Jysk brings unified commerce push to UK and Ireland: 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 Enactor, Ikea, Douyin, Hanshow, Morrisons, Too Good To Go, Duvo, Logile, Frasers Group, M&S, Klarna, and the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.
1. Enactor powered unified commerce Jysk roll-out progresses at pace across retailer's UK and Ireland stores
Danish home furnishing retailer Jysk reports that the first of its UK and Ireland stores are now live with its Enactor powered unified commerce platform. In a LinkedIn post, Patrick Gretsch, Retail Operations Expert at Jysk, said: "Two more countries have taken their first steps towards a new way of working, with the first stores in the UK and Ireland now successfully running on our unified commerce platform."
"I had the pleasure of joining the team at our Sallynoggin store in Ireland to experience one of these first transitions firsthand. What stood out was the excellent preparation and collaboration across all departments involved. The result? A smooth and efficient changeover, completed while the store remained open and continued serving customers."
He added: "And this is just the beginning. The roll-out is progressing at pace, with all Jysk stores in both countries expected to be running on the new platform by mid-November. So, what does this mean for our colleagues and customers? For our store teams, unified commerce means simpler processes and new opportunities to serve customers directly on the shop floor. With mobile PoS, colleagues can process payments right where the customer interaction takes place, making the shopping experience more convenient and personal."
"For our customers, it opens the door to additional services. They can, for example, order products in a store and have them delivered directly coming from our warehouse straight to their doorstep. This is what makes unified commerce so exciting: it’s not just about introducing a new platform. It’s about improving the way we work and creating new opportunities to serve our customers."
2. Ikea flagship store brings home furnishing products to Douyin e-commerce shoppers across China
Ingka Group has launched an Ikea Douyin official flagship store in China. The new digital touchpoint will offer more than 6,500 Ikea products across 179 categories, with delivery available in 301 cities across China.
The move brings the retailer in to the short-form video and content commerce platform (a sister platform to TikTok under ByteDance). The store will complement its existing stores, website, app, WeChat and other e-commerce channels in China.
Lydia Song, Ikea China Acting CEO and President and CSO, says: “People in China are increasingly moving between inspiration, discovery and shopping in ways that are highly connected and increasingly digital. Douyin E-commerce gives us an opportunity to meet people in a new context, learn what resonates with them and make Ikea more accessible to more people. This is not simply about adding another sales channel. It is about understanding how we can become part of people’s everyday lives in new and relevant ways.”
Parag Parekh, Chief Digital Officer at Ikea Retail, comments: “Retail is increasingly about being present wherever and whenever people want to meet us, while making those experiences feel like one connected Ikea. What is particularly interesting about new platforms like Douyin E-commerce is the opportunity to learn. They help us understand how inspiration, interaction and commerce are coming closer together, and what that could mean for how we continue to develop the Ikea omnichannel experience.”
3. Kenty Adria and Hanshow tie up brings electronic pricing technology to Konzum and Mercator stores
Hanshow, a Chinese specialist in digital store solutions, has partnered with Kenty Adria, a member of Fortenova Group, to support the large scale roll-out of electronic shelf labels (ESL) across Konzum and Mercator stores in Croatia and Slovenia. Building on pilot projects, the deployment forms part of the broader digital transformation of Fortenova Group's retail network.
At Konzum, electronic pricing has been introduced in more than 200 stores, with a further 260 stores planned for deployment. The largest implementation to date includes 44,000 electronic shelf labels installed at Konzum’s store on Radnička Street in Zagreb. The majority of its retail network, comprising more than 600 stores across Croatia, is expected to be equipped by the end of the 2027 summer season.
At Mercator, electronic shelf labels have so far been installed in 50 stores across Slovenia, with the goal of deploying ESL solutions throughout the entire Mercator retail network by the end of 2027. Across the network, the full roll-out is estimated to require approximately 3.1 million ESLs.
4. Morrisons notches up Too Good To Go surplus food mobile app milestone
Morrisons reports a milestone in its Too Good To Go surplus food partnership. In a LinkedIn post, Rami Baitiéh, CEO at Morrisons, said: “Every second, 80,000 meals go to waste globally. It's a statistic that should make everyone in the food industry pause.”
“When you face numbers of that scale, it is easy to feel that individual action doesn't matter. But at Morrisons, we believe the best way to drive real change is by making it simple, affordable, and rewarding for our customers to make a difference. That is why I'm incredibly proud to share that we have officially saved 4,000,000 meals from going to waste since our partnership with Too Good To Go began in 2019.”
He added: “For those who haven't used it, Too Good To Go is an app that connects people with surplus, unsold food before it gets thrown away. By offering Morrisons Surprise Bags on the app at less than half price, we are ensuring perfectly good, fresh food stays out of the bin while helping households enjoy high quality groceries at a fraction of the cost.”
“Last month, we welcomed Chelsea Kerr from Too Good To Go to our internal event, Teamtalk, and together we celebrated this massive milestone. Behind this achievement is the amazing effort from our colleagues who pack these bags daily, and our customers who step up to rescue them. A huge thank you to everyone involved. To continue this great work, we'll be bringing our new Chilled Surprise Bags, which we're trialing in 25 London stores, to the rest of our supermarkets in the coming months - watch this space!”
5. Kingfisher raids European home improvement retailer OBI to bring in Sebastian Gundel as CEO
Kingfisher, which owns B&Q and Screwfix in the UK and Castorama and Brico Depot in France and other markets, has announced the appointment of Sebastian Gundel as Chief Executive Officer, effective 1st February 2027. He will join Kingfisher’s board of directors on the same date.
He brings more than two decades of leadership experience in the home improvement sector, including as Chief Executive Officer at European retailer OBI, where he led the company's evolution from traditional retail to a digitally enabled, customer centric, omnichannel business.
Prior to becoming CEO, he served as Chief Customer & Digital Officer, leading OBI's omnichannel transformation and digital innovation agenda. His responsibilities spanned loyalty, marketplaces and ecosystem development, as well as the expansion of trade propositions.
Claudia Arney, Chair, says: “Following a thorough selection process, the board is delighted to appoint Sebastian as Chief Executive Officer. Sebastian combines deep experience in home improvement retail and clear expertise in Kingfisher’s strategic growth drivers with a strong track record of innovation and operational delivery. He will build on the significant progress made under Thierry Garnier’s leadership while bringing fresh perspectives as we continue to evolve the business. Sebastian has the board’s full support as he leads Kingfisher through its next phase of growth and value creation.”
6. Tomáš Čupr bags $32 million for Duvo, an AI platform born from challenges he encountered while building Rohlik
Duvo, an automation platform that gives teams an AI workforce for their day-to-day operations, has announced a $32 million Series A led by Balderton Capital, with participation from existing investors Index Ventures, Northzone and Credo Ventures. The round brings its total funding to $48 million and will fund its expansion, starting with retailers and CPG companies.
Michael Green is also joining from Databricks as Senior Vice President, Go-to-Market. He previously served as a Senior Vice President at Salesforce. Spencer Insolia recently came onboard as Managing Director, US. He was previously President at Kmart and a Managing Director at Accenture. Christoph Schwaiger, former CEO at Aldi South Holdings, has also signed on as Senior Advisor for Europe.
"For a while I measured AI in heads, counting how many people an agent could replace. It's the wrong unit," says Tomáš Čupr, Co-founder and CEO at Duvo and Founder and Group CEO at Rohlik Group. "At Rohlik, the gains I'd point to came from work nobody had the hours for. Our planners used to check about eight at-risk products a day per market for shortages. Now every signal gets checked, around the clock. We think of it as raising the GDP of every employee: more value from the people a company has, not the same value from fewer of them."
7. First step in a much bigger journey as Frasers Group switches on first D365 WMS warehouse
Frasers Group, whose brands include Sports Direct, House of Fraser, and Flannels, reports that Antrim in Northern Ireland has become the first of its warehouses to go live with a Microsoft Dynamics 365 warehouse management system (WMS).
In a LinkedIn post, Jakob Vestergaard, Product Manager - Warehouse at Frasers Group, said: "Two years of work. One major milestone. We're live. As the first warehouse in the group to adopt D365 WMS, Antrim marks an important milestone in our wider warehouse transformation journey."
"Over the last few years, Frasers Group has invested heavily in elevating our stores. This programme is about taking the next step by elevating the warehouse operations that power them, creating a more scalable, visible and consistent platform to support our stores, brands and customers. This achievement would not have been possible without the dedication of teams across the business and our partners."
He concluded: "Go live is a major achievement, but it isn't the end of the story. Over the coming months we'll continue working with our warehouse teams, Microsoft, Binary and InterRadish to refine the solution, introduce additional capabilities and build out the global warehouse template that will support future warehouse deployments across Frasers Group. This is the first step in a much bigger journey. Looking forward to what comes next."
8. Morrisons taps Logile to enhance store planning across supermarket, convenience, logistics sites
Morrisons has selected Logile as it looks to enhance store workload planning across the UK grocery retailer’s business. The agreement covers its supermarket and convenience store estate alongside its logistics network.
Morrisons is implementing Logile software in a bid to simplify central planning, replacing time-consuming manual spreadsheets with optimised operational data and intelligence. By delivering clearer visibility into store workload requirements, it says that central operations can provide accurate, reliable insight across the estate, allowing teams to focus on better supporting store operations.
“Getting colleagues where customers need them most is the heart of what we do, and at our scale you need a reliable, shared foundation to get that right,” says Alex Rose, Head of Productivity at Morrisons. “A large supermarket and a local convenience store operate differently so our planning has to flex to those local needs while keeping central support consistent. When our store managers have plans they can depend on, they spend less time managing admin and more time supporting their colleagues and serving customers.”
9. 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards UK Retailer of the Year finalists include Waitrose, Toolstation, and Morrisons
We’re pleased to announce the shortlist for the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Most Innovative UK Retailer category. We received a record number of entries this year and many fantastic examples of technology excellence driving transformative change across the global retail sector.
Check out a rundown of our 2026 shortlists and finalists here.
Congratulations to all those who made it through the initial submission process! It’s now over to our star studded judging panel who will decide the winners to be announced at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London.
The event will be held on Wednesday, 4th November and consist of a drinks reception, three course meal, awards ceremony presided over by award winning stand-up comedian, presenter, actor and broadcaster, Aurie Styla, and after party until 1am.
Click here to book your place at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, 4th November.
10. Klarna goes live on M&S.com to bring BNPL service to fashion, home and beauty customers
Klarna reports that it is now available as a payment option at Marks & Spencer for fashion, home and beauty purchases online. Shoppers on M&S.com and the UK retailer’s app can now tap Klarna and split the cost into three equal, interest free payments with, according to a press release, transparent terms and no revolving balance.
"People deserve flexibility without paying interest for it, so our goal is simple: meet them wherever they shop," says Klarna Head of UK, Ireland & Western & Southern Europe, Raji Behal. "M&S is a beloved British icon that brings second to none quality and value to millions of shoppers every day. We’re proud to now offer them a transparent way to spread the cost with no interest and a clear end date."
Katherine Carlson, Director of Financial Services at M&S, says: “We are always looking for ways to make it easier for our customers to shop with us. Customers shopping on M&S.com and through our app can now spread the cost in three interest free payments with Klarna, offering more flexibility in how they pay for the things they love.”
