RTIH rounds up the stand out retail technology deals, launches, deployments and pilots from the past seven days. Including B&Q, Symbotic, Bodycare, PMC, MillerKnoll, 3D Cloud, URBN, Auchan Retail Romania, shopreme, Hanshow, WHSmith, Carrefour Belgium, HelloFresh, Just Eat, CDS Superstores, and Holland & Barrett.

B&Q

Kingfisher owned UK home improvement and garden retailer B&Q has gone live with Google AI Commerce Search on its online store.

In a LinkedIn post, Chris Swann, Digital Optimisation Lead at B&Q, said: "This brings Google’s latest AI powered technology to our onsite search experience."

He added: "We're leveraging Google’s expertise in search, AI and machine learning to understand language, customer intent and product relevance, combined with our customer behaviour data to determine the most relevant products for every search. Continually optimising, personalising and reducing the need for manual intervention."

Walmart

Symbotic and Walmart have announced an expanded tie up to bring automation capabilities to 25 US regional distribution centres, while supporting additional opportunities across the retail giant's global supply chain network.

The agreement includes an initial commitment of approximately $6 billion in spend, covering work over several years.

“Our partnership with Walmart started with a single product over a decade ago, and now we offer a full end-to-end solution to help power Walmart’s growth across its supply chain for years to come,” says Rick Cohen, Chairman and CEO at Symbotic. “This expanded agreement reflects the strength of that collaboration - a partnership defined by trust and shared ambition.”

Sur la table

Sur la table has announced a buy now pay later partnership with Affirm.

Eligible customers can now pay over time on most items shipped from surlatable.com, with biweekly or monthly payment options starting at 0% APR. Before they buy, customers see their full payment schedule and total cost, including any interest. Affirm says that it never charges late fees, hidden fees or compounding interest.

“People do not build a kitchen all at once. They build it over years, one pan and one knife at a time, and the pieces they keep are the ones that were worth buying in the first place,” says Elton Graham, Chief Marketing Officer at Sur la table.

“We have offered customers flexibility in how they pay for a while now. What we wanted was a partner whose terms are as clear as the products we put on the shelf. Affirm gives people cost certainty, with no late fees and nothing buried in the fine print. Our customers should expect that from us.”

Bodycare

Health and beauty retailer, Bodycare, says it is boosting its high street return with a community led social strategy, optimising content from its micro-influencer network with a custom built AI platform, designed and delivered in partnership with PMC.

The retailer, which last year closed all its stores after collapsing into adminstration, is continuing its comeback, having opened five stores in Sheffield, Derby, Leicester, Bradford and Dudley. Blending commerce and experiences in-store, it now runs all store operations through its proprietary AI platform, AIMEE, which connects data across customers, inventory, trends, social content and store performance to continually improve decision-making.

Designed and built by PMC as the AI brain powering Bodycare’s store network, AIMEE underpins each store’s dedicated, free-to-use content production studios, which allow digital creators and micro-influencers to generate hyper-localised content that drives community engagement. 

AIMEE onboards, briefs and collaborates with micro- and nano-influencers across Bodycare's creator community, while analysing regional social trends against store inventory to optimise content subsequently produced by creators and Bodycare's in-house production team.

Auchan Retail Romania

Auchan Retail Romania has launched a smart cart pilot powered by shopreme snap cart software on Hanshow tablets. Twenty four tablets are now available at one Auchan store, providing an additional self-checkout option alongside shopreme's mobile Scan & Pay solution, which has been available at the retailer since 2022.

As the pilot store also operates shopreme Scan & Pay, no separate integration was required for the new touchpoint. The smart carts deployment builds on the retailer’s existing PoS and loyalty integrations, employee processes, and backend environment. 

Shoppers scan their loyalty card to unlock a tablet at a charging station. They then scan products as they shop, follow their live basket on the smart cart screen, and get personalised offers and loyalty benefits. At the end of the journey, the digital basket is transferred to the self-checkout kiosk, where the shopper completes payment.

Age verification, spot checks, and identification of customers who need assistance can be handled through an app that is already in use and also established workflows.

HelloFresh

HelloFresh has selected Samsara as its telematics partner. After a pilot deployment in the Netherlands, HelloFresh Benelux will deploy Samsara across its entire fleet of more than 500 electric delivery vans, operating across more than ten regional hubs. 

"Innovation is at the heart of everything we do, from our kitchens to our final mile delivery,” says Mark Sugirtharajah, Senior Director Logistics Europe at HelloFresh.

“Partnering with Samsara allows us to take our safety policies and operational practices to the next level. By providing our drivers with feedback on their driving style, we can proactively foster a safer driving culture, dramatically reduce on-road incidents, and better protect the communities we serve.” 

HelloFresh Benelux will leverage Samsara’s open platform for telematics, real-time safety coaching, and temperature monitoring to protect food quality. Drivers will utilise an app to streamline daily workflows, while the entire platform integrates into HelloFresh’s existing proprietary IT landscape. 

URBN

Bamboo Rose reports that URBN is expanding its use of AI native TotalPLM with Create, powered by VibeIQ and featuring Decision Intelligence.

The addition gives design and merchandising teams across URBN’s portfolio - which includes Anthropologie, Free People, FP Movement, Urban Outfitters, Nuuly, and Terrain - visibility into estimated product costs at the concept stage, before samples are made or suppliers are engaged.

URBN uses TotalPLM for product development, sourcing, purchase orders, and global trade management. With Create and Decision Intelligence, design and merchandising teams can see initial cost estimates as concepts take shape, helping them assess margin potential, compare options, and make informed decisions earlier. Approved concepts move directly into development without rekeying data.

“Bringing our design and development workflows together on one platform allows everyone to act on the same information in real time,” says Dan Stockbridge, Director of Production and Sourcing Systems at URBN.

“Bamboo Rose helps us simplify our day-to-day workflow and see costs earlier, so our teams can move faster and spend more time focused on great design.”

Polytag

Polytag has expanded its Ecotrace Programme into Scotland, installing its UV tag detection technology at Wyllie Recycling’s material recovery facility (MRF) in Perth. 

Polytag’s tech detects invisible UV tags activated on packaging as it passes through enabled recycling facilities, capturing barcode level data about which tagged packaging is detected, and where and when. Depending on the information encoded, the tags can also provide additional details about packaging, including plastic melt flow temperature, the packaging converter and food-grade status.

These insights can help businesses assess packaging performance, inform packaging design and build a clearer evidence base for recycling outcomes as the UK’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system evolves.

The installation marks Polytag’s 15th UV detection unit. Wyllie Recycling operates a 4.5-acre MRF in Perth, processing twin-stream kerbside recycling for multiple Scottish local authorities. Brands like Ocado Retail and Waitrose are using Polytag’s network of detection units to gather data on their packaging.

Just Eat

Just Eat has announced a partnership with Revolut, meaning that the on demand delivery big hitter's customers can now select Revolut Pay for a one-click checkout experience within its app and online in the UK and Ireland. 

To mark the launch, users can earn a 5x RevPoints boost on every Just Eat purchase between 28th October and 27th December. Following the promotional window, customers will retain a 2x points boost on every purchase, alongside the ability to instantly redeem RevPoints for cash discounts at the Just Eat app and web checkout.

Selecting this option means that customers will no longer need to manually input card details and can authorise restaurant and grocery orders using biometric authentication (Face ID or fingerprint recognition) through their Revolut account. 

Michiel Verberg, Head of Global Strategic Partnerships at Just Eat, says:  "We're always looking for ways to make ordering from Just Eat faster and more rewarding. Revolut Pay removes a step from checkout, and the RevPoints boost gives customers something back on every order. This is the start of two of Europe's leading technology companies building a better user experience together, which is good news for consumers."

Holland & Barrett

UK health and wellness retailer, Holland and Barrett, has announced a €17.5 million investment across digital and retail fulfilment in Ireland over the next three years.

From 1st November, fulfilment of its Irish online orders will move from the UK to Ireland through an expanded three-year partnership with Kildare-based Road Truck Services (RTS), building on an eight-year relationship spanning import, customs, warehousing and distribution.

The move will see €8.2 million invested in a new digital fulfilment model, alongside €9.3 million relating to existing retail fulfilment operations with RTS, bringing the total investment to €17.5 million over the next three years. 

Around €1.5 million of additional stock will be held locally, bringing Holland & Barrett’s total Irish stockholding to approximately €4.7 million. Around 328,000 orders and 1.8 million units are expected to flow through the Irish logistics network each year. 

The expanded partnership is also expected to support around 20 additional RTS roles, alongside agency support during peak periods and a further 6-10 indirect roles, with recruitment focused on Kildare town and surrounding areas. 

For customers, the move will mean greater choices on online orders from 1st November, with the existing 5kg weight limit lifted and additional products from 34 Irish brands available online. Next-day delivery is planned to launch from 1st December. 

The investment comes as Holland & Barrett grows its presence in Ireland. Approximately 2.8 million customers shopped with the business over the past year, and it now operates 70 stores and employs 419 colleagues across the country.

P&Co

P&Co says it has increased its repeat purchase rate by 24% after introducing Reveni's instant refunds and exchanges.

As the British brand, which was founded in 2013, grew, its spreadsheet-based returns process became difficult to maintain. Manual refunds absorbed support capacity, while fast moving stock made exchanges hard to guarantee before returned items reached the warehouse. With Reveni, refund processing became 2.1 times faster and exchange value increased by 11%.

Katie Evans, Operations Manager at P&Co, says: “The customer support team were talking to me about the dark times before Reveni when returns were processed on a spreadsheet and it was super manual. We worked out it saves 64 days of customer support time not having to manually process refunds.”

Kash Retail

Kash Retail, which operates multiple convenience stores in the UK branded as Nisa Local, has introduced digital headsets by Quail Digital into its outlets following a six-week trial.

The technology enables colleagues to communicate instantly across the shopfloor without leaving their positions or interrupting customer service’ and is helping stores manage everyday operational challenges more effectively, according to the retail operator.

Kevin Polley, Operations Manager at Kash Retail, says: “One of the clearest benefits has been the handling of parcel collections. When a customer arrives at the till to collect a parcel, the colleague serving them can contact a shopfloor team member through their headset and ask them to locate it."

“This removes the need to leave the till or call across the store, helping keep the collection process moving and reducing customer waiting times. The headsets have been a great help in speeding up the collection process, as staff on the tills can request a shopfloor colleague to find the parcel.”

MillerKnoll

3D Cloud and MillerKnoll have announced the deployment of 3D product configurators on Knoll.com.

MillerKnoll is using a centralised library to support digital experiences across its portfolio of furniture brands. The strategy aims to reduce duplication, maintain consistency, and speed the roll-out of interactive product configurators, including the latest launch on Knoll.com.

At the centre of the strategy is a shared foundation of scalable 3D product content and the full suite of 3D Cloud applications. Instead of treating every website, brand or customer experience as a separate 3D project, MillerKnoll says it can extend product content investments to each audience and point in the customer journey.

"We're preserving our design legacy in 3D, while looking toward the future of how customers and designers experience our brands," says Lorna Jean Marcuzzo, Senior Technology Manager, 3D Visualisation + Content at MillerKnoll. "An enterprise 3D content strategy enables us to launch new digital capabilities and experiences faster, maintain consistency across our portfolio, and maximise the value of every digital twin." 

"The Knoll Womb Chair demonstrates this strategy in action. Its 3D product content and data, including materials, finishes, and configuration options, are centrally managed in one place that keeps customer experiences aligned and up to date across product offerings and digital touchpoints."

CDS Superstores

THG Fulfil and CDS Superstores, trading as The Range, wilko and Homebase, have agreed a multi-year contract extension.

The deal builds on a partnership that began in 2024, in which THG Fulfil provides fulfilment and courier management services for the home, leisure and garden retailer.

The renewal supports CDS Superstores’ digital transformation as it looks to invest in technology to strengthen the online offer for The Range, wilko and Homebase. This includes Google Cloud AI technologies to improve search and product discovery on wilko.com, and Mirakl’s platform to support the growth of The Range’s online marketplace.

CDS Superstores is tapping THG Fulfil’s warehouse automation, with 95% of units sold passing through a form of automation during the fulfilment journey. This includes a fleet of Geekplus goods-to-person robots.

WHSmith

x-hoppers, an AI powered retail communication platform from Wildix, has announced a new partnership with WHSmith following a pilot.

The retailer is rolling out the platform across 300+ UK stores, starting with 32 priority locations. The first of these, its flagship location at Heathrow Terminal 5, is now live.

WHSmith selected x-hoppers to support its store teams with wireless headsets, a web app for head office and an AI powered assistant. The pilot began in late 2025 at Manchester Piccadilly station, one of WHSmith’s busiest travel locations. More than 43,000 smart notifications have been delivered to colleagues’ headsets, from store alerts and fridge and freezer monitoring to scheduled team updates and customer QR code alerts. This brings communication, alerts and requests together in one place and reduces reliance on manual processes.

In key categories, QR code notifications let customers request help on the spot, so teams can respond at the point of need. The same codes let delivery drivers contact store teams directly, minimising delays at drop-offs, and can be adapted to store-specific workflows. 

Over the course of the pilot, customers made almost 1,000 requests for help via QR codes. Compared with before x-hoppers was installed, WHSmith has seen QR codes deliver a sales uplift of up to +22% in key categories. 

First Watch Restaurants Group

NCR Voyix reports that First Watch Restaurants Group, a US chain serving breakfast, brunch and lunch, has signed a multi-year Voyix Commerce Platform agreement.

First Watch will deploy Aloha Next, the NCR Voyix cloud native restaurant PoS and management solution, along with Voyix Kitchen, across its nearly 600 corporate owned restaurants in the US.

“As First Watch continues to grow, maintaining a consistent experience across every restaurant becomes increasingly important,” says Rob Conti, CIO at First Watch. “We are regularly introducing menu updates, operational improvements and new customer experiences, and Aloha Next will help us bring those changes rapidly and efficiently to restaurants while keeping our teams focused on delivering exceptional hospitality.”

Uber Technologies and Key Food Stores Co-Operative

Uber Technologies and Key Food Stores Co-Operative, a chain of family owned and operated supermarkets in the US, have announced a partnership that brings grocery delivery from more than 300 Key Food member stores across the Northeast and Florida to Uber Eats.

Customers can shop from participating stores in Key Food’s family of supermarkets, including Key Food, Food Universe, SuperFresh, The Food Emporium, Food Dynasty, and more, directly through the Uber Eats app. They can access a selection of fresh produce, meat, seafood, pantry staples, household essentials and more, with on-demand and scheduled delivery options.

ETAM Group 

commercetools has announced a partnership with French fashion retailer ETAM Group that aims to modernise its digital commerce and accelerate innovation across brands like ETAM, Maison 123 and Undiz.

The tie up follows an eight-week MVP developed by ETAM's Digital Factory in early 2026 to demonstrate the potential of a modern, flexible commerce architecture against its existing environment.

Built on commercetools Sphere, with support from Algolia and Contentstack, the MVP demonstrated a 70–80% increase in development velocity, according to those involved.

"From the outset, our work with commercetools has been about more than replacing technology. We're building a commerce foundation that gives our teams greater speed and our brands more freedom to innovate," says Sébastien Ribeil, Head of Digital Factory at ETAM Group.

"The progress we made together in just eight weeks demonstrated what this approach can unlock, significantly increasing development velocity and giving us a way forward in how we can continue to evolve and grow. Just as importantly, it opens the door to new omnichannel experiences, a strategic priority for ETAM Group in the years ahead."

VenHub Global and Follett Higher Education

VenHub Global and Follett Higher Education have announced a partnership involving the deployment of the former's smart stores across Follett served college and university campuses in the United States.

The tie up can support locations at residence halls, student centres, athletic facilities, arenas, transit areas, satellite campuses, and other high traffic campus settings. Each college or university smart store can be customised with the institution’s colours, logos, and branding.

“Follett has built an exceptional campus retail presence and a deep understanding of the products, services, and experiences that campus communities value,” says Shahan Ohanessian, Founder and CEO at VenHub.

“Together, we are creating a scalable autonomous retail channel that can expand the deployment of our smart stores across college and university campuses and help bring Follett’s trusted merchandise and campus essentials into more locations. Our smart stores already serve customers beyond conventional store hours at high traffic locations such as LAX and Union Station, and with this new partnership, we are looking forward to meeting students and visitors where they already live, learn, and gather.”

“Campus communities expect convenient, flexible access to everyday essentials and campus-branded merchandise,” says Emmanuel Kolady, CEO at Follett Higher Education. “Our partnership with VenHub provides an opportunity to extend the campus retail experience beyond the campus store, working hand in hand with each institution to serve more students, faculty, fans, alumni, and visitors across campus.”

House of Bruar

House of Bruar, a Scottish luxury country lifestyle department store, says it has boosted its in-store customer experience with digital receipts in partnership with Yocuda.

Despite initial concerns regarding its mature customer base - the largest visitor age group is 55 to 64 years old - shoppers have actively interacted with the new digital channel.

Highlights: digital receipts achieved a 70% open rate, over four times the standard retail marketing email benchmark of 17%; click-through rates reached 6% - nearly nine times the retail industry average of 0.7% - driving store shoppers back to online catalogues, product recommendations, and brand content; shoppers can send paperless gift receipts with personalised messages directly from their own digital receipt, thereby enabling House of Bruar to encourage gift recipients to sign up to its CRM.

Before implementing Yocuda, House of Bruar had limited visibility into purchasing habits in its physical store. The introduction of digital receipts resolved that issue and turned everyday transaction records into valuable post-purchase touchpoints.

Warner Bros. Pictures Animation and Amazon Ads

Warner Bros. Pictures Animation and Amazon Ads have teamed up to launch Open to Fun - an immersive, multi-channel campaign promoting the new animated feature, The Cat in the Hat, arriving in cinemas on 6th November.

Developed by Brand Innovation Lab, a team within Amazon Ads, the activation includes a dedicated Amazon store page, custom Alexa experiences, placements spanning Prime Video, IMDb, Twitch, and Alexa, and an interactive mini game, voiced by the film's star, Bill Hader.

"Open to Fun is a perfect example of a 'surprise and delight' campaign the Brand Innovation Lab team loves to create: transforming beloved cultural IP into an engaging pan-Amazon experience customers can discover, interact with, and share."

"Open to Fun is a perfect example of a 'surprise and delight' campaign the Brand Innovation Lab team loves to create: transforming beloved cultural IP into an engaging pan-Amazon experience customers can discover, interact with, and share," says Lauren Anderson, US Head of Amazon Ads Brand Innovation Lab.

lululemon

lululemon has announced the addition of Shopify's Shop Pay solution to its Canada and US e-commerce sites.

"We strive to meet our guests where they are, with an online experience that is thoughtful, secure, and easy to use,” says Nick Engel, SVP Global Digital Experience, lululemon.

“Shop Pay has earned its place in how people shop online, creating the kind of checkout where hundreds of small details come together into something that just works. Bringing it to lululemon.com in the US and Canada gives our guests a familiar, trusted way to complete a purchase, and takes one more step out of the path to getting what they came for.”

Customers can access one-tap checkout, saved payment and shipping details, and order tracking in the Shop app. 

"lululemon sets the bar for brand experience, and checkout is one of the most important moments in the online purchase process,” says Lauren Nemeth, VP Global Enterprise, Shopify. "Shop Pay is already trusted by hundreds of millions of shoppers - now lululemon can offer it on top of their existing infrastructure.”

Home Bargains

American Express and Home Bargains have signed a new agreement meaning Amex is now accepted as a payment method both in-person and online at the UK discount retailer. 

Dan Edelman, UK General Manager, Merchant Services at American Express, says: “We are committed to ensuring our card members can use their card wherever they live, work and travel. We’re delighted that American Express is now accepted by Home Bargains, one of the UK’s fastest growing retailers. This agreement reinforces our strong merchant coverage nationwide, which has tripled since 2021.” 

Phil Hoad, Group Finance Director at Home Bargains, says: “We’re delighted to now accept American Express both in our stores and online, giving customers even more choice and convenience when shopping with us."

"We know many of our customers value the flexibility that American Express provides, and we’re pleased to make it easier for them to pay in the way that suits them best while continuing to offer the top brands at bottom prices they’re used to.” 

Gap Inc.

Gap Inc. has started to scale Bridgette, an AI enabled virtual career guide for seasonal hiring, across its stores and distribution centres.

Bridgette answers candidate questions at any hour, coordinates interviews and sends reminders. In a pilot, nearly 45,000 candidates engaged with it, and it has scheduled more than 7,000 interviews for store leaders. 

In a LinkedIn post, Sven Gerjets, EVP and CTO at Gap Inc., said: "It works every day of the week, which is a better schedule than mine. What I care about most is what it does not do. Managers still run the interviews and make the hiring decisions. That is the point."

He added: "Our approach to AI is human centred and digitally enabled. For every step in a process, we ask what should be automated, what should be AI assisted, and what should stay with a person. Then we redesign the work around the outcome instead of speeding up the old process."

"Hiring is a good example, because the repetitive coordination was crowding out the conversations that build great teams. I keep coming back to a simple test. Does the technology give people their time back for the human work that matters most?"

Carrefour Belgium

Carrefour Belgium reports that it has hit the milestone of 12 autonomous BuyBye stores.

A Carrefour Belgium spokesperson said: "Making our customers' lives easier is also being present where a traditional store cannot be. With the opening of two new modules in the heart of the Charleroi hospital and soon three units in Lyon in partnership with Carrefour France, our AI driven autonomous concept is a new strategic milestone."

They added: "Why choose a hospital environment? To meet the very specific needs of caregivers and visitors, with fresh, balanced and affordable meal solutions, 24/7. At the reception desk of the hospital: a module accessible to patients, employees and visitors."

"Close to the entrance to the operating theatre: a solution especially for the 200 to 300 professionals who are constantly working there, so that they can quickly eat something during their shifts. This strengthens our network, which is already present in hospitals, army bases, stations, airports, campuses and corporate offices."

easyShop

easyShop.com, a new online marketplace from the easy family of brands, has added buy now pay later option, Klarna, to checkout across 19 European markets.

Customers shopping on easyShop can now choose Klarna's Pay in Full, Pay in 3 or Pay in 30 options, allowing them to pay upfront, split a purchase into three interest free payments, or pay a month later.

The partnership follows easyShop's launch earlier this month and comes as the venture prepares for its first peak trading period.

Cas Paton, Founder and CEO at OnCommerce, the platform powering easyShop, says: "Black Friday is no longer just about finding the best deal. Shoppers also want flexibility in how they pay. By bringing Klarna to easyShop, we're giving customers the freedom to shop in a way that suits them, while helping our sellers capitalise on one of the biggest retail moments of the year."

"The easy family of brands has always been about making things simpler and more accessible. Adding Klarna is another way we’re delivering on that, giving shoppers more choice alongside great products and competitive prices."