Asda completes Store Assist online groceries project: last week’s biggest retail technology plays at a glance

RTIH rounds up the stand out retail systems deals, launches, deployments and pilots from the past seven days. Including Regatta, One iota, Adyen, Currys, Titan OS, Brown Thomas Arnotts, Aptos, Represent, HotWax Commerce, UNTUCKit, and RetailNext.

Asda

Asda has completed the roll-out of its new online groceries picking solution, Store Assist, across its estate.

In a LinkedIn post, Kevin Besford, Senior Director - Retail Future, Asda, said: “This achievement reflects brilliant collaboration across the Retail, Tech, E-commerce and the Online Store Assist teams.”

“Thank you for your dedication and hard work! Their expertise has been instrumental as we continue to shape our brand new Asda digital landscape.”

He added: “I want to express my sincere thanks to all our store colleagues who worked tirelessly during this period of change, serving our customers with unwavering commitment. Thanks to everyone involved in the Asda Store Assist programme, a massive cross-functional effort covering 534 stores.”

Regatta

One iota’s in-store staff mobile app has gone live at Regatta’s stores across Ireland, using Adyen’s omnichannel payment solutions.

In a LinkedIn post, Chris Brooks, CEO at One iota, said: “A lot of hard work from all involved and another piece of Regatta’s omnichannel strategy falling into place to further elevate their customer experience.”

“The teams are now into the final stages of the next in-store app and experience, due to land in stores in the very near future.”

Currys

Currys Connected Media, a retail media network from the technology retailer, now offers Connected TV (CTV) advertising thanks to a new partnership with Titan OS.

Following its launch in late 2023, brands such as Samsung, Hisense and Acer have started using Currys Connected Media (CCM) to understand, reach and engage tech hunting consumers.

They can now can reach in-market consumers on 100,000s of Philips and JVC CTVs across the UK and Nordics.

Within the Titan OS operating system, viewers can be intelligently targeted with brand safe, premium ad formats, such as homepage banners and instream ads delivered alongside premium content.

Hy-Vee

Hy-Vee has implemented a series of digital solutions from VusionGroup to help streamline the shopping experience for its customers.

The employee owned chain of supermarkets in the Midwestern and Southern United States has more than 280 locations in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, with stores planned in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama.

It is using the VusionGroup platform to digitalise more than 230 of its stores, which are now able to update product prices and data automatically, rather than the labour intensive process of printing and hanging paper price tags.

The technology allows it to update prices and product information in real-time.

Additionally, the digital shelf tags let employees focus on other tasks such as replenishment, merchandising, and most importantly customer service.

Albrecht’s Delafield Market

Albrecht’s Delafield Market, a family owned and operated supermarket serving the Lake County community in the US since 1994, has selected the ReposiTrak Traceability Network (RTN) to automate the exchange of traceability data with its suppliers.

The FDA’s FSMA 204 food traceability law requires the exchange of information between supply chain operators to documents a product’s path through the supply chain from its point of origin to its Point of Sale.

Albrecht’s use of RTN aims to simplify the traceability process for the supermarket and its suppliers. 

“Food traceability is the law, and as a single store operation it was especially important for us to make the process as easy as possible for our valued suppliers,” says Family Co-owner of Albrecht’s Delafield Market Jordan Jeanpierre.

“Our suppliers will be able to send the data through RTN each time they send us a shipment. That will add yet another layer of safety to our supply chain and visibility to more information about the products we sell than we’ve ever had before.” 

Represent

UK-based luxury fashion brand Represent has selected Cart.com as its US fulfilment partner.

The streetwear label will initially leverage Cart.com’s logistics capabilities and nationwide network of omnichannel fulfilment centres to optimise its retail and wholesale fulfilment operations Stateside.

“We’re proud to partner with Represent, an incredible British luxury streetwear brand that has built a loyal customer following not just at home in the UK, but around the world,” says Joe Barth, Chief Logistics Officer at Cart.com.

“We look forward to leveraging our expertise, 3PL capabilities and nationwide network to support the brand’s continuing growth in the US.”

Brown Thomas Arnotts

Brown Thomas Arnotts, an Irish luxury retailer, is upgrading to the latest versions of Aptos’ Sales Audit and CRM solutions.

Once deployed, it says it will benefit from new capabilities that unlock greater levels of customer engagement and loyalty whilst promoting omnichannel agility.

Aptos Sales Audit and CRM will be delivered via SaaS. Part of the Selfridges Group, Brown Thomas Arnotts encompasses two Irish luxury retailers - Brown Thomas and Arnotts.

Brown Thomas operates five department stores in Dublin, Dundrum, Cork, Limerick, and Galway, along with a BT2 store in Blanchardstown Shopping Centre.

Arnotts, Ireland’s oldest and largest department store, spans 300,000 square feet and features a wide range of designer brands in fashion, beauty, homewares, and more.

To achieve a holistic view of its retail business, Brown Thomas Arnotts will leverage Aptos’ Sales Audit solution. This system consolidates all of Brown Thomas Arnotts’ transaction data, validates and processes that data, and then feeds clean data to various systems and functions across the enterprise.

UCG

HotWax Commerce, a provider of omnichannel order management solutions within the Shopify space, has announced a partnership with Unified Commerce Group (UCG).

Frank And Oak, a Canadian sustainable fashion brand within UCG's portfolio, has implemented HotWax Commerce OMS alongside Shopify PoS, enhancing its omnichannel initiatives such as mobile checkout, buy online pick up in-store, endless aisle, ship from store and buy online return in-store.

UCG embarked on a quest for alternatives to its NewStore mobile PoS, and Shopify PoS emerged as a natural contender, given its existing Shopify e-commerce infrastructure.

However, UCG encountered limitations with Shopify PoS, particularly in advanced store inventory management and omni order management capacities, which were integral to its operations.

It was during this search that it discovered HotWax Commerce. Upon realising that it is pre-integrated with both Shopify PoS and Shopify e-commerce, as well as pre-integrated with Netsuite ERP - the ERP utilised by Frank And Oak - UCG's confidence grew.

UNTUCKit

UNTUCKit has announced a partnership with RetailNext.

Founded in 2011 by Chris Riccobono after he struggled to find a shirt that looked good untucked, UNTUCKit was known first as a digitally native brand, but has rapidly increased its global store estate since opening in New York in 2015, taking its network to 88 outlets, including one in London, with more on the way.

As a digital first brand, UNTUCKit was used to accessing a wealth of insight from across its e-commerce operations to improve online performance. 

However, as the brand grew its store footprint, it felt it lacked access to data from its store estate, especially around store traffic and in-store conversion reporting. This, in turn, was limiting its ability to track, analyse and improve bricks and mortar operations and performance.

Sandra Scibelli, Head of US Retail at UNTUCKit, says: “We needed data to identify pockets of opportunity where we were performing well, and understand what we should do about it, as well as where we could improve. As we started growing, it was clear that we needed one source of truth.”