Retail tech innovation of the week: Featuring Somewhere Never, Brarista, AiFi, Carrefour

Retail Technology Innovation of the Week is a series brought to you by RTIH, and sponsored by 3D Cloud, highlighting stand out deployments, launches, and initiatives by retailers and tech suppliers.

Every week, we will showcase forward thinking tech plays that have impressed our Editor and the Retail Technology Innovations Report judging panel, alongside the publication of the 2026 report later this year.

And this week we’re focusing on Brarista which 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."

And honourable mentions this week to...

Carrefour Israel

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."

Inter Miami

Major League Soccer club Inter Miami (you know, the one that Lionel Messi plays for) notched up a milestone on 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.