New CIOs and aborted till free stores: it can only be this week's biggest retail technology 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 Burberry, Sainsbury's, Selectika, Archive, Poundland, Circle K, Verity, On, Maersk, Microsoft, and Currys.
1. Charlotte Baldwin departs Costa Coffee to take on Chief Information Officer position at Burberry
Burberry has announced the appointment of Charlotte Baldwin as Chief Information Officer.
Baldwin, who will join from Costa Coffee (where she holds the role of Global Chief Digital & Information Officer) at the end of March, will be responsible for leading its global technology team. She will be part the executive committee and will report to Burberry Chief Executive Officer Joshua Schulman.
Schulman comments: “Charlotte is a highly experienced technology and digital leader with a track record of leading large scale digital transformation. I am delighted that Charlotte will be joining our leadership team and look forward to working with her to advance our technological capabilities and drive our strategy forward.”
Baldwin says: "Whilst I am sad to say goodbye to my team and colleagues at Costa, the time has come for a new chapter. I am thrilled to be joining Burberry as CIO at the end of March, helping to drive the company's strategy forward."
2. Frasers Group Chief Customer Officer David Clark joins AI specialist Selectika as strategic advisor
Selectika, an AI driven personalisation platform for fashion and e-commerce, reports that David Clark, Chief Customer Officer at Sports Direct owner Frasers Group, has joined the company as a strategic advisor.
He comments: “I am thrilled to be joining Selectika at such a pivotal time. The company is at the forefront of AI powered personalisation, and I believe its innovative approach will have a significant impact on the fashion retail sector. I look forward to contributing to its growth and success.”
Tali Bezalel, Co-founder and CEO at Selectika, comments: “We are honoured to welcome David to the Selectika family. His extensive industry knowledge and proven leadership will be invaluable as we continue to expand our reach and enhance our AI driven solutions. Having him onboard marks an exciting step forward for our company.”
3. Sainsbury’s Local Holburn Circus in London till free store moves back to traditional checkout solutions
Clo Moriarty, Sainsbury’s Retail and Digital Director, said at the time: “We are always looking at new ways to make shopping easy and convenient for our customers. We are excited about launching SmartShop Pick & Go, which offers contactless, checkout-free shopping to our customers and are looking forward to hearing their feedback.”
Dilip Kumar, Amazon’s Vice President of Physical Retail and Technology, added: “We’re excited to bring Just Walk Out technology to our first customer internationally with Sainsbury’s. With no tills, no checkout lanes, and no self-service scanners, we can’t wait to hear how busy Londoners enjoy the experience.”
“We’ll be with our customers and colleagues all the way over the coming months, iterating continuously based on their feedback before we decide if, how and where we make this experience more widely available.”
The experiment is over, however, with Holburn Circus being converted back into a regular store featuring traditional checkout solutions. Shoppers will now find a customer kiosk with a till and two self-checkouts. They will also be able pay using the SmartShop mobile service.
4. Online supermarket Ocado Retail tie up with LiveRamp sees launch of new offsite self-serve media solution
LiveRamp has announced a partnership with Ocado Ads, the retail media network of online only supermarket Ocado Retail. The tie up marks the launch of Audience+, a new offsite self-serve media solution.
Audience+ will allow agencies and brand partners to leverage Ocado’s first-party shopper data insights via LiveRamp’s technology. According to those involved, they will be able to plan, activate and measure offsite media campaigns across a wider network of ad platforms with greater precision and transparency, with the aim of reaching their target audiences in a more streamlined and effective way.
Hugh Stevens, UK Managing Director at LiveRamp, says: “As advertisers continue to prioritise retail media’s insights, retailers who deliver this capability in the most collaborative manner enabling enhanced targeting opportunities and more transparent attribution will be best placed to meet this demand.’
“That is why we’re delighted to partner with Ocado Ads, supporting it to unlock greater value from retail media activation and further differentiate its media network offering with transformative self-serve features through the LiveRamp Clean Room.”
5. UK retailer Poundland achieves reduction in store violence and theft with Motorola Solutions body cameras
Motorola Solutions has announced deployment of its VT100 body cameras to employees across Poundland stores in the UK. Since a pilot, the retailer has reported a decrease in incidents, including an 11% drop in violence against store employees and a marked reduction in shoplifting and theft.
“A safer environment for frontline workers and shoppers alike underpins everything retailers do,” says Neil Thomas, Corporate Vice President of Enterprise Sales at Motorola Solutions. “The VT100 empowers in-store staff with the information they need to decisively protect their employees, customers, and stores.”
Poundland’s Security and Loss Prevention team also an objective record of events to help conduct investigations. Poundland is using Motorola Solutions’ VideoManager digital evidence management solution to prepare, store and process video data, including the ability to tag and match body camera videos with CCTV footage and other incident data.
7. Resale technology specialist Archive preps global expansion as it bags $30m in Series B funding
Archive, a technology company that powers resale businesses for the likes of The North Face, Oscar de la Renta, New Balance and Dr. Martens, has secured $30 million in a Series B round, led by Energize Capital, bringing its total funding to date to $54 million.
Other participants included returning investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, G9 Ventures and Capital F, as well as new backers Woodline Partners LP and Frontline Growth. The company also announced that Eileen Waris, Principal at Energize Capital, will join the Archive board of directors.
It will use the new funding to further develop its resale intelligence software, accelerate its global expansion, and invest in new product innovation and services.
“Resale has proven wildly popular with consumers and a significant and profitable growth opportunity for brands, allowing them to drive sales, customer loyalty and sustainability at the same time,” says Emily Gittins, Co-founder and CEO at Archive.
“We’re extremely pleased to partner with this prestigious group of investors as we help brands launch and scale resale channels that strengthen their business. This new investment will allow us to continue to lead through innovation and to add top engineering talent and resale industry experts to our team to support our growing global footprint.”
7. Circle K taps RELEX Diagnostics to help improve store performance across European network
RELEX Solutions has expanded its collaboration with Circle K. RELEX Diagnostics will be implemented by the retailer to support the improvement of visibility into root causes of stockouts and increasing product availability.
With over 4,800 stores operating under the Circle K brand in Europe, Circle K has a broad retail network offering fuel, electric vehicle charging stations, fresh food and beverages.
Since partnering with RELEX in 2016, it has rolled out a unified set up for space planning and supply chain optimisation across its European business units. In addition to this, demand forecasting and replenishment will be implemented at Circle K and Couche-Tard in the US and Canada.
With RELEX Diagnostics, Circle K will benefit from functionality that is integrated with the planning processes and offers detailed insights into the reasons for stockouts and spoilage. This includes root causing that spans end-to-end operations, indicating whether supplier performance is the main factor, for example, or if pack size is causing issues, or in-store balance corrections are affecting KPIs.
With this information, RELEX can help Circle K understand the root causes and then focus on fixing those issues with the relevant parties. Circle K offers a variety of perishable and fast selling products, and with this added end-to-end visibility, it can take steps towards more precise management of inventory for improved KPIs.
8. Online retailer Adore Beauty taps tutch endless aisle capabilities as it begins to open physical stores
tutch has been selected by Australian online retailer, Adore Beauty, to provide endless aisle capabilities for its entry into physical retail.
Adore Beauty Group’s three-year strategy to become a leading omnichannel beauty retailer targeting 30% revenue growth, and doubling its EBIT margin was announced at its AGM in November 2024.
CEO Sacha Laing comments: “Adore Beauty has strong foundations poised for material growth. Taking the group from a pureplay online beauty platform into an omnichannel beauty authority is a natural evolution for the group.”
tutch enables retailers to offer their entire product catalogue in-store, overcoming the limitations of physical shelf space and enabling customers to discover and purchase products with ease.
Customers at the Adore Beauty retail stores will be able to purchase products available in-store, while curating a cart from products only available online. A customer's online items are sent to them after they’ve finished shopping. Furthermore, people can use the in-store kiosk to find reviews, ingredients and more information on any of the products in the Adore Beauty catalogue, whether they are in-store or online.
9. Verity, On, Maersk pilot RFID tech with drones in warehouse inventory management
Verity has collaborated with On and Maersk on a pilot project that aims to bridge the gap between the physical and digital supply chain environments by augmenting Verity’s autonomous inventory tracking system with radio frequency identification (RFID) capabilities.
The pilot explores the potential of RFID technology and drones to enhance inventory visibility in one of On’s warehouses.
Verity’s AI driven, vision-based system delivers inventory insights in more than 100 warehouses globally, in collaboration with various warehousing operators. One limitation, however, has been tracking inventory beyond line of sight. By integrating RFID, Verity says it is able to extend its vision inside and beyond boxes, enabling precise tracking and identification of individual items, such as products and packages, at every stage of the warehouse lifecycle.
Its drones autonomously navigate warehouse aisles, scanning RFID tags with over 99.9% accuracy at rates of up to 1,000 tags/items per second, it is claimed.
10. Gamers can now get Xbox consoles repaired at Currys, making it the first authorised service provider in UK&I
Currys and Microsoft report that, from today in the UK and Ireland, players can have their Xbox consoles repaired at Currys, including all Xbox Series X|S console options.
The retailer lays claim to being the first ever Xbox Authorised Service Provider (ASP) in the UK and Ireland. This follows on from a Surface partnership which allows customers to get their laptops repaired at Currys.
It doesn’t matter where the Xbox was purchased and the offer includes consoles both in warranty and out of warranty (the latter excludes ROI)..
"We are so proud to see our repair partnership with Microsoft flourish. It's collaborations like this that help us to help more customers enjoy their tech for longer,” says Lindsay Haselhurst, Currys Chief Operating Officer.
“This is good news for players, opening up a huge network to get their tech fixed; it’s good news for us, helping to change the consumer relationship with tech for the better; and it’s good news for the planet, and the battle to combat the UK’s e-waste crisis.”
Continue reading…