Sainsbury's Save and Invest To Win programme.
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