Including Walmart, Zalando, and bol: RTIH brings you this week's biggest retail tech stories

It's Friday, the weekend is almost upon us, so let’s kick back and reflect on another eventful week for the retail systems space. Here's your briefing on the most important stories from the past few days, including Frasers Group, Veloq, AutoStore, Walmart, Avery Dennison, Tesco, Morrisons, and VusionGroup.

1. Frasers Group becomes first European retailer to tap commercetools agentic commerce suite

Frasers Group is set to become the first major European retailer to deploy commercetools’ agentic commerce offering - including AI Hub and the Agent Gateway - enabling shoppers to discover and purchase products from its retail ecosystem (which includes Sports Direct) directly within AI shopping channels such as ChatGPT via the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP).

"The digital customer ecosystem is evolving faster than ever before, and so are customers’ expectations,” says David Clark, Chief Customer Officer at Frasers Group.

“With this partnership, Frasers Group is now at the forefront of this evolution to deliver enhanced customer experiences across ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity – including native checkout in ChatGPT - across Sports Direct, FLANNELS and FRASERS. This marks a shift in our digital capabilities, delivering an even more intuitive and personalised shopping experience for our consumers.”

“Crucially, it builds on our group wide investment into cutting-edge MACH architecture to lead the group into a new era of seamless agentic commerce.”

2. Rohlik Group spin-out Veloq takes wraps off new grocery fulfilment centre and connects with AutoStore

Veloq, an automation company within Czech online grocer, Rohlik Group, has unveiled a new AI driven grocery fulfilment centre in Vienna.

The launch also marks the announcement of a global partnership with AutoStore.

The facility is pitched as the first AutoStore grid worldwide to integrate real-time expedition, automatically sorting picked orders by delivery route. According to those involved, this eliminates manual sorting and increases throughput while reducing time, labour and cost. It can also be adapted to different fulfillment formats, from large central hubs to smaller purpose built sites, lowering the threshold for retailers to adopt automation.

Orders from a range of up to 20,000 SKUs, can now be routed for delivery in under 30 minutes. These SKUs represent individual products  including fresh produce, bakery and pharmacy.

Under the agreement, Veloq will deploy AutoStore technology with its proprietary software to help grocers tap the same automation that has powered Rohlik’s growth over the past decade. 

3. Sarah Haywood joins executive team at motoring and cycling products retailer Halfords as new CIO

Halfords has announced the appointment of Sarah Haywood as its new CIO.

She was most recently at Carlsberg Group, where she also served as Chief Information Officer.

"Sarah joins us with a fantastic track record of tech leadership across companies like Cadbury Schweppes, Kraft Foods and Mondelēz," says Henry Birch, Group Chief Executive at Halfords Group.

"She will be a fantastic addition to our executive team and we are very excited for her to join the 'One Halfords Family' at the beginning of November."

Haywood comments: "After a well earned break with my family I am delighted to share that I will be joining the executive team at Halfords as their CIO. Halfords is a fantastic business with a unique position in the UK market providing retail and services across motoring, cycling and leisure.”

“Over the coming years digital transformation will play a key role in shaping the future of the business and I am very excited about being part of that journey. Thanks to Hnery Birch for trusting me with this opportunity."

4. Bealls notches up a digital and cryptocurrencies first as it connects with PayTech firm Flexa

Bealls, which operates more than 660 stores across the United States, has announced a new in-store payments integration with Flexa.

This will see it became the first national retailer to accept digital currencies from any crypto wallet app across more than a dozen blockchains simultaneously, supporting a range of assets from stable coins to meme coins. Shoppers will be able to pay using popular digital currencies across bealls, Bealls Florida, and Home Centric banners.

“The retail legacy that Bealls has built over the last 110 years is simply incredible, and it’s no surprise that a company with this much staying power is now adopting the most important payments technology evolution the world has ever seen,” says Trevor Filter, Co-founder at Flexa.

“We’ve truly enjoyed getting to know the Bealls team over the last few years and are delighted to have Flexa play such an important supporting role in their journey going forward.”

The integration will use Flexa Payments, a solution that provides merchants with a way to accept over 99 digital currencies, including Bitcoin, Ether, and stablecoins like USDC, from more than 300 digital currency wallets. Designed to integrate directly with existing retail systems, Flexa Payments works across mobile, in-app, and in-store contexts, with the promise of sub-second transaction speeds and automatic updates as new currencies and wallet apps are introduced.

“Digital currency will reshape how the world transacts, and Bealls is proud to be at the forefront of that transformation. Our partnership with Flexa is about more than payments; it’s about preparing for the future of commerce and continuing to innovate for the next 110 years,” says Matt Beall, Chairman and CEO at Bealls Inc.

5. Worldpay inks omnichannel payments processing deal with American retail giant Kroger

Worldpay has signed an exclusive agreement to provide Kroger with payment processing services for in-store, online and mobile transactions.

Kroger serves over 11 million customers daily through e-commerce and grocery stores under a variety of banner names.

"We are pleased to be selected by Kroger to provide our full suite of innovative payment solutions,” says Jason Pavona, General Manager, North America, at Worldpay.

“As payments methods continue to evolve, we look forward to helping keep it at the leading edge of commerce innovation. Time and time again, industry leaders like Kroger continue to choose us as their preferred payments provider because of our collaborative approach and deep expertise in optimising the payments experience.”

6. Online retailer bol shares a glimpse of AI driven automation in logistics pilot with Sereact

bol, an online retailer in the Netherlands and Belgium, is testing out Sereact’s AI driven robots in its supply chain.

In a LinkedIn post, Sereact said: “At bol, one of Europe’s biggest e-commerce players, every second counts. With over 500,000 SKUs to handle in their warehouse in Waalwijk, they needed more than speed, they needed reliability and adaptability.”

“Together with bol’s logistics team, we deployed our AI driven robots in their toughest environment: a live, brownfield operation with complex integrations and unpredictable items. The results? Robots that can recognise and route items in real-time. Vision tech smart enough to skip items like bins with tricky labels and send them straight to reject. A system that doesn’t just automate, it learns.”

Hugo Driesse, Logistic Process Engineer at bol, commented: “We want to test with the robots in our real production area. That's why we put this robot here on our most difficult area with the most integrations and the most difficult handlings.”

“We're learning about the KPIs and what's possible with the robot because for future business cases it's important that you have the right numbers. With Sereact, it was arranged very quickly.”

7. Kenshoo Skai announces integration with dunnhumby and Epsilon powered Tesco Media and Insight Platform

Kenshoo Skai, an omnichannel advertising platform for commerce media, has announced a new partnership with Tesco Media and Insight Platform, powered by dunnhumby and operated via Epsilon Retail Media.

Through this integration, advertisers can manage Tesco sponsored product ads directly in Kenshoo Skai, while leveraging Celeste, Kenshoo Skai’s GenAI marketing agent purpose built for commerce media, to streamline workflows, drive campaign performance, and respond to changes in real-time.

By consolidating Tesco campaigns alongside 300+ global retailers and publishers, Kenshoo Skai says that it enables marketers to plan, activate, measure and fine-tune all of their campaigns in one centralised place.

“With grocery shopping representing some of the most frequent and high intent consumer interactions, Tesco Media offers advertisers a powerful way to reach customers where loyalty and purchase decisions are being made,” says Simon Piper, Executive Vice President EMEA at Kenshoo Skai.

“By bringing Tesco into Kenshoo Skai’s omnichannel platform, brands and agencies can now expand their retail media strategies with precision, automate for stronger returns, and prove the impact of their investment across the entire commerce journey.”

8. Zalando taps Nomagic AI powered technology as it expands robotic warehouse capabilities

Nomagic, a provider of AI powered robotics for warehouses and the fulfilment sector, has been selected by Zalando as the online fashion and lifestyle retailer looks to boost operational excellence at its fulfilment centres and support employees with daily tasks.

The robots (named Richard) carry out item level picking, scanning and induction to automated pocket sorters. 

Following a pilot project that included an average of 10 000 picks/day, a total of nine robots will be live in 2025, with a double digit number planned for deployment in 2026. Zalando has also made a minority investment into Nomagic as part of its previously announced $44 million Series B round. 

9. VusionGroup inks deal to equip Morrisons stores with over 10.8 million electronic shelf labels

Morrisons is partnering with VusionGroup to roll-out electronic shelf labels across all of its 497 stores, becoming the first large UK supermarket group to adopt the technology across its entire estate.

VusionGroup will install 10.8 million smart electronic shelf labels in total.

These will eliminate traditional paper labels throughout the store, providfing price and product information. ESLs will also ensure Morrisons More Card savings and offers are instantly communicated to customers at the shelf edge.

The technology will integrate with Morrisons digital shelf-edge cameras, to guide colleagues to product gaps, speeding up shelf replenishment and integrating with e-commerce applications to make online picking easier and more accurate.

Morrisons will also work with VusionGroup to explore how to leverage the data generated across various initiatives, with the aim of identifying new opportunities to enhance store operations and customer experience.

10. Walmart Avery Dennison claim breakthrough innovation for RFID technology in fresh categories

Walmart and Avery Dennison have announced a new tie up to advance the use of radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology in fresh categories.

Looking to help develop a solution to a longstanding industry challenge of using RFID technology in high moisture, cold environments, like meat cases, Walmart teamed with Avery Dennison to create and test what is pitched as a first of its kind sensor technology that brings RFID enabled labels to the meat department.

By using Avery Dennison’s RFID solutions in meat, along with bakery and the deli department, Walmart associates can track inventory faster and more accurately, making sure products stay stocked and ready when customers want them.

With digital use by dates right at their fingertips, associates can also rotate products more efficiently and make smarter markdown decisions, helping cut down on unsold food.