Retail media, smart carts, and autonomous stores: check out last week's most read retail technology articles

Check out our most clicked retail technology articles from last week, including Ocado, Tesco, Snappy Technologies, InPost UK, Carrefour Israel, A2Z Cust2Mate, Somewhere Never, Brarista, Joybuy, and AiFi.

Ocado ramps up quick commerce push as it starts rolling out same day delivery slots in UK

Ocado is launching same day delivery slots in select UK areas. In an email to customers, the online grocery retailer said: “You can now order with your morning cuppa and we’ll deliver before dinner.”

It added: “It’s perfect for when you’ve run out of milk. Oh, and you forgot to get the tinned tomatoes for tonight’s lasagne. Come to think of it, you could do with some more washing up liquid and the loo roll is looking dangerously low…All you have to do is look out for a same day slot when you shop. But hurry - last orders for these slots is 1.30pm and they’ll go as fast as the last handful of popcorn on movie night. And when they're gone, they're gone.”

The slots are currently free for customers’ Smart Pass deliveries. For those who aren’t signed up to Smart Pass, standard hour-long slots vary in price from £6.50 to £7.50, and Ocado also offers cheaper options for its four-hour slots. The latter are currently included with Smart Pass, so there is no additional charge.

A standard £40 minimum spend applies, though there may be additional charges such as small order fees. The move builds on Ocado’s Zoom offering, which provides on demand delivery with a minimum spend of £15, and competes with the likes of Tesco Whoosh and Amazon Now.

Inter Miami's newly opened Nu Stadium features AiFi technology powered checkout-free stores

Major League Soccer club Inter Miami (you know, the one that Lionel Messi plays for) notched up a milestone last Saturday when they played their first match at the newly opened Nu Stadium against Austin FC.

What has that got to do with the retail technology space, we hear you cry. Well, the stadium features six check-out free stores powered by AiFi technology. Fans tap a credit card or scan an app to enter. AiFi’s camera only computer vision then tracks anonymous keypoints to accurately identify the items each fan picks up. Shoppers walk out when finished, and the system automatically processes the payment.

In a LinkedIn post, AiFi said: "Messi has a habit of scoring in threes. We took notes. AiFi is launching six checkout-free stores at Inter Miami this weekend. Two hat tricks. Zero checkout lines."

AiFi previously deployed its autonomous retail platform with multiple stands at Hard Rock Stadium, a 40+ store roll-out at the Intuit Dome, and frictionless checkout locations at Arena Milano during the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Jon Nicholson swaps Royal Mail for InPost UK as he signs on as Chief Commercial Officer

Parcel lockers specialist, InPost UK, has appointed Jon Nicholson as Chief Commercial Officer. He was previously at Royal Mail where he spent almost 11 years, holding a number of roles during that time, most recently MD Sales, Marketing, Customer Experience & Digital.

In a LinkedIn post, he said: “After nine amazing months of garden leave, I am finally rejoining the working population as the Chief Commercial Officer for InPost. To have that amount of time off, has been a huge privilege and one I can't take for granted, but it also reminded me that meaningful work is hugely important and I can't wait to get going.”

“I am incredibly excited to be joining InPost. It is a phenomenally exciting time to be part of the growth story. We have a huge amount to do, but also a huge amount to offer. Having been an observer of the market for the last nine months, the headlines for InPost have made fascinating reading, not least the opportunities that will be created by the Advent/FedEx/A&R Investments deal (importantly for me, seeing that InPost will continue under Rafał Brzoska's leadership), but also the growth in the UK seeing us install our 14,000th locker, continuing the unrivaled network expansion, and, that revenue continues to grow as out of home delivery as a preferred option is increasing.”

He added: “Hugely exciting news from the teams in Poland on the launch of InPost Buy, which looks to reshape how retailers and e-commerce sellers reach their markets, demonstrating that InPost is far beyond a logistics business and truly is a technology led, e-commerce, customer experience platform. I can't wait to see how it develops. In typical fashion, however, my first day commuting in nine months and the trains aren't running - some things haven't changed.”

Carrefour Israel gears up to roll-out 4,000 A2Z Cust2Mate smart shopping carts nationwide

Global Retail, a Carrefour Group franchisee, and A2Z Cust2Mate Solutions Corp., have agreed a five-year agreement, valued at approximately $50 million, to deploy 4,000 smart carts across Carrefour Israel stores, alongside a data, retail media and digital services collaboration.

The deal positions Carrefour Israel as one of the first retailers in the world to implement smart cart technology at this scale.

The roll-out is set to begin in the third quarter of 2026 across six Carrefour Israel flagship stores and includes end to end delivery of smart carts, charging infrastructure, software systems, as well as full implementation, training, and long-term support.

"We are proud to lead by pioneering smart cart technology at this unprecedented commercial scale," says Michael Luboschitz, CEO at Carrefour Israel. "The agreement signed is expected to generate for Carrefour Israel profits of approximately $35 million.”

“Deployment of the Cust2Mate smart carts in our stores will grant our shoppers an improved shopper experience, enabling them to enjoy personalised and targeted promotions and a quicker checkout, increasing the same store year on year sales, and improving our operational efficiency, resulting in profits estimated at an additional tens of millions of dollars.”

“The future of retail is fundamentally technological, and we are proud to be the leaders driving that evolution. This agreement is a strategic signal of our commitment to digital transformation. By deploying the A2Z Cust2Mate platform, we are establishing a new global standard for connected, data driven, and personalised shopping experiences that are engineered for scale."

Snappy Technologies develops Order Aggregation with Southern Co-op and Heart of England Co-op

Snappy Technologies has announced the enterprise launch of its Order Aggregation (OA) solution, which is designed to help retailers manage orders, menus, promotions, and inventory across multiple online delivery marketplaces, and control product and pricing centrally.

This has been developed in collaboration with retail partners Southern Co-op and Heart of England Co-operative during the last nine months.

Heart of England Co-operative Society became the first to process a Snappy OA order in June 2025 using Just Eat and Snappy Shopper channels and is now adding Uber Eats with all levels of last mile supported.

Then followed Southern Co-operative in September 2025, who are now operating across five marketplaces; Deliveroo, Uber Eats, Just Eat, Snappy Shopper, and FoodHub.

Lingerie brand Somewhere Never deploys Brarista's AI powered sizing chatbot platform

Brarista has announced a partnership with Somewhere Never, a US-based luxury lingerie brand.

It has launched with Brarista's full chatbot, which sits across the site and answers fit and style questions instantly. It supports the full shopping lifecycle - from sizing education to post-purchase care and exchange queries.

Somewhere Never has also introduced a sidebar quiz as a structured entry point into Brarista's fitting experience. It combines a two-minute bra fitting quiz with the breast shape quiz, which goes further to assess shoppers on breast spacing, side and top fullness, bottom gap, shoulder slope, and life stage.

“I wanted to introduce a solution that made sizing easier to understand and helped customers find their best fit through a more intuitive quiz," says Felicity Kear, Founder and Designer. "It was also important to have a tool that helps customers quickly see what’s available in their size, while answering common questions around shipping, returns, and the brand more broadly. In the long-term, I hope this creates more confidence when shopping, builds trust with new customers and ultimately helps reduce returns."

JD.com's Joybuy online marketplace taps Competera pricing platform for European push

Competera is working with Joybuy, JD.com’s online retail business, to manage its footprint across Europe. The partnership moves Joybuy away from manual market monitoring by implementing a centralised system that tracks competitive shifts in real-time.

Teams at Joybuy now receive processed market insights every morning. This schedule allows category managers to identify price gaps and adjust their own points before the peak shopping hours begin. By consolidating these insights into a single interface, it says that it has reduced the labour hours previously spent on manual research and spreadsheet updates.

"Joybuy is scaling rapidly in a complex environment," says Alex Halkin, CEO at Competera. "We're providing the data architecture they need to stay competitive without increasing their operational headcount."

A Joybuy spokesperson says: "We want customers to feel confident they’re getting a great deal every time they shop with us. By combining our global brand partnerships with smarter pricing tools, we can keep prices competitive and deliver joy seamlessly from first click to doorstep."

The current phase of the roll-out focuses on broadening SKU coverage and refining the data feed for local price points in each European market Joybuy serves. The two companies are planning to integrate deeper demand analytics into the workflow to further refine the retailer's strategy.

Diageo and PepsiCo test Tesco video formats spanning homepage and in-aisle environments

Tesco Media has announced the launch of new premium video advertising placements across Tesco’s website and mobile app.

It says that this marks the next step in “its evolution from a retailer with data to an ultimate media partner with soul, scale and storytelling power”.

As part of the testing phase, a number of brands have been using the new video formats.

Mike Cheetham, Head of Creator, Sponsorships and Partnerships GB/EU, Diageo:, says "Video has always been a powerful way for us to tell our brand stories. To have a new opportunity to do this in a highly contextual moment close to point of purchase has the capability to be a highly influential way to reach our customers."

Emma Cathie-Harris, Digital and eCommerce Director, PepsiCo, comments: “We were excited to be a test partner for video on Tesco.com. It enables us to drive impulsivity and conversion whilst building our brands. We see opportunity for it to support new product development (NPD) launches where we can really tell a brand’s story as well as to amplify our core brands.”