Including BrandAlley, Primark, and foodora: 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 Reboxed, Kinaxis, Scurri, PayPal, Adyen, Pets at Home, Brother, East of England Co-op, and Calibre Clothing.

Reboxed

Circular economy startup, Reboxed, has announced the launch of ReboxedOS, an out-the-box solution for consumer electronics recommerce.

It says that the platform helps brands launch and scale co-branded resale, launch trade-in and recycling programmes quickly, and easily to boost revenue and sustainability.

Founded in 2019 during the first Covid lockdown by friends Phil Kemish and Matt Thorne, London based BCorp, Reboxed is on a mission to rehome 100 million devices.

Launched initially as a direct to consumer marketplace place for tech, after being approached by retailers they created a suite of services that aim to “revolutionise how brands and retailers approach recommerce and turn returns into revenue”. 

ReboxedOS is an all-in-one circularity-as-a-service solution that allows businesses to integrate resale, trade-in, and set up recycling programmes, without having to invest in building their own infrastructure. 

Reboxed has thus far helped clients in the telecom sector such as Three Mobile to launch a refurbished technology offering to customers of SMARTY, its sim only brand.It has also partnered with Lebara Mobile and Airtime rewards to scale circular economy solutions for their customers. 

Brother

Japanese multinational electronics and electrical equipment company, Brother, has selected Kinaxis to increase visibility and collaboration within its global supply chain, improve demand forecasting and create more accurate and agile scenario planning.

Brother operates manufacturing, development and sales facilities in more than 40 countries across the globe and exceeds ¥80 billion in worldwide sales with its products and services including the likes of printers, labelling systems, industrial and home sewing machines, garment printers, and digital printing equipment.

The company required a supply chain management solution that could account for its expansive range of products and multitude of industry specific challenges, and provide complete end-to-end visibility.

Calibre Clothing

Australian menswear brand, Calibre Clothing, has worked with Bedford Lane on the launch of a redesigned website.

In a LinkedIn post, Bedford Lane said: “For over 30 years, Calibre has been at the pinnacle of Australian mens fashion, renowned for its blend of modern and timeless style. Our latest collaboration aimed to redefine their online shopping experience, setting new standards for mens fashion.”

Project highlights include:

Transitioned from a complex headless architecture to native Shopify, enhancing speed and agility.

Leveraged Shopify, Searchspring, Okendo, Elevar, and custom cloud functions via Pipedream to support efficient operations and elevate customer engagement.

Enhanced Shopify checkout functionalities, integrated with Apparel21 for a streamlined experience.

BrandAlley

BrandAlley, an off-price premium and luxury brand e-tailer in the UK and France, reports improved business performance by taking full control of its customer delivery proposition - from dispatch to customer notifications - in partnership with Scurri.

In addition, for the first time, it has improved its order tracking facility for customers and can now produce branded dispatch notifications during the delivery process, to increase order visibility.

Based in the United Kingdom, Brand Alley runs flash sales across designer brands, launching multiple sales each day which typically last for a week at a time. The site offers womenswear, menswear, children's collections, homeware and beauty products. 

With a complex logistics operation based out of Kettering, a scaling business, and a growing membership list, streamlining the company’s delivery process was a priority.

It was using a third-party logistics provider but made the decision in May 2023 to bring operations in-house using Scurri’s Connect delivery management platform for managing multiple carrier integrations.

Mint Velvet

Mint Velvet has gone live on Patchworks’ e-commerce integration platform.

In a LinkedIn post, Jim Herbert, CEO at Patchworks, said: “This integration is a testament to the power and flexibility of our iPaaS solution, seamlessly connecting some of the most essential systems in their tech stack.”

He added: “This integration is an enterprise grade integration layer that connects NetSuite, Shopify, Retail Assist Merret, Givex, Centric Software and our MACH Alliance partners Cloudinary and Bloomreach.”

“By bringing these platforms together, Mint Velvet can now enjoy streamlined operations, enhanced data flow, and a more connected digital ecosystem.”

SportsShoes

SportsShoes, a UK-based independent retailer of sporting goods, has launched a new composable commerce website on the BigCommerce platform. 

Limited by its previous legacy system, SportsShoes tapped BigCommerce and its partner ecosystem to modernise its e-commerce operations as part of a £2.5 million website overhaul.  

“We knew there was an opportunity to unlock more revenue from our website, and we took advantage of this project to set a new standard in online sports retail,” says Jon Cleaver, Chief Technology Officer at SportsShoes.

“Replatforming to BigCommerce enabled us to build a best-in-class composable digital experience that is delivering exceptional results and transforming our business.”  

West Ham United

Premier League football team West Ham United has appointed ITD Global as its official e-commerce logistics partner.

As part of the multi-year deal, ITD Global will be responsible for delivering the club’s range of merchandise to fans around the world.

Nathan Thompson, West Ham United’s Chief Commercial Officer, says: “We are thrilled to welcome ITD Global back to the West Ham family. As a former club partner, ITD Global has experienced significant growth, mirroring our own.”

“Their expertise will provide our fans with a top-tier service, especially for deliveries from our online store. We are already collaborating closely with ITD Global to ensure fans worldwide receive their Hammers merchandise quickly and affordably.”

Alain Afflelou

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.   

Trustly and foodora

Open Banking specialist, Trustly, has announced a partnership with food delivery service, foodora.

The tie up will introduce a new checkout service option for foodora customers.

This will be initially launched in Finland, with imminent plans for expansion into other European markets, including Norway, Sweden, the Czech Republic, and Austria. 

Trustly’s technology allows foodora customers to pay for food orders directly from their bank without requiring a credit or debit card.

Pierce Group

Pierce Group, a Sweden-based e-commerce company that sells motorcycle and snowmobile gear, parts and accessories to riders across Europe, has chosen SCAYLE as its new digital commerce platform.

The group’s three online retailers – 24MX, XLMOTO, and Sledstore – will migrate to SCAYLE as part of the launch of a new global, unified, multi-brand platform.

Emilija Frew, CTO at Pierce Group, says: “We were looking for a partner who truly understands our needs as a multi-brand retailer – and found it in SCAYLE.”

“Its deep-rooted experience in digital commerce, the short time  to market, and its extensive set of intuitively configurable features, convinced us to partner with SCAYLE. Its ability to drive efficiency while providing such a flexible platform to create unique customer experiences stands out in the market.”

PayPal and Adyen

PayPal has strengthened its global partnership with FinTech firm Adyen.

This will see Adyen offer Fastlane by PayPal to accelerate guest checkout flows for its enterprise and marketplace customers in the US, with plans to extend this solution globally in the future.

When completing their first checkout with a participating merchant, shoppers can save their card and shipping information more easily using Fastlane. This payment and shipping information can then be prefilled automatically on future purchases everywhere Fastlane by PayPal is available.  

"Adyen's customer base and relationships with enterprises makes them the ideal first Fastlane payment processing partner. This strategic partnership aligns with our goal to make PayPal available everywhere customers shop globally," says Alex Chriss, President and CEO, PayPal.

"PayPal has evolved into a platform of choice for the world's largest commerce brands, technology companies, and payment processors offering seamless and connected commerce experiences to hundreds of millions of consumers and businesses."  

Snap

Snapchat has announced a partnership with ROI Hunter, a product performance management (PPM) tool pitched at e-commerce marketers.

Snap is the third ad platform integrated with ROI Hunter, alongside Meta and Google.

The latter’s technology provides retailers with real-time product performance analytics. The partnership will initially be live in the UK, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain.

Indianapolis Colts

The Indianapolis Colts are to use Shift4’s end-to-end payments solutions to power the NFL team’s ticketing transactions at Lucas Oil Stadium, beginning in the 2024 season.

The Colts will leverage Shift4’s integration with Ticketmaster with the aim of providing a seamless ticket buying experience for fans.

“The Colts strive to create a world-class experience for our fans, from the moment they purchase a ticket to the time they leave the stadium after a game,” says Roger VanDerSnick, Colts Chief Sales & Marketing Officer.

“Our partnership with Shift4, and the use of its technology solutions, will help us make our entire ticketing process even more smooth and efficient for our fans.”

East of England Co-op

East of England Co-op has extended its partnership with Retail Insight for a further three years.

The pair have been working together since 2021, with the retailer leveraging the cloud-based WasteInsight solution to tackle food waste across its estate. 

Powered by cognitive technology, this includes forecasting accuracy, expiration management, dynamic markdowns and donations to charities.    

East of England Co-op taps WasteInsight to drive better expiration management and smarter markdowns using the Prompted and Dynamic Markdown features within the solution.

Its team works with Retail Insight to implement algorithm changes to optimise the time between each markdown, reducing the burden on store associates improving labour productivity.   

As part of its extended partnership, Retail Insight has integrated East of England Co-op’s electronic shelf-edge labels (ESLs) into WasteInsight to drive up labour productivity associated with produce expiration management and markdowns. 

Primark

Primark is continuing its deployment of self-checkouts with a major go live taking place last 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.”

Pets at Home

Pets at Home has announced the re-launch of its Brentford Pet Care Centre as part of its programme to roll-out new concept stores.

This year, the retailer says it is investing in four either existing or new stores to create a ‘concept’ designed to deliver “a truly customer centric experience for pet owners and convey the full Pets at Home omnichannel offering”.

Pets at Home has invested over £1 million in the new look Brentford Pet Care Centre.

It has expanded from 9,000 sq ft. to 14,000 sq ft. and will give local pet owners access to a range of specialist services and in-store experiences tailored to the needs of their furry friends.

The store includes digital and interactive screens to help educate and guide customers through their pet care journey, incorporating interactive experiences. For example, customers can build their own fish tank on-screen.

Brentford marks the second new concept Pet Care Centre opening with the first launched in Hull Anlaby in July. The final two concept locations - Kettering and New Malden - are scheduled to launch later this year.