Featuring Nibble, Asos, Boku, and Adyen: check out our biggest retail technology articles on LinkedIn this week
We’re big fans of LinkedIn and are busy building an amazing community of retail tech enthusiasts on the social media platform. As we head towards the 20,000 followers mark, these are the articles that are currently on their radars, including Vista Technology Support, Boxbar Tech, Impact Analytics, Diebold Nixdorf, END. Clothing, Studenac, Bambuser, Zara, Lincolnshire Co-op, Parklife Festival, Xiatech, Beef 'O' Brady’s, and SoundHound.
Vista Technology Support acquires Irish retail technology support company Store Computer Technology
Vista Technology Support has announced the acquisition of Store Computer Technology (SCT) for an undisclosed sum.
Vista says that the move further expands its retail and hospitality support capabilities in Ireland and Europe and will strengthen its position as a leading independent retail IT services provider.
SCT was established in 1994 by John Hogan.
It has grown substantially over three decades and now provides IT service desk, in-store technology maintenance and technology refresh projects to some of the most well known Irish and international retail and hospitality brands.
With its head office, service desk, staging centre and warehouses based in Dublin, forward stock locations and field service engineers located throughout Ireland and Northern Ireland, SCT is well established and provides a tried and trusted service support model to over 7,000 retail and hospitality locations throughout the country.
Vista’s M&A activity was led by Lucy Mayer, Vista’s Commercial Director. She has extensive experience in M&A and corporate finance, having previously held senior positions at PWC and Development Bank of Wales.
Impact Analytics adds to leadership team as “use of artificial intelligence in retail hits an inflection point”
Impact Analytics, a specialist in AI powered planning, merchandising and pricing solutions for the retail, grocery, manufacturing and CPG industries, has announced additions to its leadership team.
The company has appointed Maggie Williams Dryden as Vice President and Global Head of Marketing and created three other new business development positions that, it says, “reflect its commitment to accelerating strategic global growth as the use of AI in retail hits an inflection point”.
“These new roles position us to rapidly accelerate our global growth as the retail industry looks at AI to optimise forecasting, planning, supply chain operations, and pricing strategy,” says Prashant Agrawal, CEO at Impact Analytics.
“We have always been deeply committed to supporting women in leadership roles and we are thrilled to welcome Maggie, Michaela, Rebecca and Maria to our team. I have the utmost confidence in their ability to help drive our business to the next level.”
AI negotiation platform Nibble notches up a milestone as Asos taps tech for return of Sample Sale website
Nibble reports that it has hit one million automated negotiations through its platform.
In a LinkedIn post, Jamie Ettedgui, Co-Founder at Nibble, said: “This milestone is one of, if not the largest, human-to-computer negotiation datasets out there, and I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved.”
“Nibble is a long way from the original PDF it started out as. Here’s to many more milestones ahead!”
He added: “A massive thank you to our amazing customers for believing in our technology and trusting it to negotiate with their customers. Your support has made this achievement possible.”
Fast fashion giant Asos, meanwhile, has brought back its Sample Sale website, with brands including Pull & Bear, Topshop and French Association.
This previously proved to be a big hit with shoppers in October of last year and April of this year.
Everything is priced at £5 and for the first time ever it’s possible to haggle over prices using Nibble.
Parklife Festival partners with Boxbar and lays claim to world’s largest full menu, self-service automated bar
Boxbar Tech and Parklife Festival have announced the results of a recent partnership.
This followed on from a Boxbar installation at The Warehouse Project events series in the autumn and winter of 2023.
Parklife Festival is one of the UK’s leading music festivals.
Organised and promoter by The Warehouse Project and Live Nation, the Manchester festival started life in Platt Fields Park, before moving to Heaton Park in north Manchester where it has become the largest metropolitan festival in the UK.
The 2024 edition saw the likes of Doja Cat, Disclosure, Becky Hill and Kaytranada perform across the weekend of 8th and 9th June.
Boxbar's deployment at the event made Parklife the first music festival in the world to dispense a complete drinks menu utilising automated self-service technology.
Lincolnshire Co-op taps Xiatech MACH certified composable integration, data and analytics Xfuze platform
Lincolnshire Co-op has signed a seven-year agreement with Xiatech.
Lincolnshire Co-op, one of the UK’s largest Co-operatives with 300,000 members and more than 220 outlets in Lincolnshire and surrounding counties, will use Xfuze, Xiatech’s MACH certified composable integration, data and analytics platform, to modernise its legacy system landscape and create a single view of all operational data and provide AI powered analytics.
“Lincolnshire Co-op is on an exciting transformation journey as part of our investment in our Purpose Beyond Profit 2023 strategy that will have a lasting impact on the lives of our members,” says Andy Warman, Head of Strategy and Transformation, Lincolnshire Co-op.
“We are excited to have chosen Xiatech as our strategic integration, data management and analytics partner. In just a short time, Xiatech’s team of experts has delivered value through its innovative Xfuze platform.”
Beef 'O' Brady's and SoundHound deploy AI technology to make ordering food as simple and natural as possible
Beef 'O' Brady's, a US-based sports bar and grill chain, has announced a collaboration with SoundHound to enable customers to place phone orders for pick-up via a voice AI ordering system.
The company operates in more than 20 states across the US.
Initially live in all corporate locations - and now available for integration into franchises - SoundHound’s voice
AI technology is trained on Beef 'O’Brady’s extensive menu and designed to understand regular human speech so that customers can order by speaking naturally.
Beyond taking orders, the tech can answer a variety of menu related questions, provide information about specials and promotions, and handle inquiries about opening times, parking, allergens, and other frequently asked questions.
Studenac rolls out electronic shelf labels as Croatian grocery big hitter doubles down on proximity retail concept
Croatian retailer Studenac is rolling out electronic shelf labels (ESLs) across its stores.
Studenac, which is owned by a fund managed by Enterprise Investors, a private equity firm in Central and Eastern Europe, has more than tripled its store network in almost six years, expanding throughout the country via a combination of organic growth and acquisitions, and it sees potential for further growth based on its proximity retail concept.
In a LInkedIn post, Ivana Kršić, Head of Innovation at Studenac, said: “A month ago, I was in Omiš (a town and port in the Dalmatia region of Croatia) setting up the ESL prices in the fruit and vegetables section (with the dedicated team, of course, to which I am very grateful).”
“These were the first ESLs at our store network, which we are testing now. Also, I was trying out the mobile thermal printers in person to see how they work.”
She added: “Today (Friday, 19th July), I spent a day in a store in Zagreb, as a part of the initiative From Office to Store and most of my morning went on fulfilling the shelves with fresh fruits and veggies and removing the old ones.”
“I have to notice that my effort wasn't wasted, and the neat and tidy display actually got the attention of the buyers.”
“I am sure that some of you have real studies that can correlate the presentation with sales results, so be free to post them in the comments. I have seen firsthand that it works!”
Bambuser partners with fashion retailer Zara for video commerce and live shopping push in Europe and US
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.”
Diebold Nixdorf provides self-service checkouts for Dorfladen Freckenfeld – Powered by EDEKA Paul store
The local village store had been closed since May 2023 and was recently reopened with a new operator and a new concept: as a 24/7 grocery store with self-service.
Diebold Nixdorf equipped the store called Dorfladen Freckenfeld – Powered by EDEKA Paul with two DN Series EASY eXpress self-service checkouts for cashless payment.
Both systems run in a special unmanned mode keeping them ready for use at all times, for example, by deleting uncompleted transactions after a timer has expired.
In the mornings, employees are on site to replenish the shelves and assist customers when required.
During this temporary presence of staff, the purchase of age restricted goods such as alcoholic beverages – the range in the village store includes numerous products from local winegrowers – can also be carried out using automatic, AI-based age verification.
When an item is scanned at the self-service checkout, the Vynamic Smart Vision I Age Verification solution from Diebold Nixdorf asks customers whether or not they would like automatic age recognition.
Once consent has been given, the customer's facial characteristics are analysed using a camera installed on the system and sophisticated AI algorithms determine their age. If this age is above a predefined threshold, the transaction can be continued.
Vayu Robotics claims a first with debut of on-road delivery robot and inks deal with major e-commerce player
Vayu Robotics has announced the release of what is pitched as the world’s first on-road delivery robot that combines AI foundation models with lidar less, low cost passive sensors.
This operates autonomously without pre-mapping the roads it intends to drive on and is capable of navigating inside stores, on city streets, and unloading packages on driveways or porches, carrying up to 100 lbs at under 20mph.
Vayu was co-founded by three veterans from the robotics and mobility industry, Anand Gopalan, former CEO who took lidar supplier Velodyne public in 2020, Mahesh Krishnamurthi, formerly of Apple SPG and Lyft, and
Nitish Srivastava, also from Apple SPG and Geoffrey Hinton’s AI lab in the University of Toronto.
Hinton is also an advisor to the company.
Boku announces appointment of NatWest Group veteran Rob Whittick as its new Chief Financial Officer
Boku, a provider of global mobile payment solutions, has announced the appointment of Rob Whittick as its new Chief Financial Officer.
Whittick, a chartered accountant, spent over 25 years at Natwest Group (formerly Royal Bank of Scotland Group) where he held a number of senior roles, including Finance Director for Commercial and Private Banking from 2014 - 2019.
More recently, he served as Group Chief of Staff and a member of the Group Executive Committee reporting to the CEO. He has also recently concluded a three-year term as a Non-Executive Director of Motability Operations Group.
Fashion retailer END. Clothing agrees omnichannel payments partnership with FinTech big hitter Adyen
Adyen has announced a payments partnership with END. Clothing.
The FinTech giant’s technology is aligning both online and offline payments by integrating a unified commerce offering to END. Clothing.
The retailer benefits from a holistic view of its customers, allowing it to identify repeat, loyal shoppers and offer them a tailored user experience.
To fuel END. Clothing’s global expansion plans, it sought a partner that could offer a reliable and seamless service regardless of the customer’s location. Adyen was chosen because it can process multiple types of payment methods locally.
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