Starring Eagle Eye, Happy Returns, and RTS 2024: RTIH’s most read retail technology articles from last week
Check out the articles on this here website that caught your fancy last week, including the latest issue of RTIH magazine, Currys, Walmart, Roblox, Shein, Forever 21, Rimi Baltic Group, adidas, Tesco, and Pets at Home.
Focus on influencers and retail technology innovation: sixth edition of RTIH magazine now available in digital format
We’re pleased to launch the sixth edition of our magazine in digital format.
This bumper issue, which made its debut at Retail Technology Show 2024 in London last week, focuses on the 2023 RTIH Innovation Awards, the second RTIH Retail Technology Innovation Report, and the RTIH Top 100 Retail Tech Influencers List.
Download the magazine in pdf format here.
Or read via Issuu.
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Tesco taps Eagle Eye AI and machine learning technology to help grocery giant personalise Clubcard promotions
Eagle Eye has secured a one-year contract, with the option to renew for a further year, with Tesco for its AI powered Personalised Challenges solution.
This is a digital platform which allows retailers to personalise promotions, providing customised challenges designed to reward incremental behaviour.
In-built AI and deep machine learning facilitate hyper personalisation through its analytics capability, providing consumers with promotions more suited to them.
Following a trial, Tesco will roll-out Personalised Challenges to more Clubcard members in the coming months, under the name Clubcard Challenges. The solution will power personalised and gamified offers and promotions to each individual Clubcard member.
AI technology will give each customer a personalised challenge, which when completed, rewards people with extra Clubcard points. Customers can complete up to ten challenges, with a total of £50 worth of Clubcard points up for grabs during a six-week campaign, starting on 20th May.
“Eye opening” Retail Technology Show 2024 pulls in over 12,500 visitors to two day event at London Olympia
Retail Technology Show 2024, which took place at London Olympia last month, welcomed over 12,500 retail professionals to its two-day event, an increase of attendee numbers by +28% year-on-year.
Described by Charles Tyrwhitt’s Nick Wheeler as “eye opening”, the event delivered its biggest innovation showcase to date, with 400+ technology providers and innovators exhibiting across two exhibition halls.
Nourished’s CEO, Melissa Snover, pointed to the sheer breadth and depth of the technologies being showcased this year, commenting: “there’s a huge amount of different people from all elements of retail, and some incredible technologies coming out.”
The RTS 2024 Innovation Awards saw AI powered workforce solution, Orquest, crowned as the winner at the BIG Retail Party on day one.
With a record numbers of award entries, Orquest beat off stiff competition from a shortlist of ten other standout tech solutions, including Pricer, ProGlove and Shopopop.
The conference programme included Charles Tyrwhitt’s Wheeler, Not On The High Street’s Holly Tucker, and former chairman of Asos and CEO of MATCHESFASHION, Nick Beighton.
They joined 120+ other retail leaders and luminaries, including speakers from Primark, Boots, Morrisons, Harrods, adidas and Nobody’s Child, who discussed retail’s hottest topics – from supply chain to sustainability, to leadership and loyalty and from AI to digital marketing and data.
Chris Holyland departs Pets at Home for new Digital and Omnichannel Director role at Currys
Currys has appointed Chris Holyland as Digital & Omnichannel Director.
He will lead the retailer’s Digital & Omnichannel team, with the aim of creating an easy to shop, joined up omnichannel customer experience.
Holyland joins from Pets at Home, where he spent almost nine years, most recently serving as Digital Director.
His CV also includes stints as Head of E-commerce at Boots, and E-commerce Head of Trading for Computing & Communications at Dixons Electrical.
Walmart becomes first brand in Roblox to enable physical purchases as it goes live with groundbreaking pilot
Walmart is now able to sell physical goods directly to users inside Roblox.
Walmart Discovered users will be able to have real-life items shipped directly to their doorsteps.
They will be greeted with a new storefront showcasing virtual twins of select items sold at physical Walmart stores. The feature will be gated specifically to users aged 13 or older in the United States only.
“There is a traditional sort of checkout flow where you put your name, your address and your credit card information, and that’s all powered by a Walmart API that handles all of the information super securely - it’s very safe,” Walmart Director of Brand Experiences and Strategic Partnerships Justin Breton, told Digiday.
“And once you hit checkout, you’ll get your confirmation email from Walmart. All of that is handled by us on the back end, the user will then get their item in the mail, but the virtual twin is granted immediately back on Roblox.”
A pilot will run through the month of May, during which time Roblox will not receive a cut of item sales, with all revenues going directly to Walmart. The short-term aim here is to gauge users’ willingness to purchase physical goods on the platform.
“We are excited to start testing real-world commerce as a key step towards enabling it in the future for our community of creators and brands,” said Roblox VP of Economy Enrico D’Angelo.
“Shopping for virtual items is already an important element of how people engage and express themselves on Roblox daily, so our goal is to gather feedback, test the technology and learn what resonates with Gen Z customers the most when it comes to shopping for physical items.”
Beside the seaside: Rimi Baltic Group tests out Rimi Express unmanned autonomous store in Tallinn, Estonia
Rimi has opened its first unmanned, self-service store in the Baltic.
This is situated in Tallinn (the capital of Estonia) in the Noblessner district located by the seaside.
The pilot project lays the foundation for a possible round the clock shopping experience. The Rimi Express store is a 32 square metre, environmentally friendly wooden building.
Kristel Mets, CMD at Rimi Estonia, calls it a “completely new approach in terms of both technical solutions and customer experience.”
She says: “We chose the Noblessner area, which, with its modern and innovative atmosphere, is the perfect place to test a new store. Here we get a good experience on how to offer a shopping opportunity to both locals and tourists and a large number of people simultaneously during major summer events.”
“We thank everyone who has contributed to implementing this pilot project, and we look forward to the customers' first impressions and feedback."
Retail Technology Show 2024: adidas talks loss prevention measures vs rising tide of theft
The rising tide of retail crime due to cost-of-living pressures and criminal gangs stealing to order was discussed by Corin Dennison, Director of Global Profit Protection and Risk, adidas, at Retail Technology Show (RTS) 2024 in London last month, alongside potential loss prevention measures.
“What is a tolerable inventory shrinkage rate?” asked Dennison in the Theatre B conference stream on 25th April, referring to the retail trade’s name for breakages and internal/external theft.
“Is it a 1% or 5% shrink? The answer really depends on the appetite at each individual firm.”
“We’re retailers that just want to sell stuff easily without friction, and with good customer experiences (CX). Each company must decide on how best to balance this with the security and loss prevention need.”
You don’t want to turn your shop into Fort Knox or too closely video customers against in-store face recognition software to such an extent that it damages CX, and ultimately sales.
Self-checkout may also make enforcement harder.
Comment: avoiding ‘shiny object syndrome’ and staying focused amidst retail technology and innovation hype
Check out this insightful article by Oliver Banks.
Forever 21 onboard as Shein becomes one of the first brands to adopt Happy Returns cross-brand BORIS solution
UPS’ Happy Returns is powering Shein returns at Forever 21 stores in the US.
The company has introduced what is pitched as a first of its kind BORIS solution that enables enterprise retailers to accept box free, label free returns and exchanges across their full store network.
The system includes several software and reverse logistics components.
It can work with any returns portal, be it from Happy Returns or the retailer itself, to generate QR codes for shopper returns. Happy Returns also provides software that allows a store to receive and verify cross-brand returns.
Once a return is dropped off, Happy Returns can provide reverse logistics options to move inventory to its desired location.
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