Featuring N Brown Group, Woodie’s, and Ikea: 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 cashierless stores in Hamburg, Germany, Britain’s flourishing pets industry, and a major payments and loyalty partnership.

N Brown Group

N Brown Group reports the launch of a new trading website for JD Williams.

In a LInkedIn post, it said: “This is an important milestone in our digital transformation as it completes our transformational priority to roll-out new websites for all three of our strategic brands ahead of peak 2024.”

“Simply Be and Jacamo’s new customer facing websites have shown positive results since launch. Performing 20% faster than the historic website’s legacy technology, the sites have received external endorsement of their performance, with a doubling of their Google Lighthouse score, a measure based on a combination of performance, accessibility, SEO),and best practice criteria.”

Primark

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has expanded its eight-year partnership with Primark, announcing a new five-year deal involving the retailer’s IT systems and new store openings. 

TCS has been working with Primark since 2016.

As well as driving business critical integration programmes and stabilising core platforms for the retailer, it has also improved cybersecurity capabilities, boosting stability and reliability of processes and systems.

As part of the expanded partnership, TCS will look to transform Primark’s technology operating environment to make it more resilient, reliable, and efficient.

It will also work with Primark to adopt a more agile and product-based operating model by enabling automation through intelligent automation and DevOps technologies.

Andrew Brothers, Chief Information Officer, Primark, says: “To help support our ambitious growth plans we’re expanding our partnership with TCS to build a robust, resilient, and reliable IT operating environment to become a more efficient, technology led global organisation with the agility to quickly adapt to changing demands and requirements in a fast-paced industry.”

“Working with TCS will provide us with the ongoing operational stability and accountability needed to support our business to scale. This will allow us to respond to market trends and customer preferences in a timely manner, ensuring that we continue to deliver quality products at the best value for our customers.”

REWE Group

A second REWE Pick&Go store has opened in Hamburg, powered by Trigo technology.

In a LinkedIn post, the retailer said: “After the successful launch of Europe's largest cashierless supermarket two months ago in the heart of Hamburg, the second store is now ready for operation.”

“Hamburg's First Mayor Dr. Peter Tschentscher gave the official starting signal for the REWE Pick&Go system in Altonaerstraße, corner of Amandastraße. If you don't yet know how such a cashierless shopping works, you should either stop by the store directly or our media centre.”

Customers will be able to choose between four different payment options: at the cash register; by scanning and paying at the self-checkout terminal; via computer vision support without scanning at the self-checkout terminal; or completely cashless when using an app.

The Bshirt

The Bshirt has launched on John Lewis & Partners using the Patchworks Virtualstock to Shopify Blueprint.

In a LinkedIn post, Patchworks said that The B Shirt now had: a unified system across all channels, keeping inventory and orders in perfect sync; time savings from automation; as the business expands across platforms, it can effortlessly expand its tech stack.

Perky Tails

Kammac, a UK-based logistics and supply chain provider, says it is capitalising on Britain's flourishing pet industry with a series of new contracts.

Perky Tails, a UK-based manufacturer of dog toys and accessories, is one such business who has chosen to partner with it. The contract, which began in May this year, sees Kammac as Perky Tails’ chosen storage and fulfilment provider.

Solar Coca-Cola

Descartes Systems Group reports that Solar Coca-Cola, the second largest manufacturer and distributor of Coca-Cola in Brazil, is using its route execution and fleet performance management solution to optimise the last mile delivery performance of 1,400+ drivers across 44 distribution centres and 13 production facilities serving an area that represents 70% of the country.

“We’ve been on a journey to improve the company’s logistics processes through automation,” says Gabriel Montefusco, Logistics Data Analyst at Solar Coca-Cola.

“With Descartes’ solution, we now have one mobile-based platform used by drivers and their supervisors to manage day-to-day route execution.”

“After trucks leave on their routes, the solution continually resequences routes based on real-time traffic information, delivery windows and weather conditions, allowing drivers to perform better and giving supervisors greater visibility into distribution operations.”

Ikea

Adyen has announced a global partnership with Ikea that, it says, will allow the retailer to connect the dots between in-store and digital sales channels and offer better payment and loyalty experiences for customers.

Ikea will tap Adyen’s single financial technology platform to gather customer payment data from both physical and digital channels.

Adyen’s solution also provides a closed-loop payment system offering worldwide processing, acquiring, local payment methods and like-for-like settlement capabilities for Ikea franchisees.

This reduces the amount of contracts and integrations for global IT operations, enabling simplified financial reporting and management of customer data. Adyen’s consolidation of the tech stack behind commercial operations also helps to minimise the risk of operational disturbances and the ability to troubleshoot.

GoWit

GoWit has launched a self-service integration solution that, it says, will allow retailers to set up its retail media advertising (RMA) platform in just 15 minutes for free.

Retailers will have access to the entire offering that includes:

• Targeting capabilities that deliver personalised ads to high intent shoppers using first-party data insights on user behaviour and preferences.

• GoWit’s Sponsored Banners and Sponsored Product Ads boost brand awareness, product visibility and sales.

• Intuitive dashboard, Retail Media Academy and documentation are available to ensure a full self-service experience.

• Retailers and brands can track advertising campaign performance in real-time, gaining valuable insights to make data-driven decisions and optimise their ad strategies.

Maxeda DIY Group

Maxeda DIY Group has deployed Blue Yonder Demand and Fulfilment solutions.

The company has 334 stores across the Benelux region with over 6,500 employees.

It operates under three brands: Praxis in the Netherlands, Brico in Belgium and Luxembourg, and BricoPlanit in Belgium. Maxeda DIY Group’s “Make it Sustainable” strategy aims to make the company and the life of its customers more sustainable. 

It deployed Blue Yonder Demand and Fulfillment solutions in a SaaS environment, providing a single end-to-end demand and supply planning environment for all three company brands.

It says that this significantly improved agility and informed decision-making by integrating processes, resulting in enhanced service levels, optimised stock levels, and reduced manual work that have boosted team motivation and freed up working capital for strategic and high value tasks.

Erno Laszlo

Luxury skincare brand, Erno Laszlo, has selected Cart.com to power its omnichannel growth marketing strategy.

“We are thrilled to partner with Cart.com as we embark on this next phase of our brand's evolution,” says Tiffany Roshanian at Erno Laszlo.

“Their innovative approach to performance marketing, coupled with their deep understanding of the beauty and skincare industry, makes them the ideal partner to help us connect more meaningfully with our customers and achieve our ambitious growth goals.”

Cart.com's growth marketing services are designed to integrate paid social, paid search, affiliate marketing, search engine optimisation and conversion rate optimisation.

Woodie’s

Irish DIY and home improvement retailing company, Woodie’s, has gone live on Virtualstock’s dropship platform.

In a LinkedIn post, Virtualstock said: “Our team members Louie Clark and Tim Hay-Edie had the pleasure of visiting Dublin this week to see the Woodie's team in action, and we couldn't be more excited to share that the first dropship order has officially gone through. And what was the first item ordered, you ask? a Brabantia bin.”

It added: “Huge shoutout to Roisin, who made history as the very first customer on our platform with their bin purchase. It’s these moments that make all our hard work worth it.”

“This is just the beginning of an exciting partnership, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to revolutionise the retail landscape together.”