'You can't unionise robots': RTIH rounds up 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 tech space. Here's your briefing on the most important stories from the past few days, including Quiet Logistics, Ikea, Currys, Amazon, Matalan, AO, Just Eat Takeaway.com, and Walmart.
1. American Eagle Outfitters owned Quiet Logistics shutters 3PL operations, sources claim
Quiet, formerly Quiet Logistics, is shutting down its 3PL operations effective immediately, according to a LinkedIn report by supply chain consultant and former Amazon executive Brittain Ladd, citing unnamed sources.
American Eagle Outfitters acquired the company in December 2021, for approximately $360 million in cash, with Jay Schottenstein, CEO, stating that the deal “cemented a collaborative partnership that has meaningfully contributed to our financial results over the past 18 months.”
He added: “AEO’s unique ability to reduce delivery costs amid rising inflation is a direct reflection of the efficiencies provided by their innovative fulfillment model. Quiet Logistics has a highly experienced supply chain leadership team and I look forward to their partnership as we continue to drive operational excellence and grow the platform into a meaningful business.”
The retailer is now, however, pivoting back to focusing on its own volume, leaving a roster of brands looking for new fulfillment homes. It’s an interesting trend. For the past few years, many major retailers have been moving to monetise their supply chain by selling it as a service. But the reality appears to be that it’s difficult to serve third-party brands while managing your own retail volume.
2. Ikea expands secondhand marketplace to Sweden, now live in five European countries
Ingka Group, the largest Ikea retailer, is launching its secondhand marketplace in Sweden on 28th January. The platform will then be available in five countries: Spain, Norway, Portugal, Poland, and Sweden.
Ingka Group is aiming to reach 170,000 listings in 2026. Following pilots in Spain and Norway, and after launching in Portugal and Poland in 2025, Ikea says it has gained valuable insights into customer preferences, pricing models, and operational challenges in the secondhand market. These have helped shape the launch in Sweden. The retailer’s workers have been the first sellers and ambassadors, before opening up to the wider public.
“With the launch of Ikea’s secondhand marketplace in Sweden, we’re taking a meaningful step toward unlocking an even more affordable Ikea range while making it easy for customers to prolong the life of their items. Our ambition is to build the most vibrant and inclusive community where people connect with each other and with Ikea to make home furnishing pass-on easy, accessible, and rewarding,” says Kirsten Andersson, Managing Director for Platform & Marketplaces at Ikea Retail (Ingka Group).
“In markets where the service is already live, we’ve seen strong demand for bedroom furniture, storage solutions, and living room seating. It’s especially encouraging to see customers returning to buy or sell more items from the Ikea range.”
She adds: “We’re witnessing a cultural shift where buying secondhand furniture is no longer stigmatised. It’s stylish, smart, and socially accepted. With half of people donating unwanted items and two in five reselling them, the rise of resale and donation culture reflects changing values across generations.”
“In response to this shift, we aim to simplify and enhance secondhand buying and selling experience by providing a platform where customers can buy and sell secondhand products directly from each other. This aligns with evolving customer expectations.”
3. Walmart hails major milestone as it drops Immersive Commerce SDK for Unity game developers
A Walmart Immersive Commerce SDK for Unity game developers has officially been launched.
This enables them to integrate Walmart products, or their own merchandise, via the US retail giant's marketplace, directly into their projects.
In a LinkedIn post, Justin Breton, Head of Brand Experiences & Partnerships at Walmart, said: "This has been a long time coming. Last year, we beta tested the SDK in Walmart Unlimited on Spatial and the No Boundaries brand shop on Zepeto, experiences where players could explore digital worlds and discover contextually relevant physical products, without ever leaving gameplay."
He added: "Gaming is no longer niche, youth skewing, or device specific. Today, it’s a cross-generational, with players spanning Gen Alpha through Boomers, and mobile gaming serving as the largest on-ramp, both in reach and time spent, touching billions of people each month."
4. Just Eat Takeaway.com launches rapid delivery AI voice assistant with UK first to go live
Just Eat Takeaway.com has unveiled an AI voice assistant for iOS and Android. Launching first in the UK, this allows customers to bypass menus and have a conversation to discover not only new cuisines, restaurants, and dishes, but also retail, pharmacy and beauty offerings. It then speeds up the process of placing an order.
Using AI technology, the assistant is designed to provide meaningful and relevant output to users by evaluating the potential intent of the user based on natural conversation. Whether a user’s request is precise or a rambling stream of consciousness, the assistant aims to deliver accurate, meaningful answers. It is capable of processing intent in dozens of languages.
Following the UK debut, a wider international roll-out is planned for 2026.
Mert Öztekin, Chief Technology Officer at Just Eat Takeaway.com, comments: "We are always innovating and continually focused on leveraging technology to improve the ordering journey for our millions of customers. This custom built conversational assistant represents a major step forward, making our service more intuitive and accessible.”
“We are harnessing the power of AI to empower everyday convenience across our entire network. From intuitive customer personalisation and partner success to smarter logistics, we are embedding automation into every interaction to deliver a seamless, efficient journey that creates real value for everyone.”
5. Matalan pilots Toshiba VisualStore 6 EPoS solution with two UK stores going live
Matalan is testing out Toshiba’s VisualStore 6 (VS6) EPoS solution, with two pilot stores now live in the UK with the self-service offering.
In a LinkedIn post, Linda Davies, UK&I Head of Project Management at Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions, said: “For the second Sunday in a row I’ve been onsite at a Matalan store working on the installation of the Toshiba VisualStore 6 (VS6) EPoS solution.”
She added: “Successfully installing VS6 in two pilot stores is a huge milestone, and it simply wouldn’t have been possible without the collaboration, determination, and drive of the entire project team - including the Toshiba UK Professional Services team, UK Managed Services engineers, VisualStore development team, Matalan and Capgemini project team, third-party partners, and the incredible support from the executive teams at both Toshiba and Matalan. A great example of teamwork, resilience and shared commitment delivering real results.”
6. HPE powers new AO wireless network to enhance customer service and business ops
AO has implemented HPE Networking solutions. The online retailer says that it is modernising its legacy wireless access network with the Mist AI platform, connecting a diverse range of devices and streamlining IT operations across all its 26 offices and logistics centres.
“AO exemplifies how forward thinking enterprises are using AI native networking to drive real business outcomes,” says Mark Weeks, UK & Ireland, sales director, HPE Networking.
“By adopting a cloud managed, AI native networking architecture from HPE, AO has gained robust, secure connectivity that spans corporate offices and complex operational environments. The advanced Mist platform delivers actionable insights and intelligent automation, empowering AO to accelerate decision-making and sustain competitive agility in a dynamic market.”
“We’re a developer centric organisation, and we saw the opportunity to use the HPE Juniper Networking platform to drive data led decisions around internal user experiences, leading to amazing customer experiences,” says Matthew Brooks, Network Team Lead at AO.
“The ability to see exactly what devices are on the network and to leverage real-time device and occupancy analytics enables us to make smarter, faster business decisions, in IT and across our entire operations.”
7. Just Walk Out tech survives as Amazon calls time on Go and Fresh physical stores push
Amazon is binning its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical stores experiment as it shifts its focus to on demand online delivery and new big box locations.
It says that some of its shuttered Amazon branded bricks and mortar stores will be converted into Whole Foods Market locations. It plans to open over 100 new Whole Foods Market stores over the next few years.
In an online post, it said: “While we've seen encouraging signals in our Amazon branded physical grocery stores, we haven't yet created a truly distinctive customer experience with the right economic model needed for large scale expansion.”
“After a careful evaluation of the business and how we can best serve customers, we've made the difficult decision to close our Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical stores, converting various locations into Whole Foods Market stores.”
“Customers can continue to shop Amazon Fresh online in available areas for fast and convenient delivery. We're grateful to our team members for their many contributions over the years and are working whenever possible to help them find roles elsewhere in Amazon, including across our vast operations network, as we make this transition.”
8. Currys takes part in Hidden Treasure Hunt as schoolkids lead bid to tackle UK’s e-waste crisis
The Hidden Treasure Hunt is open to millions of pupils from the UK’s more than 20,000 primary schools. It aims to increase recycling levels of the old electrical items hidden away in drawers at home.
Recent research by Recycle Your Electricals found that more than 100,000 tonnes of electricals are thrown away every year, with an average of 30 items stashed away in every UK home, or more than 880 million electrical items in total.
These items contain precious materials such as copper, lithium and gold which when thrown away are lost forever, and could instead be re-used in other products. Many electrical products also contain batteries which are fuelling the rise in battery fires in bin lorries and waste centres across the UK.
Participating pupils can drop off their unwanted tech at any Currys store, where they are guaranteed at least a £5 Currys voucher, or at almost 30,000 drop off points across the country to receive points towards their school’s tally.
9. Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger owner PVH Corp. opts to integrate OpenAI across its business
PVH Corp., an apparel group behind brands like Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, has announced a collaboration with OpenAI.
This will see it co-create custom AI capabilities that support areas such as product and design, demand planning, inventory optimisation and consumer engagement.
“As we build Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger into the most desirable lifestyle brands in the world, our collaboration with OpenAI will help us supercharge our brand building journey and connect more meaningfully with our consumers,” says Stefan Larsson, Chief Executive Officer, PVH Corp.
“Together with OpenAI, we will explore exciting new opportunities for our brands, accelerate our data driven operating model and enable faster, more data driven decision-making. With a test and learn approach, we’ll build practical use cases with scalable impact to drive value for associates, partners, and consumers, while helping us build a culture of innovation and agility from the ground up."
10. Amazon pins grocery ambitions on Orbital platform as it announces major job cuts
Amazon this week confirmed it would cut 16,000 jobs as part of an effort to "strengthen the company."
It’s a move that has sparked fury in some quarters, with GMB Union's Rachel Fagan stating: “Amazon is showing itself for what it is; a company that cannot be trusted to do the right thing by working people in the UK."
“Bosses are overseeing thousands of job losses which will cause huge damage in towns and cities across the country. Now is the time for decision makers to recognise Amazon as a company fixated on eye watering profits at the expense of workers and local people.”
Enter Orbital, Amazon's new robotic fulfillment platform, which, we think it’s safe to say, will further rile up the GMB and other unions.
In a LinkedIn post, Brittain Ladd, a supply chain consultant and former
Amazon executive, said: “Several individuals at Amazon who've been notified that their positions are being terminated, contacted me to tell me about Orbital. This is a replacement for the LVM or local vending machine, that was its version of a micro-fulfillment centre. LVM has been cancelled.”
He added: “Orbital was designed to replace AS/RS and other storage systems in use at Amazon. It will also be used for in-store micro-fulfillment centres (MFC), with a goal of being able to fulfill chilled, frozen and ambient temperature products.”
The leadership team has high hopes for Orbital, Ladd observed. The company has invested $612 million over a five-year period trying to build an automated system that will fulfil grocery and other retail products at the highest picking speeds in the industry.
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