Bodycare gets physical once again as Tesco cleans 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 Walmart, Subway, Ikea UK, PMC, Starship Technologies, WHSmith, SOLUM, Amazon, Tesco, DRESSX, and Depop.
1. Walmart adds in-store restaurants to US retail giant's Express Delivery service with Subway up first
This marks Walmart’s first restaurant integration within Express Delivery as it looks to bring groceries, household essentials, fashion, prescriptions and restaurant meals together in one experience.
“The future of retail is about bringing more of customers’ everyday needs into a single, seamless experience,” says Tracy Poulliot, EVP eCommerce and Marketing, Walmart U.S. “Bringing Subway delivery into the Walmart app is another way we’re using our proximity to customers and scale to make everyday decisions simpler and everyday life a little easier.”
Subway is Walmart’s largest in-store restaurant tenant, with a relationship that began in 2004. Today, Subway restaurants inside Walmart serve millions of shared customers.
“Subway has always been focused on making freshly made, quality meals accessible to customers wherever they are," says Damien Harmon, President at Subway North America. “The integration of Subway delivery into the Walmart app and Walmart.com is a natural evolution of our 20-year relationship built on a shared commitment to value, freshness and everyday convenience."
The service is now live in select Walmart stores across Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas, and will expand to approximately 1,400 locations by the end of the summer.
2. Great British Bin Juice, anyone? Ikea UK taps AI and QR codes for food waste reduction push
Ikea UK is introducing Great British Bin Juice, a limited edition apple juice made from surplus British fruit, highlighting the value of food that might otherwise go unused.
A key part of Ikea's food waste reduction efforts has been the use of smart technology developed in partnership with Winnow, a company specialising in commercial waste solutions. Deployed in Ikea kitchens, the AI powered tool tracks what gets thrown away, capturing the item, weight and cost, making it easier for Food teams to take simple, effective action. The retailer says that implementing the technology has saved Ikea UK alone over £14 million in ten years, while reducing carbon emissions by the equivalent of taking 2,300 cars off the road.
Each bottle of Great British Bin Juice includes a QR code unlocking 20% off Ikea’s 365+ food storage range. This includes 365+ food containers and lids to help preserve leftovers, as well as a food storage basket with a see through design. Customers can attend free ‘Waste Not, Want Not’ workshops in participating stores, offering simple tips on storage, meal prep and creative ways to repurpose everyday ingredients. The workshops are free for customers to attend and will run in select stores from 6th to 13th June.
Karen Hughes, Country Food Manager at Ikea UK, says: “We believe good food should always be valued and enjoyed. ‘Great British Bin Juice’ is a fun and simple way to show how ingredients, often overlooked, can be turned into something delicious. But most importantly, it’s about sharing practical solutions that can help individuals make more of the food they already have. When we rethink the value of what’s already in our kitchens, those small daily habits can make a big difference.”
3. DRESSX teams with Depop on series of AI powered resale styling and virtual try-on activations
DRESSX is partnering with Depop to bring AI powered virtual try-on to resale fashion through a series of live events, beginning with the Governors Ball in New York on 5th June.
At that event, visitors were able to engage with the DRESSX Mirror, an AI powered virtual try-on experience featuring a curated selection of 300 items from Depop sellers across categories including Western, Y2K, Streetwear and Minimalism. Guests were able to mix and match tops, bottoms, shoes, bags, belts and accessories to create complete personalised looks directly within the experience.
Once guests finalised their styling combinations, they received their generated look via email or text message together with links to shop the featured pieces on Depop. The partnership highlights a new use case for DRESSX technology: making seller generated and UGC style fashion content instantly shoppable and interactive without relying on traditional high production e-commerce imagery.
“We are excited to partner with Depop to bring virtual try-on into a completely new context: resale fashion, seller creativity and live event discovery,” say Daria Shapovalova and Natalia Modenova, Co-founders at DRESSX.
“What makes this experience especially exciting is that it transforms Depop seller content into an interactive styling journey, where users can experiment with full looks in real time, including clothing, shoes, bags, belts and accessories. For us, this is an important step in showing how AI powered try-on can make fashion content more interactive, discoverable and engaging far beyond traditional ecommerce environments.”
“It also demonstrates that this technology is not limited to new luxury fashion or studio shot product catalogues, but can work equally powerfully within resale fashion and community-driven platforms so popular with Gen Z audiences. Making virtual try-on work with seller-generated and UGC style fashion content is technically far more challenging than traditional e-commerce imagery, which makes this partnership especially exciting for us. It opens up entirely new possibilities for how pre-loved fashion can be experienced digitally.”
4. Gatik and PepsiCo lay claim to largest commercial driverless freight deployment in the United States
Gatik has announced a multi-year partnership to deploy driverless trucks across PepsiCo’s North America food and beverage supply chain.
“This is the largest commercial driverless freight deployment to date in the United States, with over 40 driverless trucks already operating across Texas, Arizona, and Arkansas. And, we are just getting started,” says Gautam Narang, CEO and Co-founder at Gatik. “Earlier this year, Gatik announced more than $600 million in contracted revenue. Partnerships like PepsiCo are the foundation of that momentum: real customers, real operations, and the trust required to bring driverless freight to commercial scale. This moment was earned by our team. And it is just the beginning.”
“Serving our vast network of customers requires a supply chain that is safe, reliable, and built for the future,” says Jim Farrell, Senior Vice President of Supply Chain at PepsiCo. “Gatik is already operating inside our networks and brings the autonomous freight technology, commercial experience, and scale we need to strengthen service, add capacity, and move products more consistently for our customers.”
5. US grocery retailer B&R Stores introduces Simbe's Tally inventory robot in stores across Nebraska
B&R Stores, a family owned US grocery operator behind banners including Russ’s Market, Allen’s, Super Saver and Cash Saver, has introduced Simbe’s Store Intelligence platform, powered by the autonomous shelf-scanning robot, Tally, to select locations in Lincoln, Nebraska.
"We are committed to delivering the highest quality shopping experience, and Tally is a powerful tool that helps our associates do that more effectively every day," says Marty Jarvis, Director of Marketing at B&R Stores. "This technology eliminates repetitive manual audits so our teams can spend more time serving customers, keeping shelves stocked, and ensuring products are accurately priced."
"B&R Stores has built a strong reputation by investing in both its customers and store teams," says Negar Ballard, Senior Director at Simbe. "Bringing real-time shelf intelligence into daily operations gives associates better tools to maintain the high standards B&R's shoppers expect."
6. Health and beauty retailer Bodycare announces PMC tech tie up as it preps high street comeback
Bodycare has connected with PMC to design, orchestrate and deliver the digital infrastructure that will power its new store network as the health and beauty retailer prepares for its return to the UK high street.
Last year, it closed all its stores after collapsing into adminstration. Its brand and intellectual property were acquired out of administration in late 2025 by an investor group led by former The Body Shop and Molton Brown CEO Charles Denton, and it is now aiming to open 25 UK stores in 2026, growing to 200 locations over the next five years.
The plan is to run all store operations through a proprietary, custom built AI platform, which will see AI decisioning powering colleague actions, served via data harvested from the store, from task management, in-store network, CCTV and PoS systems to digital shelf technologies.
Bodycare also envisages making each new location a social content hub for local communities, generating localised content via staff, micro-influencers and customers. Each one will host a dedicated content production studio, generating social content each week, with content and UGC takeovers streaming live across digital screens.
“Store experience, digital presence and community engagement - all underpinned by AI intelligence - will be central to Bodycare’s new vision, as we prepare to welcome customers back,” says David Stern, Managing Director at Bodycare. “PMC is not just a transformation partner that we can trust with delivery - their trusted experience is helping us re-imagine, design and create the AI led strategy to bring our vision for Bodycare 2.0 to life.”
7. Starship Technologies pulls delivery robots from US campuses and focuses on grocery and food retailers
Autonomous delivery specialist Starship Technologies is shifting its focus to retail grocery chains and hot food delivery in cities across Europe and the United States as it winds down its US university campus operations. Over 1,200 robots from its US campus fleet will now be redeployed accordingly.
"We're seeing a lot of traction for delivery robots across numerous industries including industrial, universities, and corporate, but it's time for us to focus on the vertical we feel will have the most value, both for our clients and for Starship," says Ahti Heinla, CEO and Co-founder at Starship Technologies.
"We built something remarkable on US campuses, and we're proud of that work. When we started in 2018, operating in closed, controlled environments was the right foundation: it gave us the operational depth and real-world delivery data that no lab could provide. Now we can operate reliably at scale in open urban environments, which is exactly what grocery delivery demands."
"The unit economics are clear: our robots deliver groceries at a cost $3-4 lower per delivery than traditional courier fulfilment. That gap is the difference between last mile delivery being a margin problem and a competitive advantage. The opportunity in grocery is generational, and we owe it to our teams and our partners to focus where the impact is greatest."
8. SOLUM to roll-out digital shelf-edge technology across WHSmith's flagship UK travel retail locations
WHSmith and SOLUM have announced a partnership involving the deployment of electronic shelf label (ESL) solutions across WHSmith’s UK travel estate, starting with high footfall locations including the retailer’s recently opened flagship stores at Heathrow Airport.
To support the roll-out, WHSmith has selected Newton PRO, SOLUM’s flagship ESL designed for demanding retail environments such as airports, railway stations and major transport hubs.
Heidi Reynolds, Retail Director at WHSmith, says: “Our focus is on making every journey better by bringing together all of the essentials travellers need in one place. As we continue to evolve our offer, the ESL solutions help us support a clearer and more intuitive customer experience while enabling colleagues to operate more efficiently in busy travel environments.”
Mark Duckworth, Country Manager UK & Ireland at SOLUM, says: “WHSmith’s new flagship stores reflect the continued evolution of travel retail, where convenience, speed and clarity are essential to the customer journey. We are proud to support WHSmith with ESL solutions designed for high-footfall environments, helping improve shelf-edge accuracy, operational efficiency and the in-store experience across key travel locations. This partnership is an important milestone for SOLUM as we continue to strengthen our presence in the UK travel retail market.”
9. Robot powered UK fulfilment centre live in Northampton as Amazon announces second new site in Kettering
Amazon has opened a new fulfilment centre in Northampton and announced plans for a second major site in nearby Kettering, taking its investment in a single county to more than £1 billion and creating over 4,000 jobs.
The developments come one year after it committed to stump up £40 billion in the UK from 2025 to 2027 - the largest investment in the company's history outside the US - with more than £15 billion thus far delivered. Amazon’s Northampton fulfilment centre is pitched as one of the most advanced logistics operations in the country, with thousands of robots working alongside employees on three floors. The Kettering site will be the UK’s largest cross-dock facility, sorting and routing customer items across the country.
Amazon has also expanded its London headquarters in Shoreditch with the opening of a third building, bringing around 6,000 employees together on a single campus.
The 900,000-square-foot Kettering site will process around 20 million items each week, creating more than 2,000 permanent jobs and hundreds of seasonal roles. Recruitment is under way for engineers, HR and IT professionals, finance specialists, and operations teams. The announcement comes as customer deliveries begin at Amazon's new £500 million fulfilment centre in Northampton, where a further 2,000 jobs will be created.
John Boumphrey, Amazon UK Country Manager, says: “A year ago we said we planned to invest £40 billion in the UK. Today you can see what that means - from 4,000 jobs in Northamptonshire and 2,000 in Hull, to drone deliveries from Darlington, a new tech HQ in Swansea. We said we'd deliver and we have. And we're only a year in.”
10. Tesco rolls out ICE autonomous cleaning robots across grocery giant's Express stores
ICE has announced a partnership with Tesco, launching a roll-out of autonomous cleaning robots across 600 Express stores. The pair are laying claim to the first deployment of this scale in the UK convenience sector.
The machines are designed as "co-bots" to work alongside Tesco colleagues. By taking over routine floor cleaning, they free up time for the store teams to focus on serving customers. The technology promises a highly consistent, premium clean every single day, backed by data tracking and reporting.
Mark Bresnihan, CEO at ICE, says: "As long standing pioneers in cleaning technologies, ICE is delighted to partner with Tesco on this project. We are providing not just our industry-leading autonomous machines, but also the comprehensive training and service support required to make this a success. Together, we are showing how data driven automation can work hand-in-hand with retail teams to improve cleaning standards."
