Including Gopuff, Veloq, Specsavers, and Vinted: 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 Tommy Bahama, Aptos, Gibson, Pizza Pilgrims, Boot Barn, Sona, Jewells, NewStore, Royal Mail, Nike, and Affirm.

Specsavers

Specsavers has announced a £5 million investment over a two year period to fund the expansion and upgrade of its Vision Labs manufacturing facility in Kidderminster, Worcestershire.

The site produces prescription lenses for more than 900 stores across the UK, and the upgrade will increase its production from 140,000 to more than 200,000 lenses per week.

The project brings environmental benefits such as reducing water consumption and more efficient use of electricity, and the aim is to streamline the manufacturing process as well as improve working environments.

Veloq

Veloq has take to social media to give a first look at its fulfilment centre where the newest robotic arm is officially live and picking customer orders in real-time.

In June, we reported that Rohlik Group, a European online grocer and tech specialist founded in 2014 in the Czech Republic, was launching Veloq, an AI driven grocery fulfillment platform that has powered its growth across five markets.

Rohlik currently delivers over 1.3 million monthly orders and generates €1.1 billion in annual revenue.

Developed within its grocery operations, Veloq is now launching as an independent company, bringing the technology to grocers worldwide. Built on a proprietary software stack and robotics, it unifies the entire grocery fulfillment process into a single modular platform, according to those involved.

This includes automated picking, intelligent routing, inventory forecasting and personalised customer engagement. An AI engine powers every layer of operations, including dynamic queue and labour management within fulfillment centres, supply chain forecasting and real-time last mile logistics optimisation.

In a LinkedIn post, it stated that, in under six seconds, the aforementioned fulfilment centre robotic arm “identifies the product, grips it with millimetre precision and drops it directly into the order tote. Speed and accuracy like this don’t just support same-day delivery - they’re powering later-today.”

It added: “Why this matters: Faster fulfilment = happier shoppers. Every second saved in the pick path brings the doorstep closer to the click; Reliable, 24/7 performance. With advanced vision and force-feedback, the arm handles thousands of SKUs - including delicate and irregular items - with ease; Smarter economics. Higher units per hour and always-on operation mean stronger margins for partners and lower costs per basket Our next-gen automation - purpose built for full basket grocery - is here and more innovations are on the way."

Gopuff

Gopuff has launched Insight Cloud for Gopuff, designed to provide suppliers with a near-real-time, 360-degree view of their brand’s performance on the quick commerce platform.

Built and delivered on Seek’s Insight Cloud and supported by insights from Gopuff Ads on Koddi, the collection of apps give brands streamlined access to their data, including granular insights into sales and performance, customer insights, and media and advertising performance.

“We often hear brands express frustration about disparate data sets across ads, analytics, merchandising, marketing and more, making it difficult to assess overall brand performance and understand how these work streams impact one another and the bottom line," says Michael Peroutka, Head of Ads and Brand Partnerships at Gopuff.

"That’s why, together with Seek and Koddi, we’re empowering all brands on Gopuff with the information they need to better understand, engage and sell to their customers - all in one place.”

Tommy Bahama

Tommy Bahama has selected Aptos ONE, a mobile first PoS application built on a cloud native platform.

“In today’s retail landscape, technology is absolutely foundational to engaging our guests,” says Tommy Bahama’s Executive Vice President of Technology, Dave Boland. “In our stores, the experience is largely delivered through our store associates. Aptos ONE will enable our associates to provide highly personalised and frictionless service. The platform’s flexibility will also unlock new opportunities as we continue to evolve our offerings.”

“One example is increased mobility. Our associates can serve guests right in the aisle while they’re still evaluating purchase decisions, rather than waiting until the guest has already made a decision and walked to the cash wrap,” he adds.

Gibson

As Oasis top the charts once again, on the back of their sold out reunion tour, Noel Gallagher’s guitar brand of choice, Gibson, has announced a 120% increase in email revenue and doubled engagement thanks to personalised customer experiences powered by SAP Emarsys.

With SAP Emarsys’ Consumer Products Engagement Report finding that email remains a preferred channel for UK consumers, the overall impact of email on Gibson’s business outcomes has also risen by 27% over the same period.

As the Oasis reunion tour sparks renewed interest in 90s sound and style, Gibson remains a popular choice for musicians across genres. But cultural relevance alone doesn’t drive loyalty. According to the SAP Emarsys Customer Loyalty Index, 60% of consumers stay loyal to brands that personalise experiences to their preferences.

Pizza Pilgrims

Sona reports deployment of its workforce platform across 27 locations at UK-based Pizza Pilgrims.

In a LinkedIn post, Sona said: “As one of the UK’s most loved hospitality brands, Pizza Pilgrims know that great guest experiences start with great team experiences. That’s why they’ve chosen our next-generation workforce platform to power the next phase of their growth, with scheduling and HR now in one place.”

It added: “The team at Pizza Pilgrims aren’t just digitising processes, they’re levelling up how things work for everyone, from head office to the pizzeria floor.”

“Happiness and people are the heart of everything we do. We are excited to be partnering with Sona to help us take care of the scheduling side, so our teams can focus on what they do best: making people happier, one pizza at a time," said Tom Smith, Operations Director at Pizza Pilgrims.

Nike

Nike has gone live with an in house developed, cloud-based, iOS native Point of Sale solution, a project that it says has been years in the making.

"Grateful to everyone who’s been part of this journey, past and present. Your work laid the foundation for this moment," says Alfredo Carigga, Global Product Leader at Nike. "This go live brings some of the most impressive innovations we’ve launched to date: offline mode support; fastest staging time (25 mins vs. four hours); tap to login functionality (via NFC); new mobile and fixed PoS launch; seamless omnichannel integration - carts, promos, and membership (loyalty)"

He added: "The road ahead is ambitious: 1K stores, 50K store athletes, multiple geographies. But when we get there, we’ll have the most advanced, fastest, and most sophisticated PoS system I’ve worked on in my career. The Swoosh keeps moving forward - powered by innovation, built for athletes, and obsessed with serving the consumer at speed."

Boot Barn Holdings

Boot Barn Holdings, the parent company of Boot Barn, Sheplers, and Country Outfitter, has extended its exclusive, multi-year partnership with Affirm, allowing consumers to continue using the latter’s solution to pay over time - both online at checkout across all three brands and in-store at over 450 Boot Barn locations in the US.

“Providing our consumers with a seamless shopping experience and flexible payment options is extremely important to our team,” says Jon Kosoff, Chief Digital Officer at Boot Barn.

“Given the success of our partnership with Affirm - particularly their ability to offer a range of plans tailored to our consumers’ needs, including longer-term options - extending the relationship was a natural next step. We’re excited to continue giving our consumers greater control, clarity, and convenience at checkout.”

Jewells

Jewells has launched its first fleet of stores on the NewStore Omnichannel PoS solution. With seven locations now open in the UK and plans to scale to 2,000 stores across 45 countries within five years, the retailer says it is leveraging the technology to support its rapid global expansion and deliver seamless shopping experiences across its physical and digital touchpoints.

“Our mission is to build a global brand that connects with customers through meaningful, immersive retail moments,” says Leah Uka, CEO at Jewells. “We chose NewStore because it offers the modern, mobile first foundation we need to bring that vision to life and the agility to scale quickly and easily.”

Jewells offers a trend led mix of fashion jewellery, personalised services, and immersive in-store experiences. By rolling out the NewStore PoS, store associates can complete transactions, manage appointments, process custom engraving requests, and more from anywhere on the store floor, all on an iPhone or iPad. Additional built-in omnichannel capabilities include clienteling, endless aisle, mixed cart, store fulfillment, and buy online pickup in-store.

Vinted and Royal Mail

Vinted customers can now collect and send their orders from Royal Mail’s 2,000 lockers and almost 8,000 Collect+ Parcelshops across the UK, in an expanded partnership between the pair. Vinted sellers were previously able to send parcels via the network of lockers and Parcelshops, but now buyers will be able to collect their purchases from these locations.

Royal Mail is expanding its parcel pick up and drop off network across the UK to meet growing demand from online shoppers and second-hand marketplace sellers. As well as the locker and Collect+ Parcelshop networks, Vinted customers can use 11,500 Post Office branches, 1,200 Royal Mail Customer Service Points.

Royal Mail also recently made it possible to send larger parcels through postboxes and request proof of posting on its app. In April, the company launched a pilot of its solar powered ‘postboxes of the future’, featuring a slot to allow customers to drop off larger parcels and get digital proof of posting via its app. This functionality will be rolled out to Vinted users in the coming months.