Electronic shelf labels space engulfed in controversy: 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 Fresh, Ocado, Woolworths Group, Takeoff Technologies, Primark, Caffè Nero, Octopus Energy, Alain Afflelou, and Informatica.
Woolworths Group in talks to acquire assets of micro-fulfilment centres firm Takeoff Technologies for $2.5 million
Woolworths Group is working on deal to acquire Takeoff Technologies’ assets for $2.5 million.
The Woolworths Group news was broken on LinkedIn by Brittain Ladd, a supply chain consultant and former Amazon executive, who cited unnamed sources.
Ladd commented: “There are still details being worked out. Note: Woolworths DID NOT buy the company Takeoff Technologies - they only acquired its assets. Takeoff Technologies is effectively out of business.”
He added: “I'm not surprised that the Woolworths Group was the winning bidder as they plan on continuing to utilise Takeoff’s micro-fulfilment centres to fulfil online grocery orders.”
Focus on ML and AI powered robotics as beauty and wellness marketplace Fresha bags $31 million in financing from J.P. Morgan
Fresha, a marketplace platform for beauty and wellness, has secured a $31 million venture debt facility from J.P. Morgan.
The funding will accelerate its expansion into new markets and drive the growth of its machine learning capabilities and AI-powered robotics.
By offering a subscription free business software with embedded payment processing and a consumer marketplace, Fresha helps beauty businesses, such as salons, barbershops, spas, and aesthetics clinics, to streamline their entire operations and connect with more customers.
To date, it has raised over $185 million in venture capital funding, including a $150 million Series C round in 2021 led by General Atlantic.
Fresha lays claim to a network of over 110,000 merchants, with a strong presence in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe.
The platform's reach extends across 120 countries, where customers book tens of millions of appointments monthly. To date, Fresha has facilitated transactions worth over $35 billion in gross merchandise volume.
In 2023, the company grew revenues by 67% year-over-year, with a similar level of performance expected in 2024. It says that it is approaching probability, although it did not provide further details in a press release.
Ocado rolls out same-day deliveries as UK online grocery big hitter offers its customers Express It slots
Ocado has contacted its customers to inform them that same-day deliveries are now available.
In an email, it said: “Need ingredients for tonight’s supper or just craving your favourite snack? Express It.”
“Yep, same-day deliveries are now a thing and we’ve aptly named them Express It Slots. Here’s the gist: you’ll find these new same-day slots on the usual booking page and you have until 11am to book a delivery for after 4pm the same day. All onboard?”
RTIH tested out the service and found that, at 8am on Saturday, 17th August, the earliest slot available was 4.30-5.30pm at a cost of £5.99. There were also slots on offer for later that evening at £4.99.
Electronic shelf labels aren’t the enemy as US Senators press Kroger boss on ‘outrageous’ surge pricing
According to the Senators, “the increased use of dynamic pricing will drive company profits higher - leaving consumers with the bill.”
They wrote: “It is outrageous that, as families continue to struggle to pay to put food on the table, grocery giants like Kroger continue to roll-out surge pricing and other corporate profiteering schemes."
This is a misguided perspective, according to Brittain Ladd, a supply chain consultant and former Amazon executive, who says that he read the letter with amusement.
Alain Afflelou taps Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud platform across global franchises
Alain Afflelou, a franchise provider for optical and auditory solutions, is using Informatica’s AI powered Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) platform to govern the data collected from its franchisees in 19 countries to make business critical decisions.
Alain Afflelou was founded in France in 1972. The company has grown to more than 1,400 independently owned franchise stores throughout the world offering vision and hearing health solutions.
Afflelou’s primary customers are its franchisees, who are autonomous merchants, meaning data definitions, organisation, types and formats vary across geographies, making the governance of data a significant challenge.
Afflelou turned to Informatica to develop a global, cloud-based data management solution that has robust data governance capabilities to ensure data quality and confidentiality.
Comment: Chris Riegel, CEO and Founder of STRATACACHE, talks the new hot digital media opportunity
This year, over $140 billion will be spent on digital retail advertising globally.
Amazon likely captures more profit from its advertising services than through the fulfilment of products. Retail media is being hailed by many as a gold rush, and with these numbers, it is obvious why.
Many retailers are opening up their businesses to drive more opportunities to reach key audiences (and even more importantly key new revenue pools) through retail media advertising.
Seeing this gold rush, one could argue that a frontier that has yet to be fully explored and mined is the store itself. Since the end of the pandemic, online growth has plateaued, and still 93% of all retail dollars are spent in a physical store.
Primark preps London Oxford Street West go live as value retailer continues self-checkout technology push
Primark is continuing its deployment of self-checkouts with a major go live set for this week.
The programme started in 2022 and has seen roll-outs at such stores as Sheffield, West Bromwich, Basingstoke, Kingston and Milton Keynes.
In a LinkedIn post, dated Friday, 16th August, Kerry Hooley, Project Retail Implementation Lead at Primark, said: “It has been a bustling week for Primark, particularly in self-checkouts.”
“This week, the Truro, Broughton Park, Oxford Street East, and Chester stores officially launched their new self-checkouts. Oxford Street West has had excellent training sessions and is ready for next week's go live.”
“Thank you and congratulations to everyone involved for their hard work and dedication in making this successful for our stores.”
Woolworths Supermarkets works with Hanshow on launch of smart carts pilot at Sydney, Australia store
Woolworths Supermarkets is piloting a scan-as-you-go trolley system at a store in Sydney, marking a first for the Australian market.
The technology, developed in collaboration with Hanshow, enables shoppers to scan groceries at their trolley using the Everyday Rewards card and a touchscreen device.
Customers still have to pay at the checkout, but further down the line they might be able to swipe their cards and pay at their trolley.
If the trial is successful, Woolworths says it would look at expanding the smart carts to all Australian stories.
Selfridges and Arcadia Group IT veteran Emma Hubbard joins UK National Lottery operator Allwyn UK
Emma Hubbard has joined Allwyn UK as Programme Director.
She was previously at Selfridges where she served as Head of IT Programmes. Prior to that, Hubbard held the role of Digital IT Programme/Project Manager at Arcadia Group.
Caffè Nero taps Octopus Energy technology platform Kraken as it becomes firm's biggest business customer
Caffè Nero has become Octopus Energy’s biggest business customer, sourcing 100% green electricity to brew coffee.
The retailer is switching more than 630 stores in the UK to Octopus’ Electric Match tariff.
The Caffè Nero Group’s energy will be sourced from three British solar and wind farms in Yorkshire, Wales and Lincolnshire, which are managed by Octopus Energy’s generation arm and enabled by its platform Kraken.
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