Including THG Fulfil, Instacart, and Deliverect: 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 HORNBACH Baumarkt, Blue Yonder, One Stop, The Very Group, Puma, CarrefourSA, Lidl Ireland, Shopify, Londis, The Range, Wilko, Primark, and GoWit.

Instacart

Instacart’s FoodStorm (OMS) technology is announcing new capabilities that will be available for retailers starting in October. These include:

• Smoother and more accurate order fulfilment for store associates 

• Customers can see which retailer stores near them have their desired items, so they only have to make one stop for their holiday must haves

• Ability for retailers to update payment options without canceling the original order if customers want to pay using a payment method other than their stored method.

• Easily update order on order pick-up day for both retailers and customers 

Retailers adopting these new capabilities include New Seasons Market, a Good Food Holdings banner.

“We first launched on FoodStorm for the spring holiday season in March 2023, and it was a great success. During the much higher volume holidays in November and December, the increased efficiencies were even more apparent,” says Taylor Goodman, e-Commerce Programme Manager at New Seasons Market.

“Overall, FoodStorm has optimised so many processes for us, and our store associates are sharing positive feedback. We’ve now expanded our utilisation and assortments on FoodStorm and are excited to continue leveraging this technology for holiday reservations this season.”

CDS Superstores

The Range and Wilko’s parent firm CDS Superstores has partnered with THG Fulfil, the delivery solution developed by THG’s Ingenuity arm.

This involves fulfilment and courier management services for the two retailers, including THG Fulfil’s warehouse automation solutions.

Alex Simpkin, CEO at CDS Superstores, says: “This strategic partnership with THG Fulfil will allow us to seamlessly handle pick and pack operations for a large proportion of our product range across each brand, in particular, the exciting relaunch of thousands of Wilko branded items.”

“With THG Fulfil’s advanced automated solutions, we’re able to meet the needs of households across the UK, delivering home and garden products directly to their doors quickly and efficiently.”

Tom Killeen, COO, THG Ingenuity, says: “We believe fulfilment is at the centre of customer excellence and brand reputation.”

“We are dedicated to delivering on customer promises and put the end customer experience at the centre of our decision-making. We are delighted to be part of CDS Superstores’ journey to deliver a world class experience for their customers.”

Primark

Primark reports that 54 new stores are joining its Click & Collect service before Christmas.

The retailer is also introducing menswear to Click & Collect for the first time, launching in its 57 existing stores across England and North Wales from today.

A Primark spokesperson comments: “This is just the next step on our journey to a nationwide roll-out of Click & Collect across all our stores in England, Scotland and Wales by the end of next year. Stay tuned as more store dates and locations will be coming soon!”

HORNBACH Baumarkt

HORNBACH Baumarkt has selected Blue Yonder Inventory and Commits Services, part of the company’s Order Management solutions. 

HORNBACH Baumarkt is the largest subsidiary of HORNBACH Holding. It operates DIY megastores with garden centres and online stores in nine European countries.

It decided to optimise the omnichannel order experience from search through purchase and delivery.

By engaging customers with reliable information at the beginning of the shopping journey, HORNBACH Baumarkt says it will increase conversion and deliver more satisfying shopping experiences.  

It chose Blue Yonder because of “its differentiated approach to optimising omnichannel operations, the deep understanding of the order process, and the unique vision and strategy for the future of the supply chain”.  

Deliverect

Deliverect reports that its restaurant order and delivery solution is now available for the grocery and convenience sector.

Deliverect Retail digitises the entire grocery process, enabling retailers to receive and manage all orders and catalogues in one central location; track real-time sales and performance; and access data from third-party delivery platforms.

Additionally, a new Quest App aims to cut the time to pick and pack orders in half. Deliverect's Retail offering is now available in the UK, with early customers including Spar, EG Group, and One Stop.

One Stop - a retail convenience chain with over 1,000 locations across the UK - tapped Deliverect Retail to streamline its on-demand delivery operations (ODD) at over 800 stores.

Deliverect provided a central hub to manage ODD, enabling One Stop to offer a consistent customer experience, improving end-to-end picking and delivery time, increasing product range from 500 to over 3,000 SKU, reducing inaccurate orders by 30%, and increasing retention rate by 57%, aiding in increased sales and revenue.

With more than 1,000 integrations with apps like Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Just Eat, and Snappy Shopper, customers such as One Stop can manage catalogues and special offers to increase sales all from a single dashboard.

“Since launching Deliverect Retail, we've seen outstanding results. We've doubled our sales, by being able to  increase our product range from 500 to over 3,000 SKUs, which has driven significant sales growth and conversion. Additionally, our pick accuracy has improved by over 30%, and we expect that to continue improving,” says Tim Josephs, Head of Online at One Stop.

“I couldn't imagine not having Deliverect. The features and benefits it has brought to our online business have been significant, and it's really moved us forward in the market.”

The Very Group

The Very Group, which operates digital retailers Very and Littlewoods, has announced the launch of Very Media Group, a reimagining of its retail media proposition in partnership with SMG.

This will leverage The Very Group’s position as one of the UK and Ireland’s largest digital only retailers with 1.4 million daily site visits and 4.4 million active customers.

Jessica Myers, Chief Customer Officer at The Very Group, says: “We have amazing in-house retail media expertise, one of UK retail’s largest data assets, and an outstanding creative team. Now, we’re bringing them together alongside industry leading partners to give brands even better access and connectivity to families in the UK and Ireland.”

“And thanks to our technology partners, brands will have unprecedented levels of insight into their marketing and media activity.”

“We've long known the power of data, and now through Very Media Group our brand partners can harness this to transform their media planning and strategy. This will be a significant step forward in retail media and a major opportunity for us and our partner brands.”

CarrefourSA

AdTech specialist GoWit and Turkey’s CarrefourSA have announced a retail media advertising partnership.

Brands and sellers within CarrefourSA will be able to expand their customer base, strengthen brand awareness, and increase sales by creating effective and personalised advertising campaigns via the GoWit RMA platform.

Emrah Adsan, Co-founder and CEO at GoWit, says: “Our retail media partnerships, combined with the right strategy and customer focus, deliver great value in the field of digital advertising.” 

“We are proud to collaborate with CarrefourSA, the leading brand in the food retail sector. Our cooperation is essential for maintaining a competitive edge in the retail sector and achieving long-term success with retail media ads.”

Verity

Autonomous warehouse drones specialist, Verity, has surpassed 100 client sites worldwide.

The latest addition is a KeHE site in Portland, Oregon, USA, building multiple other locations already equipped in its food distribution network.

Puma

Payrails has announced a partnership with Puma to improve the sports brand’s online shopping experience for customers.

The collaboration will mean shoppers have a wider variety of payment options and receive a more seamless buying experience - no matter where they live in the world or with what method they choose to pay.

Puma will also benefit from improved payment authorisation rates and will be able to enter new markets faster while better serving existing ones.

Payrails says that it enables enterprises to build, operate, and scale payment solutions without the need for costly and complex in-house infrastructure.

Its modular technology and payment provider agnostic approach will integrate with Puma's existing systems - reducing technical complexity and improving operational efficiency.

Payrails' technology will support the integration of multiple payment service providers (PSPs) and alternative payment methods (APMs) across different regions. Its automatic payment routing intelligently directs payments to the most appropriate provider based on factors such as processing fees, purchase location, transaction value, and risk.

Through this partnership, Puma customers shopping online will benefit from localised experiences, featuring dynamic payment pages customised to their specific needs. This includes a suite of personalised payment options and an improved, user-friendly checkout experience.

Lidl Ireland

Lidl Ireland last week re-opened a refurbished and extended store in Headford Road, Galway along with a new store in Boucher Road, Belfast.

Tech highlights include a self-checkouts first and implementation of electronic shelf labelling and the Lidl Plus loyalty programme.

Shopify and InPost UK

Shopify retailers can now download the InPost UK app to give their customers parcel lockers as a delivery option in checkout.

In a LinkedIn post, Neil Kuschel, CEO at InPost UK, said: “Speak to the team if you want more info, but with nearly 8,000 lockers around the country and a rapidly increasing demand from consumers for cost-effective 24/7 flexibility, lockers are the future!”

Londis

Kleo, a provider of EPoS systems and self-ordering kiosks, has entered into a new partnership with Londis, a UK convenience store chain owned by Tesco following its 2018 purchase of Booker Group.

Londis stores will now tap Kleo's mPoS solutions, designed to streamline operations, cut down queuing times, boost staff efficiency, and provide a more seamless shopping experience.

The partnership is with several franchisee locations.