Lionel Messi, John Cena, rapid delivery, and TikTok filters: it must be 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 H&M Group, FreedomPay, Kingfisher, Google Cloud, Gopuff, Amazon, The O2, Emperia, Northfork, Jisp, Akeneo, Waitrose, and Karl Lagerfeld.
Waitrose
Waitrose is extending its collaboration with Blue Yonder with the addition of the supply chain solution provider’s forecasting capability.
The move marks the first significant introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) into Waitrose’s forecasting – and is designed to improve the levels of availability across the retailer’s stores.
Rather than relying on historical sales data and human intuition, the AI forecasting capability – part of Blue Yonder Demand Planning – focuses on customer behaviour and analyses ‘why’ customers bought what they did rather than just ‘what’ they bought.
The capability understands and learns from the trading environment to provide a better forecast based on customer behaviour. For example, it will learn how customers responded to a variety of influences including weather variations, major sporting and cultural events and promotions.
The upgrade is part of a significant investment in technology across Waitrose’s supply chain.
Face Haus
Perfect Corp. has partnered with Face Haus to offer AI powered skin analysis, called Skin IQ, at the latter’s facial bar locations, which captures precise details about each guest’s personalised skin care needs.
Launched in 2013 by entertainment industry veterans Karey Burke, Dawn Olmstead and Jenn Worley, Face Haus promises “facials for less by professional estheticians using spa worthy, clean products”.
Inspired by the sunny rays of southern California, it has locations in Los Angeles, CA and Dallas, TX.
The AI Skin Analysis experience allows Face Haus estheticians to enhance their consultation process at their facial bar locations. The technology is, according to those involved, able to provide results on par with medical professionals, 20x faster than traditional hardware devices commonly used in medical spas.
Face Haus esthies will then combine these insights with their own expertise to provide personalised recommendations for skin services and products.
H&M Group
H&M Group is partnering with Rondo Energy to explore the potential for heat storage technologies in its supply chain.
The fashion company is also making an investment in Rondo and joining its strategic investor advisory board.
The pair will explore opportunities for factories in the group's global supply chain to replace fossil fuels with clean heat and power delivered by Rondo Heat Batteries.
Rondo will use H&M Group Ventures' investment to expand its international operations and to develop and build storage projects serving this need.
"Producing and finishing fabrics requires large amounts of low-cost energy, which makes our brick batteries a perfect fit," says John O'Donnell, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Rondo Energy.
"Today, coal delivers most of the heat and most of the carbon pollution making fabrics, because it's always been cheap and simple to burn.”
“But the world is changing. Region by region around the world, wind and solar power are becoming cheaper than fossil fuels. At Rondo, we've created a simple, practical tool to harness those new energy sources."
FreedomPay
FinTech firm FreedomPay has announced the launch of its Donation on Device platform.
In a LinkedIn post, Garrett Brennan, Director of External Affairs & Marketing at FreedomPay, said: “This game-changing platform feature lets you make charitable donations right at the Point of Sale, increasing awareness and support for charity organisations.”
The founding partner for this initiative is Cancer Support Community (CSC).
Brennan added: “We’re making it easier than ever for merchants and customers to contribute to meaningful causes. Together we can make a real difference!”
Uber Eats
Uber Eats has announced the launch of Courier Pick and Pack, pitched as a first in Europe for a delivery platform, where consumers are connected with an Uber Eats courier who will go into the supermarket directly, pick and pack their order and deliver to their doorstep.
Susan Anderson, Uber’s Global Head of Uber Grocery and Retail, says: ‘It’s very clear that grocery shopping trends have fundamentally changed. Our busy lifestyles mean we physically go to the supermarket for a big shop less frequently and prefer to rely more on apps like Uber Eats to order fresh grocery ingredients when we want them.”
“In the UK the trend is fascinating in the way it reflects people’s desire to eat healthily – and their increasing familiarity with using our tech to make their lives easier.”
“We’ve become a global leader in the field, and is the reason why we are launching new products like Courier Pick and Pack, which we believe will change the way that people shop for groceries.”
With Courier Pick and Pack, Uber Eats’ tech connects people with a courier who’ll engage them in real-time about their order as they walk round the store. It means people get what they want, when they want it – including the right substitutions if items are out of stock and personal preference if they change their mind ‘in-store’.
Northfork, Vorwerk Corporate Group and El Corte Inglés
Northfork, a specialist in recipe shopping technology and meal planning solutions, has announced a partnership with Vorwerk Corporate Group and El Corte Inglés.
This will enable customers of Vorwerk Corporate Group’s Multicooker Thermomix to shop recipes directly from the official online platform, Cookidoo, with a checkout experience at El Corte Inglés.
Northfork will provide a software system that enables nearly 8.000 shoppable recipes on Cookidoo, Thermomix’s official online platform.
This initiative will benefit 450.000 Cookidoo subscribers in Spain, where the food retailer El Corte Inglés will provide the grocery assortments linked to Cookidoo recipes.
Users will now enjoy the convenience of purchasing all the ingredients required for their chosen recipes from El Corte Inglés, with the aim of making meal preparation easier and more efficient than ever.
Emperia
Emperia, which has developed flagship virtual stores for the likes of Walmart, BOSS, Lululemon, Dior, Bloomingdale’s, Lacoste, and Tommy Hilfiger, has announced the release of a new offering, a Creator Tools platform which extends its capabilities to digital creators, studios and enterprises, allowing them to develop such experiences in-house.
Built into the new toolkit is a responsive UI which is adjustable to fit the artist’s needs, with no front-end development skills required.
An SDK ensures an extended functionality, with various additional features, including custom user journeys, gamification and others.
For those building a commerce virtual space, Creator Tools also includes a full set of e-commerce, loyalty capabilities and analytics, allowing for data tracking, through a built-in dashboard.
The new offering provides a multi-device solution, which enables cross- screen deployment, from mobile, to VR, all in a native format and from Unreal Engine 5, in one deployment.
Jisp and Bioderma
Jisp says that its Scan & Win solution has enjoyed success in Australia during a four-week long campaign with Bioderma.
Jisp and Bioderma were able to deliver a multi-regional, simultaneous campaign activation in-store, connecting auditable social actions with in-store execution.
The experience was well received by shoppers and was praised by Bioderma for achieving the objective of launching its new range of Serums in Priceline stores across Australia, while also raising brand awareness and advocacy in a market in which it has only operated since 2019.
“This was Bioderma’s first ever time taking part in a campaign of this kind and the Jisp team made this first-time experience for us incredibly smooth sailing and easy,” says Isabella Sinclair, Trade Marketing Coordinator at Bioderma Australia.
“The correspondence from the team was fantastic and questions and queries were always answered so promptly and efficiently.”
“The teamwork and ongoing support that the team showed was also stand out and our feedback was always taken onboard and actioned straight away, for example, making last minute changes to the creative assets.”
“All in all, I had a super positive experience collaborating with Jisp, and look forward to working together in the future.”
JD.com
Chinese e-commerce giant, JD.com, has announced the launch of JD.Vision, a native Apple Vision Pro app that offers an immersive shopping experience leveraging spatial computing.
This made its debut on the final day of JD’s 618 Grand Promotion.
Ahead of Apple Vision Pro’s official release in China on 28th June, JD.Vision features a range of appliances, electronics, and furniture from brands such as Samsung, Casarte, Harman Kardon, MORROR ART, and Honeywell.
Starting this week, users can access it by searching for “京东.Vision” in the App Store on their Apple Vision Pro devices.
Kingfisher
Google Cloud has announced an AI focused partnership with Kingfisher, an international home improvement company and owner of UK DIY brand, B&Q.
Athena, Kingfisher’s orchestration framework, now uses Google Cloud’s Vertex AI to make instant product recommendations, accurate predictions and demand forecasts.
By leveraging Google Cloud technology, Athena is now able to:
Combine the capabilities of Vertex AI Search with Kingfisher’s recommendation engine to help customers find the right tool for the job, in seconds.
Integrate LLM technology with Vertex AI Search to help streamline internal processes, such as answering employee queries.
Kingfisher developers can now experience the the flexibility of either building solutions from scratch or using an off-the-shelf solution, reducing development time from months to weeks.
Karl Lagerfeld
Karl Lagerfeld, the namesake brand of the German fashion designer., has seen a +5% increase in organic SEO traffic on its product pages and a +16% increase in add-to-cart rates, using artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in partnership with Akeneo.
Karl Lagerfeld’s retail offering includes more than 200 mono-brand stores worldwide, with key locations in Paris, London, Munich, Moscow, New York, Dubai and Shanghai.
The brand further connects with consumers through a premium wholesale distribution network in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Its online platform serves 33 countries in nine languages featuring an assortment of approximately 1,800 products, which are refreshed with new collections seasonally every six months.
Karl Lagerfeld had already been leveraging Akeneo’s PIM solution to ensure it had accurate and consistent product catalogues across its shopper-facing touchpoints.
In 2024, it began using Akeneo’s native generative AI (GenAI) functions to support content creation, enhance its SEO performance and transcribe languages for product description pages across its international markets.
It previously used two external freelance copywriters, but after embedding AI into its product experience workstream, it transitioned to a single content editor with a role which now also includes work fine-tuning product content edits and providing feedback to continuously improve AI prompts.
Hudson
A new Hudson Nonstop store has opened at Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) in the US.
Located in Terminal A, this is Hudson’s 15th Nonstop location in North America.
Powered by Amazon's Just Walk Out technology, it aim to provide travellers with a fast and convenient way to shop for must have essentials, food and beverage, and local souvenirs.
Passengers can enter the store by inserting their credit card or tapping their mobile wallet at the entry gate, select their items, and walk out - without any checkout lines.
In a LinkedIn post, Hudson said: “Thank you to our partners at Amazon and Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority for enabling us to make the journey better for the millions of travellers passing through IAD!.”
MET-Rx
MET-Rx, a specialist in sports performance and nutrition products, has unveiled a new John Cena inspired MET-Rx Flex CapCut filter on TikTok.
This is the latest drop from the brand’s recently announced marketing campaign with American actor and professional wrestler John Cena and features its MET-Rx Big 100 Bars.
The filter “depicts a super-sized version of the classic “flexed bicep” emoji inspired by Cena’s own swole physique.
In a series of accompanying new videos, Cena calls on fans to share their biggest flex by using the filter in creative ways, from an amped up twist on traditional bicep curls to show stopping power poses, as they tout their greatest achievements.
The MET-Rx Flex filter will be available for TikTok users to experiment with throughout the summer, and Cena will personally select and respond to some of the most impressive fan flexes.
WSJ
Now, in collaboration with MeetKai, the first ever digital twin of Journal House Cannes Lions will debut in the metaverse.
Available from 17th-20th June, guests attending in person or remotely through any web connected device can immerse themselves in an interactive virtual version that mimics the experience of being physically present onsite.
This will be powered by MeetKai’s AI enabled, digital twin technology and metaverse platform.
Attendees will have greater opportunities to engage with event activities, event sponsors and exclusive content from previous Wall Street Journal Events with the help of AI intelligent avatars equipped with knowledge of the venue and MeetKai’s latest chat feature enabling attendees to interact in real-time.
The O2 and Amazon
The O2 will be one of more than a dozen third-party locations in the UK to offer Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology by the end of this year.
It will be the first indoor arena in England to use the solution, with a new store allowing people to tap their card or mobile wallet, grab their chosen drinks and snacks, and quickly get back to their seats.
The O2 adds to a growing list of UK venues that have opened stores powered by Just Walk Out technology, including ExCel London and The SSE Arena.
Jon Jenkins, Vice President, Just Walk Out technology, says: “We have stores in corporate headquarters like Bentley Motors and Santander Bank, as well as our own Amazon headquarters in London.”
“We’re also in hospitals and universities, including stores at Telford Hospital and Sussex University, and we recently launched a store at Gridserve’s EV Station at Gatwick Airport, with more Gridserve stores coming later this year.”
“By the end of 2024, we expect to be in more than a dozen third-party stores in the UK, as well as in all 20 UK Amazon Fresh stores.”
Gopuff
This past weekend, Gopuff launched the new sports drink Mas+ by Lionel Messi in all its South Florida locations.
And true to form, the quick commerce big hitter wasted no time in going live, stealing a march on its rivals.
In a LinkedIn post, Randy Ornstein, Sr Director of Beverages at Gopuff, said: “The power of Gopuff. We can launch a new brand the minute the supplier authorises us to release.”
“Mas+ by Lionel Messi was launched in all South Florida Gopuff locations Saturday exactly at 7:01pm.”
The company launched with the following:
- In app message featuring the sport drink
- SMS text
- Homepage banner in the Latest & Greatest section
- Premium placement in the Sport Drinks class
- All relevant search terms that consumers would choose
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