Topshop hits the EU and Ikea goes digital: last week’s biggest technology plays at a glance

RTIH rounds up the stand out retail tech deals, launches, deployments and pilots from the past seven days. Including Wakefern Food Corp., Eagle Eye, McDonald's, StoreSprint, Asos,  Amazon, DTLR, Zalando, JD Sports Fashion, Papa Johns, PAR Technology, Otto Group, Walmart, and Google.

Topshop

Topshop has announced the roll-out of its dedicated European website, launching in 23 EU countries, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain. 

Built on Shopify, the site offers customers access to the latest collections across Topshop’s hero categories, including its cult denim, elevated tailoring, dresses, evening wear, footwear and accessories.

Michelle Wilson, Managing Director Topshop and Topman, says: “We're excited to bring Topshop directly to our European customers. Topshop is already available worldwide on Asos.com, but this new site gives our community access to our full brand experience.”

“Customers can get access to the latest collection, shop bestsellers, browse our curated edits or sign-up to our newsletter to stay up-to-date with fashion moments and product launches. We'll be adding new features to the site every month to make the experience even more engaging and convenient.”

The 23 EU countries as follows: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia and Spain.

Wing and Walmart

Wing and Walmart are laying claim to Greater Houston’s first ever drone delivery service, providing this across five stores. This is part of their plan to include over 270 stores and 40 million Americans by 2027.

The pair say that Houston’s urban sprawl, growing population and demand for speed and convenience make it the ideal first market of the year for their expansion push.

"This is our most ambitious year yet as we work with Walmart to deliver to more customers by drone than ever before, and there’s no better place to start than Greater Houston," says Heather Rivera, Chief Business Officer at Wing. "We’ve seen how much Texans value having a fast, safe way to get what they need from the skies, and we are now serving one of the largest and most dynamic metropolitan areas in the country."

Kroger

Uber Technologies and The Kroger Co. have announced the launch of nearly 2,700 Kroger owned stores on the Uber Eats, Uber, and Postmates apps.

Customers across the US can now shop their local Kroger banner for fresh groceries, Kroger's Our Brands favourites, household essentials etc and get on-demand and same day delivery via Uber's apps. The roll-out delivers on the companies' previously announced plan to broaden access to this service.

In addition to Kroger's floral and sushi shops already available on Uber Eats, customers can browse full store assortments from Ralphs, Fred Meyer, King Soopers, Smith's, Fry's, Harris Teeter, Mariano's, and additional Kroger banners, then schedule delivery at the time that works best for them.

Ikea

Ikea has kicked off a pilot of a new digital experience on Welcome to Bloxburg, a game on the Roblox platform where players build and design homes. 

Running in Sweden and Australia, the aim is to explore how the retailer’s products can be experienced in interactive digital environments. It is designed as a small scale test to evaluate customer engagement and learnings.

“This pilot is very much about learning and exploring. We’re using it to better understand how digital environments can enrich the Ikea experience, while continuing to stay true to our values and what customers expect from us,” says Parag Parekh, Chief Digital Officer (CDO) at Ikea Retail (Ingka Group).

The pilot features a limited assortment of well known Ikea products, including the STOCKHOLM sofa, the ELSYSTEM rug and the BLÅHAJ shark, selected to explore different use cases in a virtual environment.

From 22nd January to 5th February, these products will be available to unlock in Bloxburg, at the in-game Ikea pop-up in the Fancy Furniture Store, or from the product library, helping Ikea teams assess design translation, usability, and customer engagement in a digital setting. Visitors to Ikea stores in Australia and Sweden will also be able to unlock a few extra items by scanning QR codes hidden around the store. 

Wakefern Food Corp.

Eagle Eye has bagged a multi-year contract with Wakefern Food Corp., the largest retailer owned supermarket cooperative in the United States.

Wakefern will use Eagle Eye's AIR platform and AI powered Personalised Challenges and Personalised Promotion solutions to support its customer loyalty platforms. The programme is expected to go live in mid-2026.

Wakefern is made up of independent member companies that together own and operate more than 380 supermarkets under banners such as ShopRite, Price Rite Marketplace, The Fresh Grocer, Fairway Market, Gourmet Garage, Di Bruno Bros. and Morton Williams across nine East Coast states. Eagle Eye's solutions will support all of Wakefern's banners.

This marks the latter’s fourth North American win in FY2026 to date, following recent contract wins with a convenience store chain, a grocery supermarket chain and one of North America's largest independent food retailers.

Key Food Stores Co-Operative

Swiftly reports a partnership with Key Food Stores Co-Operative, a chain of more than 460 family owned and operated supermarkets across eight US states. Key Food will leverage Swiftly’s App & Web platform with integrated Alcohol Cashback solutions with the aim of enhancing shopper engagement, and unlocking new retail media revenue streams.

“We currently operate in eight states and in our largest market we are serving over eight million shoppers,” says Dean Janeway, CEO at Key Food Stores Co-Operative. “Partnering with Swiftly is a strategic investment in our future and allows us to create a more connected, personalised experience that drives bigger baskets, deeper loyalty, and sustainable growth.”

Traxlo

Traxlo, a platform connecting gig workers with retail businesses like Carrefour, has announced its UK launch following a roll-out in Europe.  

CEO and Co-founder, Paul Vezelis, says: “Brexit is just one challenge for the UK. There are plenty of reports and statistics about declining retail staff morale, a worsening labour market and the impact of higher wage costs and tax increases.”

“Having tested and refined our model in Europe for the last few years, we are now in exactly the right position to empower UK retailers to manage a flexible, specialised, trained human resource on a pay per task basis.”

“This model brings with it a time and cost reduction but also enables internal staff to focus on core, high value tasks and improves a store’s local community engagement as it becomes recognised as both a place to earn as well as spend.”

Parfetts/Go Local  and J.W. Filshill

Two UK wholesalers, Parfetts/Go Local  and J.W. Filshill, are among the first businesses to go live with Wholepal, a new AI powered platform designed to modernise how technical product data is shared across the grocery supply chain.

Wholepal was founded by Victoria Lawson, following years spent working with FMCG suppliers and wholesale partners. “Time and again, I saw product sales slowed down by admin,” she says. “The way product information is shared hasn’t fundamentally changed in decades. It’s manual, inconsistent and outdated.”

She adds that, for wholesalers, this results in cleaner data, fewer errors and faster product setup, reducing onboarding from weeks or months to minutes, while also ensuring product data remains accurate and up to date over time.

Both Parfetts/Go Local  and J.W. Filshill are using the platform to streamline supplier onboarding, improve data accuracy and free up internal teams from time-consuming manual work.

Subdued

Subdued has announced a partnership with XY Retail to support its next phase of international expansion.

By deploying the company’s cloud native Retail Operating System (Retail OS) and PoS, it says that it is unifying its physical and digital channels on a single platform.

Following a initial roll-out in Italy, Subdued is now expanding the XY platform across its global store network. The transition aims to provide a single, real-time source of truth for inventory, customer data, and operations, replacing fragmented legacy systems. 

The brand has more than 130 stores across major fashion capitals – including Paris, London, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Shanghai.

LuisaViaRoma

LuisaViaRoma has selected XY Retail as the technology partner for its physical retail strategy. As part of the company’s broader restructuring and modernisation plan, XY Retail will serve as the unified commerce foundation for what is pitched as a more agile, efficient and digitally connected store network.  

The roll-out introduces capabilities including endless aisle, ship-from-store, reservations and buy online, return in-store (BORIS) flows.

Store teams gain real-time visibility into inventory across all locations, enabling customers to access a broader assortment with more flexible fulfillment options. Each store now functions as both an elevated service environment and a connected, omnichannel fulfillment node, LuisaViaRoma says.

McDonald's

StoreSprint technology has been rolled out at several McDonald's restaurants in Sweden, with the aim of achieveing more structured operations, higher quality and more efficient task management.

In a LinkedIn post, Jacob Johansson, Sales Executive at StoreSprint, said: “At McDonald's Umeå Kronoparken, the team tells how they have gone from manual checklists to a completely digital way of working. By gathering routines, follow up and communication in one and the same platform, StoreSprint creates a better overview, saves time and strengthens engagement.”

He added: “Many thanks to Erik Edin and team for a warm reception, the opportunity to visit your fine restaurant and for a continued long-term and successful collaboration.”

Asos

Asos has announced new online returns initiatives for customers in Finland and Hong Kong.

In Finland, print free returns have been launched with UBsend through Posti Group Oyj. Customers can create their return with Asos and use their drop-off code at a Posti post office or locker.

In a LinkedIn post, Kaivon Ghajar, Senior Delivery Solutions Manager - Implementation (Global), said: “Posti has the most extensive delivery network in Finland consisting of approximately 1,100+ post offices, and over 2,100 parcel lockers (SmartPOST terminals).”

In Hong Kong, meanwhile, a new print free locker returns solution has been launched with APG eCommerce Solutions through KLN Logistics Group (Kerry Logistics). Customers create their return code with Asos, and use that to open the applicable locker compartment. The lockers are located throughout Hong Kong, including within various MTR stations.

Ghajar added: “Both Posti and Kerry are offering great returns solutions - it must be the orange branding! Shout out to our colleagues at ReBound - Katie Hood and Chris Hyland - for their support in delivering these integrations, to our carrier partners for their support, and to the Asos engineers for working their magic.”

DTLR

Jumpmind Commerce is powering both fixed and mobile registers at 200 DTLR and Shoe Palace (formerly City Gear) stores. The migration to its technology was completed in only one day and with no personnel needed on site, it says.

Jumpmind technology is now behind mobile retail experiences for both customers and store associates throughout 640+ store locations across the USA comprising DTLR and Shoe Palace stores, all part of the JD Sports North America brands.

DTLR, which began as Downtown Locker Room, is a lifestyle retailer specialising in streetwear and athletic footwear from brands like Nike, Jordan, and adidas. 

Jumpmind solutions can be deployed in any cloud, on any operating system, and on any device. The new stores deployed Jumpmind on both their existing Windows fixed PoS registers as well as on new Adyen Castle S1E2L Android “all in one” mobile devices.

Beyond accepting payments, the mobile devices enable associates to check out customers from anywhere on the sales floor, manage inventory, and place endless aisle orders to ship to the customer’s home.

Renault Deutschland

Exotec, a provider of warehouse robotics, is equipping car manufacturer, Renault Deutschland, with its Skypod system at its Brühl site. Starting in 2026, Renault plans to supply car dealers across Germany with spare parts for its models, using an automated warehouse in the country for the first time. 

The warehouse will be equipped with a total of 89 Skypod robots to deliver a planned throughput of over 1,600 containers per hour. The system combines goods receiving and order picking, with a capacity of 1,500 order lines per hour. Orchestrating the entire operation is Exotec’s in-house warehouse execution system, Deepsky, which coordinates inbound to outbound flows. 

Go live is set for June. 

Amazon

Amazon has officially begun drone flights from its Darlington fulfilment centre as the company works towards launching the UK’s first Prime Air drone delivery service.

The MK30 drone will deliver packages up to 5lbs in under two hours to eligible Prime customers.

It operates autonomously using advanced detect and avoid technology, is claimed to be as quiet as a standard delivery van, and has backup systems that automatically take over if anything goes wrong, meeting Civil Aviation Authority safety standards. Its cameras spot and avoid obstacles in real-time, from clothes lines to trampolines, as well as people, animals, and other aircraft.

Prime Air is at an early stage in the UK. Deliveries are not yet being made, but the service is expected to officially launch in late 2026.

Papa Johns

Papa Johns has announced an overhaul of its legacy technology systems in every US location by 2027, powered by PAR Technology.

The pizza brand has selected PAR POS and PAR OPS to anchor its next-generation US in-restaurant technology stack.

“One of our strategic priorities is investing in and optimising our technology to deliver a better experience,” says Kevin Vasconi, Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Papa Johns.

“A key element of that strategy is reducing complexity, driving efficiency, and accelerating innovation to improve our in-restaurant operations. PAR Technology’s integrated solutions give us the scale, performance, and support infrastructure needed to run our business better and help our restaurant teams deliver every day.”

WHSmith North America Media Network

In-Store Marketplace (ISM) has announced a partnership with WHSmith North America Media Network, powered by SMG (WHS Media), which has a US airport footprint of more than 350 stores.

WHS Media will combine ISM’s programmatic retail media platform with Mood Media’s hardware to deliver a turnkey, fully managed solution. It says that this will enable it to monetise in-store digital screens and audio assets more efficiently while offering advertisers access to travellers with long dwell times and strong spending power.

The new network will activate across WHS Media’s US airport stores, bringing together approximately 700 in-store digital screens and audio channels. Early adopters, including PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay and Bose, are now activating campaigns, with additional premium brands expected to follow.

Zalando

Zalando is getting onboard with Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), a new open source standard for agentic commerce that allows AI agents and merchant systems to work together.

As a first use case, UCP will soon power a new checkout feature, rolling out for eligible retailers in the US now.

Users will be able to discover and checkout Zalando’s products in AI Mode in Google Search and the Gemini app, allowing newbies to discover Zalando while offering existing ones a faster way to shop making the move from discovery to checkout seamless.

In a LinkedIn post, Zalando said: “The UCP integration is centred on trust and built on two specific pillars: Seller of record: the retailer remains the seller, preserving their direct relationship with the customer and maintaining full control over fulfilment and service standards.”

“Secure checkout: shoppers can buy securely using Google Pay, leveraging payment methods and shipping info already saved in their Google Wallet to complete orders instantly. In the coming months, the protocol will also provide additional capabilities such as integration of loyalty. UCP can simplify the path from inspiration and discovery to purchase, while bringing maximum value to customers and brand partners.”

Woolworths

Woolworths has agreed a deal with Google to use the Gemini platform in its chatbot, Olive.

As a result, Olive will move beyond answering basic customer queries and instead plan meals and, with their consent, automatically add items to online shopping baskets. It won’t, however, be able to make purchases automatically. Although Gemini does have the capability to “add items to their cart and even handle checkout”, Google said.

This will go live later in the year.

The deal is part of a string of agreements Google has struck with retailers, larger in the US, including pizza brand Papa Johns.

In a LinkedIn post, Benjamin Kress, GM Customer Intelligence & Insights at Woolworths Group, said: “Every once in a while a technology comes a long that changes everything for the average consumer. You are lucky if you can just work on one of these in your career (loosely adapted from a Steve Jobs quote).”

He added: “Retail shopping is on the precipice of going through such transformational change as agentic AI offers the promise of a true shopping companion, the like of which the siris, google homes, alexas that came before never could. A vision of an assistant that takes the chore out of shopping, truly knows what you need before you need it and brings a bit of magic back.”

“I'm pumped to be playing a small part in shaping that journey as Woolworths today announced a partnership with Google to bring that vision to life through an evolution of our Olive chatbot in the months to come.”

JD Sports Fashion

JD Sports Fashion is using commercetools’ Agentic Jumpstart solution and Stripe’s Agentic Commerce Suite (ACS), with the former’s AI Hub acting as the connective foundation for agentic workflows.

It is the first enterprise retailer to deploy the ACS, connecting LLM powered shopping to checkout and payments, without replatforming or added complexity.

Its customers in the US will be able to purchase directly through AI platforms including Copilot (Microsoft), Gemini (Google) and ChatGPT (OpenAI).

“This agreement places JD right at the forefront of AI commerce. We want to reach customers wherever shopping decisions are happening, and make it easy for them to complete a purchase,” says Regis Schultz, Group CEO at JD Sports Fashion.

“As AI becomes a real entry point for commerce, our partnership with commercetools and Stripe will allow customers using AI for searches to find and transact with JD quicker and easier, at the click of a button through those channels, without adding complexity to our operations. This strengthens our digital proposition for customers, and keeps us moving in line with the fast changing retail landscape.”

“We see AI as a real opportunity to improve our customers’ experience with JD, as well as making our own operations more efficient, and so I’m really pleased that with this big step forward we are putting our words into action.”

Royal Mail and Post Office

Royal Mail and Post Office are partnering to introduce parcel lockers at Post Office branches across the UK. The six-month trial will see lockers installed outside stores with 24/7 availability.

These offer another option to send, collect and return parcels and feature label printing. To use them, customers need to pay for postage online and get a QR code, or request a QR code if they are returning a purchase.

Royal Mail now has over 24,000 locations where customers can drop off and collect parcels, including 2,400 lockers, 11,500 Post Office branches, almost 8,000 Royal Mail Shop outlets, 1,200 Royal Mail customer service ooints and 1,400 parcel postboxes.

Anna Malley, Director of Partnerships and Acquisitions at Royal Mail, says: “Post Office is one of Royal Mail’s most important partners, and this is an exciting step forward in how we work together. The trial reflects our commitment to meeting a wide range of customer needs whilst also maintaining existing options. It’s about making life easier for our customers by giving them a choice that suits their individual preferences.”

Papa Johns

Last week at NRF 2026, Papa Johns announced that it is the first partner for Google Cloud's newly expanded AI solution, Food Ordering agent, which is helping the pizza brand deploy a fully unified voice and text AI ordering system aimed at removing friction across customer touchpoints.

The Food Ordering agent is a part of Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience.

Moving beyond its initial deployment in drive-thru automation, this is an omnichannel platform that enables brands to deploy voice AI agents across mobile apps, websites, telephones, kiosks, and in-car systems.

Wing and Walmart

Wing and Walmart are expanding their drone delivery service to an additional 150 Walmart stores in the US over the next year, bringing this to more than 40 million Americans.

The pair will establish a network of over 270 drone delivery locations by 2027, stretching from Los Angeles to Miami. This builds on operations in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and Metro Atlanta.

New service areas will include metropolitan hubs such as Los Angeles, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Miami, with others to be announced at a later date. This expands on previously slated expansion markets: Houston, Orlando, Tampa, and Charlotte, which continues later this week when Wing and Walmart start operating in Houston on 15th January.

“Drone delivery plays an important role in our ability to deliver what customers want, exactly when they want it. Whether it’s a last minute ingredient for dinner or a late-night essential for a busy family, the strong adoption we’ve seen confirms that this is the future of convenience,” says Greg Cathey, Senior Vice President of Digital Fulfillment Transformation at Walmart.

“By expanding drone delivery to new major metro areas, we are helping more customers solve for their last minute needs faster than ever before.”

Pacsun

Pacsun reports the launch of its proprietary digital platform, PS Community Hub, pitched as a first to market concept.

It says that, unlike traditional retail apps or loyalty programmes, this integrates social connection, creator monetisation, and co-creation opportunities with a focus on youth culture.

The announcement was made as part of a discussion at NRF 2026: Retail's Big Show in New York City focused on Gen Alpha and Gen Z research, with Pacsun CEO Brieane Olson and Business of Fashion's Sheena Butler-Young.

"The creation of PS Community Hub demonstrates our purpose driven retail strategy, putting creators and our youth community at the heart of our plan to fuel sustainable growth, cultural relevance, and innovation in retail," says Olson.

"Our deep generational listening and Insights from the Pacsun Youth Report have been instrumental in shaping this initiative, ensuring that we address the evolving needs and aspirations of our young consumers and remain at the forefront of technology and social commerce."

Otto Group

Otto Group, a digital retail and services group, is partnering with NVIDIA and Reply as it looks to improve supply chain operations through robotics.

The initiative will see a network wide deployment of a Robotic Coordination Layer, powered by NVIDIA Omniverse libraries, and Isaac Sim, across a multitude of Otto Group’s 120 logistics locations.

This connects robot fleets in the warehouse to a digital twin which displays the real-time locations and movements of all robots.

Developed by Reply, this solution uses reality capture techniques and post-processing from sensors and cameras mounted on Boston Dynamics' Spot robot as it moves through the warehouse.

Once established, the digital twin enables virtual reconfiguration of warehouse areas for process optimisation and simulations to support peak management. Concurrently, the Robotic Coordination Layer integrates with robotic fleet management tools and the WMS to coordinate and communicate with various robotic fleets, all visualised and managed within the digital twin.

Wiliot

Wiliot has announced the launch of the Gen3 IoT Pixel, the newest generation of its battery free sensing technology.

It says that this deepens the capabilities of the Wiliot Intelligence Platform, an AI engine that converts IoT Pixel data into continuous visibility and automated operational intelligence.

The IoT Pixel and platform provide retailers, logistics providers, and supply chain companies with the real-time data foundation needed to understand the location, temperature, humidity, and movement of goods across complex, distributed networks.

“The Gen3 IoT Pixel represents the next leap forward in how real-time data can be captured across supply chains,” says Julien Bellanger, President at Wiliot.

“Its enhanced performance and cost profile allow companies to deploy ambient IoT at new levels of performance and scale, fuelling our AI platform with the continuous, high fidelity data required for more efficient operations, lower waste, and smarter execution.”

Walmart and Google

Walmart and Google are gearing up to launch a new experience built by Walmart and accessible directly within Gemini using the Universal Commerce Protocol.

Gemini will automatically include Walmart and Sam’s Club in-store and online products when it’s relevant. For example, when a customer asks for advice on camping equipment for the spring season, it will return items from the retailer’s inventory of products. And since people talk back and forth with Gemini, there are more opportunities to show relevant products and services throughout the conversation.

When customers discover items in Gemini, Walmart helps them move from inspiration to purchase , all within the familiar Walmart and Sam’s environments. When customers link their accounts, the retailer will recommend complementary items based on their past online and in-store purchases, combine their order with other items they’ve put in their carts, and provide all the benefits of their Walmart+ and Sam’s Club memberships.

Customers and members can get in-store and club items delivered, with hundreds of thousands of locally curated products delivered in under three hours and as fast as 30 minutes.