Greggs and Monzo team on sausage roll ATM in Newcastle: check out 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 Bambuser, Trigo, Simbe, Wing, DoorDash, Walmart, Evigence, Retail Insight, Amazon, Metaverse Group, and Super League.
Greggs and Monzo
For one day only this week, UK challenger bank Monzo unveiled an ATMmmm pop-up in Newcastle - a cash machine that dispensed Greggs sausage rolls.
Every 100th customer to use the ATM received a special trea - a £50 Greggs High Roller gift card.
AJ Coyne, Monzo’s VP of Marketing, comments: “Monzo customers love Greggs, so much so they’ve claimed over 80k free sausage rolls since we launched Monzo perks and Monzo Max.”
“What better way to celebrate our partnership than with a world first ATMmm machine which dispenses sausage rolls, another great reminder that money really does feel different with Monzo.”
Hannah Squirrell, Greggs’ Customer Director, adds: “Our partnership rewards thousands of customers across the UK with a free Greggs treat every week.”
“That’s why we’re excited to be launching the world’s first ever sausage roll dispensing ATM in Newcastle, giving passers-by the chance to withdraw a freshly baked freebie, and yet another reason to bank on Greggs.”
Wing
Following five plus years in South East Queensland, Wing will offer residents living in 26 suburbs in Melbourne’s east the option to order food, beverages, small household items, and other goods on-demand through the DoorDash app.
Amazon
Amazon has rolled out Rufus, a generative AI powered conversational shopping assistant, to all of its US shoppers after introducing the tool earlier this year.
“While it’s still early days for both generative AI and Rufus, we’re excited to hear customers are using Rufus to help them make more informed shopping decisions,” says Rajiv Mehta, Vice President of Search and Conversational Shopping at Amazon.
“As we continue to grow and improve upon Rufus, we’re looking forward to seeing how customers continue to use it to find exactly what they need or want in our store.”
Zara
Bambuser, a provider of interactive video streaming and live shopping solutions, has announced a partnership with Zara.
Bambuser's technology allows Zara to offer an interactive shopping experience, catering to evolving consumer behaviour when online, and including the immersive nature of social commerce and real-time interactions.
“We are thrilled to be the video streaming and live shopping provider for Zara,” says Maryam Ghahremani, CEO at Bambuser.
“This partnership underscores the growing importance of interactive and real-time experiences in the e-commerce landscape. We look forward to supporting Zara enhancing their customer engagement and achieving new levels of success.”
Psycho Bunny
Fashion brand Psycho Bunny has announced the launch of its Flagship Store for Summer Splash on Roblox, in collaboration with Metaverse Group and Super League.
Summer Splash released on 2nd July, within Resort Tycoon 2, a Sims like beach and resort style Tycoon Game with 2.3 million active players.
Players earn in-game currency by building up their seaside resort to attract new visitors to win the game.
The Psycho Bunny Flagship Store is on a tropical island, with a waterfall and upbeat summer music vibes. Psycho Bunny’s Pool Floatie is staged on all sides of the store as you approach, with a selection of colourful polos from the summer collection on offer to players shopping UGC.
UGC are cosmetic items such as shirts, hats, pants, accessories and other unique items that allow the 77.7 million daily active Roblox players to express themselves.
Evigence
Evigence has announced the general availability of its Freshness Management Platform with FreshSense, new sensors with patented chemistry embedded QR codes.
It says that it now offers food companies and cold-chain leaders the data driven freshness insights at the case or unit level needed to boost end-to-end supply chain efficiency, guarantee food quality, reduce food loss, manage compliance and make decisions with confidence.
Evigence has launched multi-mode scanning capabilities, including augmented reality mobile scanning and automatic production line vision, and now immediately uploads the scanned sensor data to the Evigence Cloud for analysis and visualisation that generates in-depth dashboards powered by artificial intelligence.
Simbe
Simbe has announced the launch of two new capabilities – Simbe Mobile and Simbe Virtual Tour.
The former takes the company’s web platform and puts it in the palm of associates’ hands via a customisable mobile app.
Now, store teams have on-the-go access to Simbe’s Tally robot’s prioritised inventory and pricing tasks, virtual store views, and more right at their fingertips.
The latter enables retailers to conduct high-definition, 360-degree interior store walk-throughs that can be navigated anytime, anywhere and taken on a regular (even daily) basis.
This is a departure from the one time, annual snapshot retailers are used to getting through services like Matterport, Simbe claims.
REWE
REWE has brought its Pick&Go store concept to Romania.
In a LinkedIn post, REWE digital said: “Shopping, packing directly and paying at the self-checkout without scanning now also works in the first fully automated PENNY store in Bucharest.”
“Our computer vision and AI technology supported by 500 cameras, 5,000 sensors and 200 image processing units makes it possible.”
It added: “After our hybrid test stores in Cologne, Berlin, Hamburg and Düsseldorf, a fully autonomous REWE Pick&Go in Munich and now five autonomous IKI Go stores in Lithuania, we are now bringing our innovative shopping technology to Romania on a trial basis with Trigo.”
GlassesUSA.com
GlassesUSA.com, an eyewear retailer in the United States, has announced the launch of its Pairfect Match AI technology.
This provides tailored recommendations for each consumer, matching them with the exact product that fits their needs and preferences.
It builds upon the company’s introduction of a Live Try-On augmented reality virtual mirror and a Prescription Scanner app, which allows users to extract an RX from their existing lenses.
EE
Actor, comedian and rapper, Michael Dapaah, aka Big Shaq, this week made a special appearance at the opening of EE’s latest Experience store in Westfield Stratford City.
Dapaah, who started out creating comedy on his phone, cut the ribbon and welcomed customers into the new space.
The Experience store is the next of its kind to open in London, following the launch of EE’s flagship Studio in Westfield London last June.
It will showcase some of the latest and greatest immersive technology which has been specially designed to help guide customers through their connected lives across four key areas – home, work, learn and game – featured in dedicated Experience Zones and a Tech Home area.
Lincolnshire Co-op
Lincolnshire Co-op has extended its AI powered partnership with Retail Insight for an additional four years, as it looks to further reduce food waste across its store estate.
As part of this, Lincolnshire Co-op will roll-out an enhanced version of Waste Trim, the latest feature of Retail Insight’s WasteInsight platform, which aims to optimise stock assortment, minimise overstocking and further cut food waste.
Lincolnshire Co-op is an independent co‑operative, which has been serving its local community for over 160 years, offering a wide range of services from its family of businesses.
Owned by its 300,000 members, it now operates 218 stores within the region, including its Food and Pharmacy stores, Post Office branches and Travel, Funeral and Floristry services.
Gran Pantalla and Screensor Tech
Gran Pantalla and Screensor Tech have announced a project involving the digitalisation of urban transport with DigiTaxi. This has seen the implementation of digital screens with ads inside the latter’s taxi fleet.
Equipped with DENEVA software, these devices offer segmented and geolocated advertising thanks to artificial intelligence and Big Data technologies.
“The implementation of our digital signage software in taxis not only enhances the passenger experience but also opens new opportunities for advertisers,” says Juan Carlos Martín, Sales Manager at DENEVA.
“This is another step forward in the transport sector, where we already have extensive experience, and the trend is the unification of multimodal transport in a single content management platform like DENEVA.”
“Therefore, we are moving towards a more fluid and efficient integration of different transport modes under a single technological solution.”
The 02 and Amazon
The O2 recently became the first indoor arena in England to use Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology, 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.
And it is now working on a second location, set to open later this year.
In a LinkedIn post, Paul Samuels, Executive Vice President, AEG Global Partnerships at AEG, said: “The O2's partnership with Just Walk Out highlights our continuous investment in guest experience and dedication to innovation, ensuring every moment at the venue counts for the fans.”
“Stay tuned as we plan to introduce more Just Walk Out units at the venue, with a second location scheduled to open later this year.”
He added: “As we welcome Amazon Just Walk Out as a sponsor of the world's number one music venue, we are committed to delivering cutting-edge technology solutions for an unforgettable experience. Exciting times ahead, so watch this space for more announcements.”
“Well done Matt Lowen (Partnerships Sales Director at AEG) and Adam Pearson (Commercial Director, The O2) and everyone else involved for all your work on this partnership.”
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