Including Instacart, Vinted, Jellycat, and BigCommerce: 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 Amazon, Selfridges London, Pricer, Soletrader, Franprix, Saks Off 5th, A2Z Cust2Mate, Instacart, and Aldi.
Online marketplace Vinted sparks outrage among sellers as it ushers in new postage option changes
Vinted, an online marketplace for secondhand clothes, has recently implemented changes that have upset many of its sellers. The platform has altered its settings so sellers can no longer deactivate specific postage options.
Before this change, sellers had the flexibility to select preferred postage options when listing an item for sale.
For instance, a seller could choose to avoid using Yodel and opt for InPost and Royal Mail instead.
Now, the choice of postage provider is solely at the buyer's discretion, a shift that has caused significant discontent among the seller community.
The change has led to a surge of complaints on social media platforms, with users expressing frustration and confusion.
Amazon opens micromobility hub and launches first electric cargo bike deliveries to shoppers in Norwich
Amazon has opened its first micromobility hub in Norfolk at its delivery station in Norwich.
This houses a fleet of new electric cargo bikes which will deliver thousands of packages per week to Amazon customers, taking traditional delivery vans off city centre roads.
Norwich joins more than 40 cities in the UK and across Europe which have Amazon micromobility hubs facilitating electric cargo bike and on-foot deliveries.
As part of a £300 million investment to electrify and decarbonise Amazon’s UK transportation network, electric cargo bikes and walkers are now expected to make millions of deliveries to customers across the UK every year.
Exceptional Jellycat fish and chips pop up at Selfridges London praised for creative store experience
A new and globally exclusive collection features characters inspired by the British dish.
Customers can book a slot and make their order from Jellycat’s Fish & Chips van in the Selfridges Toyshop on floor four.
The pop-up has received a rave review from Brittain Ladd, a supply chain consultant, Top 100 RTIH Retail Technology Influencer and former Amazon executive.
In a LinkedIn post, he said: “I must admit that when I first saw the video that I have posted, I thought I was watching an actual restaurant in action. However, as the video continued to play, I realised that what I was watching was stuffed toys being sold. The fish with a smile on its face gave it away.”
He added: “I believe Jellycat has the most creative store experience I’ve ever seen for any product. The stuffed animals, colours, wrapping, bags and stickers - it is truly exceptional and brilliant.”
“I’m amazed that The Walt Disney Company, Netflix, Amazon or Walmart hasn’t partnered with Jellycat. A TV series or destination shops should be explored.”
French grocery retailer Franprix deploys A2Z Cust2Mate 3.0 smart shopping carts in Paris connected store
A2Z Smart Technologies Corp. has announced the first deployment of its new generation Cust2Mate 3.0 smart shopping carts at Franprix in Paris, France.
Franprix is a grocery chain that operates over 600 stores in France.
The launch is part of a framework agreement with IR2S to deploy 30,000 smart carts until 2026 across retail chains in France.
The A2Z Cust2Mate smart shopping carts that were deployed feature an all in one clip-on panel equipped with AI technology, self-scanning, and in-cart payments for a "pick and go" experience.
The 3.0 carts aim to enable the "connected store," combining online and physical shopping to offer exclusive promotions and personalised product recommendations as if shopping online.
Supermarket loyalty scheme pushes fail to stop rise in discounter switching, new Pricer research finds
Despite aggressive discounting and competitive ‘members only’ offers for loyalty programme customers, traditional supermarkets continue to lose market share to discounter rivals, Aldi and Lidl, according to the latest research by Pricer.
A survey of over 1,000 UK shoppers showed that discounter switching remains rife, with 65% now having switched some or all of their food shop to Aldi or Lidl, a rise of +4 percentage points year-on-year.
51% had moved some of their food spend to the discounters, while 13% said they now do their entire food shop with either Lidl or Aldi.
Younger demographics of shoppers were the most likely to jump to discounter supermarkets, rising to 79% of Millennials, and 78% of Gen Z. Regionally, Londoners were the most likely to change their allegiance away from the traditional grocers and swap to Aldi or Lidl (81%), compared to 60% in the Midlands and 67% in the North.
Footwear retailer Soletrader unveils new headless e-commerce site using BigCommerce platform
Soletrader has launched its new headless and composable website on the BigCommerce platform.
Founded over 60 years ago, Soletrader has more than 28 bricks and mortar stores and concessions across the UK, trading as Soletrader and Sole.
“We had replatformed our previous websites only three years ago, and they were very much still fit for purpose,“ says Marcel Bordon, CEO at Soletrader.
“But we decided to flex our in-house tech capabilities and replatform again to position ourselves at the cutting-edge of technology now and in the future. This is our commitment to continue innovating and evolving our technology to deliver an incredible experience for our customers and our brands.”
The new site taps BigCommerce’s platform to underpin a composable commerce storefront, leveraging Storyblok for content, search and merchandising from Algolia, marketing operations from Klaviyo and hosted on Next.js infrastructure from Vercel.
BigCommerce partner Cygnet Digital oversaw development of the project in a partnership with Soletrader’s in-house team.
Fei Wang departs Chief Technology Officer position at Saks Off 5th to recharge and embark on next chapter
Fei Wang has left Saks Off 5th where he served as Chief Technology Officer.
Saks Off 5th, formerly Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th, is an American off-price department store chain founded in 1990, and a sister brand to the luxury department store chain Saks Fifth Avenue.
Prior to his time there, Wang spent almost 12 years at Amazon, where he held various positions, including Principal Engineer.
In a LinkedIn post, he said: “Today marked my last day at Saks Off 5th, where I have served for the past three years. I am deeply grateful to the leadership, business partners, and tech teams for their incredible support and collaboration.”
“Transitioning from a big tech company to embedding myself within a retail environment has been an enlightening journey. I have gained a profound understanding of how technology drives business growth, addresses enterprise pain points, and enhances the customer journey.”
He added: “I am particularly proud of what my team has achieved over the past three years.”
“From developing a robust data platform and a high performance native app to ensuring fast guaranteed delivery, global inventory availability, CDP, personalisation, marketing optimisation and customer engagement - the list goes on. Our collective efforts have significantly enhanced the customer experience.”
“As I take a small break to recharge, I am excited to embark on my next chapter. Stay tuned!”
Instacart announces first ever global launch of AI powered smart trolley Caper Carts with Aldi
Instacart and Aldi South Group are to expand their partnership globally.
This includes the roll-out of Instacart’s Connected Stores technologies across the retailer’s stores in the US, including In-Store mode and Carrot Tags, as well as fulfilment technology to power e-commerce orders.
And in a European first, Aldi South Group is testing Caper Carts in Austria, Instacart’s AI powered smart carts designed to ease the checkout process and personalise the shopping experience for customers.
Since 2017, Aldi has partnered with Instacart to provide same-day delivery for its customers in the US and will now deploy several Connected Stores technologies to further digitise its stores including:
In-Store mode: This helps customers see what’s in-stock, get important details about items on their list, sort items by aisle, and access in-store promotions and discounts through the Instacart app.
Carrot Tags: These have pick-to-light capabilities, meaning that Instacart shoppers can select an item on their phone and the corresponding shelf label will flash. Carrot Tags have launched in more than 100 Aldi stores in Illinois and Ohio and will roll-out nationwide in the coming months.
Pickup fulfilment technology: By leveraging the technology behind the Instacart Shopper app, Aldi South Group is streamlining fulfilment to power its e-commerce pickup orders.
Caper Carts: Customers can find the carts near the store entrance, start shopping by adding items directly into the cart, and keep an eye on their running total via the digital screen. Checkout is available through a “fast lane” if the customer is paying by card.
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