Sainsbury's says sorry and Walmart admits defeat: the stand out retail technology plays from August
RTIH Editor, Scott Thompson, brings you his stand out technology deployments and launches from August, including Ocado Group, nemig, Focal Systems, Everseen, Morrisons, AS Watson, NCR Voyix, Dollar General, RELEX Solutions, AllSaints, Asda, Auror, M&S, Kroger, Simbe, Lefties, and Entain.
Walmart
Walmart is adding tap to pay options to its checkout stations at US stores and Sam's Club warehouses, with deployment set for completion by end of year. Fuel stations will be upgraded by mid-2027. This includes options like Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Walmart has long resisted the rise and rise of NFC-based payments, opting instead to go all in on its Walmart Pay app and Scan and Go app features for contactless payments.
In a LinkedIn post, Sam Amrani, Founder and CEO at PassBy, said: "Isn't it crazy to think that it's 2026 and Walmart doesn't accept Apple Pay? Until now that is. This has been a case of America's largest retailer vs America's largest consumer tech company."
He added: "Inevitably, Walmart Pay will go down as the largest attempt at creating a closed loop payment system. Its demise will be the final nail in the coffin for retailers trying to create proprietary payment rails for their ecosystem. Ultimately, convenience wins."
"The consumer is the kingmaker, and the result was clear, the convenience of Apple Pay was too important to the customer journey. It will make customers happier and Walmart - although adopting reluctantly - will see this lead to faster transaction times, happier customers and more visits."
Ocado Group and nemig
Ocado Group reports that nemlig as the European national retailer announced as its latest partner on 21st July. The tie up will support the development and growth of nemlig.com in Denmark. Under the agreement, the pair will build a customer fulfilment centre (CFC) near Copenhagen.
The site will be equipped with the latest Ocado technology, including the 600s bot, On-grid robotic pick, and a fully automated freezer. nemlig will continue to operate its existing webshop and manage last mile delivery to its customers. The CFC will be fully integrated into these existing operations, with completed orders handed on to nemlig's third-party delivery partners.
Nemlig expects to quickly transfer its existing order volumes into the CFC in 2028.
Sainsbury's
Sainsbury's plans to continue with its roll-out of Facewatch facial recognition technology to approximately 200 stores during 2026, despite a customer being wrongly challenged as a shoplifter and asked to leave a store earlier this month.
A Sainsbury's spokesperson said that this resulted from human error rather than a false match by the Facewatch system and that the retailer contacted the customer to apologise for his experience. "The incident was caused by human error, not the facial recognition technology. Customers can be reassured that the Facewatch system has a 99.98% accuracy rate, and every match is reviewed by a trained manager,” they added.
A Facewatch spokesperson commented: "We can confirm that our live facial recognition technology was not at fault in this incident. A correct alert was sent to the retailer, but was subsequently subject to human error in the way it was handled and communicated by the retailer."
Matt Arnold, 46, was buying items at a Sainsbury’s store in East Dulwich when he was stopped by management at a self-service checkout. He was waiting for a staff member to approve an alcohol purchase. Having scanned his items alongside his Nectar loyalty card, he waved an attendant over, but was instead approached by management.
"They came over and said I had to leave. The staff member said I'd been identified by the AI, and the cameras had flagged me," he told BBC London. "A shoplifter does not walk around with that much shopping, they don't scan it through, they don't put their Nectar card through. But what upset me was thinking this is what the future could be - people just listen to what the machine tells them to do without thinking about the consequences."
After being escorted off the premises, Arnold said he had looked back from the entrance and saw an overhead CCTV monitor alert with a red circle surrounding his face.
Dollar General
RELEX Solutions is partnering with Dollar General to implement forecasting, replenishment, and allocation capabilities across its North American operations.
Dollar General operates more than 21,000 stores and 34 distribution centres, managing approximately 18,000 SKUs, and continues to expand its store footprint each year. The AI driven RELEX platform will manage store replenishment, ordering schedules, lead times, supplier coordination, and fulfillment methods in one place. Sales patterns and other demand factors will be built directly into the planning process, allowing DCs and stores to work from the same data.
“We chose RELEX because it gives us a practical way to use AI in our planning and helps our teams focus on the issues that truly need attention,” says Jeff Vaughan, SVP Global Inventory Management at Dollar General. “The platform brings forecasting, replenishment, and allocation planning into a single environment, giving our teams greater visibility across the network.”
M&S
M&S says it has become the first retailer to use AI powered monitoring systems on its entire Milk Pool to monitor animal welfare across 46 dairy farms. The tools use cameras to capture footage of dairy cows when they are indoors which is then analysed using an algorithm trained alongside vets to monitor welfare of dairy cows in real-time.
The technology uses AI powered video analytics to build an individual health profile for each animal, tracking mobility and body condition scoring over time to give farmers objective, consistent data on the wellbeing of their herd. The tools monitor the cow’s behaviour including lying time, feeding time, social interactions and mobility to generate a ‘cow comfort score’ which supports vets in their assessment of individual cow’s health. The cameras will assess body condition scoring to assess cows’ nutritional status over time.
Terry Canning, CEO of Cattle Eye says “Changes in body condition are early indicators of metabolic health, fertility, and overall wellbeing. Tracking those changes more regularly, across every cow, gives farmers a level of insight that was previously unavailable outside research environments.”
The algorithm supporting the tool has been tested and, according to those involved, found to perform to the same standard as a trained welfare assessor.
The tools are being rolled out following trials at a selection of M&S dairy farms, where farmers have used the technology to make changes to tailor care to individual cow’s needs. By measuring lying times, farmers have made changes to the bedding of individual cows to improve their comfort based on their specific size and shape. Feeding schedules have been adapted to reduce the amount of time cows spend standing and the design of some stalls has been adapted to improve cow comfort.
Lefties
Landsec reports that the first Lefties store in the UK has opened its doors at Liverpool ONE. Owned by Inditex, the fashion retailer has launched a flagship store on South John Street, spanning over 27,000 sq ft across two floors, stocking women’s, men’s, teen, kids, baby, newborn, home, accessories and footwear collections.
This will feature some of the brand’s latest retail technology, already introduced at recent European openings, including robotic hanger sorters and radio frequency identification self-checkouts, removing the need to scan each item separately.
Pablo Sueiras, Head of Retail & Hospitality Leasing at Landsec, says: “Lefties making its UK debut at Liverpool ONE is a significant milestone for the destination and highlights its continued appeal to retailers looking to establish themselves in the UK market. Lefties’ arrival builds on our long standing relationship with Inditex and the success of its existing brands at Liverpool ONE. It also reflects the confidence global retailers have in the destination’s ability to deliver the scale, visibility and highly engaged customer base needed to support long-term growth.”
With the addition of the UK, Lefties is now present in 20 markets globally with 225 stores.
AllSaints
Fashion retailer AllSaints has launched a new customer engagement platform in partnership with Klaviyo. In a LinkedIn post, Alfie Meekings, Chief Transformation and Technology Officer at AllSaints and John Varvatos, said: “One of our core values at AllSaints is 'the customer is the boss' and so naturally one of our key transformation pillars is deeply focused on how we bring even more amazing experiences to our customers.”
He added: “This year, the focus is on how we empower our amazing global teams to be able to drive more personalised content and build genuine connection with people that want to connect with our brand. I'm pleased to share that last week we went live with a new customer engagement platform with Klaviyo to help us do exactly that. We'll be able to offer content that is far more personalised at a global scale, open new channels and ways to connect with our customers and make sure that the engine that sits behind it all is optimised with AI.”
“Getting this done so quickly and smoothly was a big cross-functional effort. This is also a significant project as it's the first that's been delivered by our new engineering team at our GCC in India led by Vijay Venugopal. Also a big thank you for the amazing partnership from team Klaviyo.”
Kroger
500 of Simbe's Tally inventory robots are now in operation across Kroger's store network. The milestone was achieved at its newest Smith’s Marketplace location. In a LinkedIn post, Shaun Buck of Smith's Food & Drug Centers, said: "We’re excited to welcome the 500th Tally robot across all of Kroger to our Smith’s Marketplace team!"
"It’s an honour to have our store selected for this achievement. Our team is excited to put Tally to work and use this technology to strengthen our in-stock conditions, improve shelf accuracy, and continue finding new ways to better serve our customers."
"Technology like this allows our associates to spend more time helping customers while giving us better insights to keep the store looking its best. We’re looking forward to seeing the impact Tally will have as we continue working to deliver the best possible shopping experience for our community."
"A huge thank you to our incredible team for embracing new technology and always putting our customers first. Here’s to continuing to raise the bar every day!"
Entain
Barron McCann, a specialist in retail technology services, has secured a three-year contract with FTSE 100 sports betting and gaming giant Entain. The deal will see it deliver multi-device engineering support and lifecycle infrastructure services across Entain’s UK high street retail estate, operating under the Ladbrokes and Coral banners.
It covers over 2,000 retail locations nationwide, supporting key constituent parts of Entain’s digital shop floor layout. This includes full seven days a week engineering coverage with extended operating hours and a four-hour hardware fix guarantee. Barron McCann landed the tie up following an extensive commercial tender process involving a large consideration set of major IT manufacturers and service providers.
Entain says its evaluation panel was particularly impressed by the company’s specialised workshop capabilities, engineering innovation, and value- ocused approach to circular asset management. Barron McCann’s workshop and re-life facilities provide sustainable component level repairs, utilising technologies such as custom 3D printing for legacy OEM parts. This capability allows it to build an independent, robust repair supply chain for original equipment manufacturer hardware, mitigating the need for costly complete terminal replacements while reducing total cost of ownership.
Morrisons
Morrisons has selected Everseen to deploy its Evercheck solution across 200 of the UK grocery retailer’s stores in an initial roll-out phase. The platform uses real-time computer vision to simplify the self-checkout process.
The move builds on a trial of the technology. On-screen prompts allow shoppers to correct any missed items themselves, with the aim of keeping queues moving. The software integrates with existing systems, freeing store teams to focus on customer service.
Francesca Bezoari, Store Support Office Director at Morrisons, says: “Our new partnership with Everseen enables us to provide the fast and seamless checkout experience our customers want, while simultaneously equipping our colleagues to maintain the exceptional service that Morrisons is known for.”
Joe White, CEO at Everseen, says: “Morrisons recognise that the best AI solutions deliver measurable results without compromising the customer experience. Our Vision AI platform enables Morrisons to improve its satisfaction scores, proving that operational performance and customer service aren't competing priorities. We're proud to bring our experience from deploying across thousands of global checkouts to support Morrisons transformation.”
Asda
Asda is rolling out Auror, a crime reporting and intelligence platform. It says that a ten-week pilot in 30 London stores demonstrated the value of having a faster, more effective way to report incidents and identify repeat offenders in real-time.
According to the UK grocery retailer, the trial resulted in: more than £100,000 of products recovered and returned to shelves; 55% increase in crime prevention rates; 80% reduction in incident reporting time, from around 25 minutes to under five; improved identification of repeat and cross retailer offenders.
David Lepley, Chief Operating Officer at Asda, says: “Rolling out Auror across our estate will further strengthen our ability to prevent and tackle retail crime. The results from our London pilot demonstrated the value of having a faster and more effective way to report incidents and identify repeat offenders in real-time. By working more closely with police and retailers through a shared intelligence network, we can focus our efforts where they will have the greatest impact and help to tackle retail crime.”
Mark Gleeson, General Manager UK and Europe at Auror, comments: “We’re delighted to welcome Asda to our strong network of like-minded retailers who are all committed to keeping frontline retail colleagues safe and taking on retail crime together. It’s fantastic to see retailers like Asda unite to take a stand against the top 10% of offenders causing 70% of retail crime and take back UK’s high streets. Auror has made it 80% faster to record crime for Asda colleagues and early pilot results saw the team identify dozens of prolific repeat offenders, with the majority known to offend at stores owned by other retail brands within the Auror network. This is why the network effect is key to getting on top of this problem.”
“Retailers are working more effectively with police than ever before through digital collaboration. This is helping them surface the true scale of offending, understand and respond to risk across their estates, and focus their precious resources on those repeats, organised, and violent offenders - creating safer stores for all.”
Village Supermarkets
Focal Systems, an AI powered retail technology company specialising in computer vision and shelf intelligence, has announced Top Stock, a module that gives retailers automatic, hourly visibility into inventory stored above the shelf line, without store associate audits, ladder climbs, or manual scanning.
During a one-month pilot, Village Supermarkets says it achieved:
$24,000 in previously unaccounted for inventory identified and recovered in the first month
75% reduction in weekly audit labour, from four hours to just one hour
Ten hours saved weekly on the night crew
36% reduction in top stock inventory
1% on-shelf availability improvement across test store, on top of an existing Focal driven baseline of 97%, where marginal gains at that level translate to hundreds of thousands in incremental annual sales
Increased day crew replenishment rates and planogram compliance
AS Watson
NCR Voyix has announced a new multi-year agreement with AS Watson, a health and beauty retailer, that expands their retail technology partnership.
Under the agreement, AS Watson will adopt the Voyix Commerce Platform, deploying Voyix POS, self-checkout, loyalty and managed services across select retail brands and markets in Europe and Asia, including Watsons in Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines; Superdrug and Savers in the UK; Kruidvat in the Netherlands; and Drogas in Latvia.
“This agreement marks an important milestone in the evolution of AS Watson’s retail technology landscape,” says Gerrit-Jan Steenbergen, Group Retail Technology Director, AS Watson. “By adopting the NCR Voyix Commerce Platform, we are creating a modern, scalable and cloud native foundation that will help our brands deliver exceptional customer experience while accelerating innovation across our global operations.”
“NCR Voyix understands the growth requirements of AS Watson and has proven to be a valued strategic partner. Together, we are building the platform that will support the next phase of our O+O growth and retail transformation journey.”
B&M
Value retailer, B&M, has partnered with PMC to deploy a Point of Sale (PoS) solution spanning across its entire estate. Operating one of the UK’s largest value retail estates, it has replaced its legacy PoS solution with new hardware and updated software. It also wanted to enhance in-store experiences as part of the refresh, adding new capabilities including faster transaction speeds, improved customer-focused functionality and reduced till friction.
Having worked together for over seven years across managed service IT provision, B&M opted to run with PMC and its PoS partner Flooid on this project. Full scale, post-pilot deployment started in January and is due to be completed in August.
David Laithwaite, Implementation Services Manager at B&M, comments: "PMC have proven experience with delivering PoS solutions. Their collaboration and seamless coordination with our other service provider and B&M staff have been exemplary. The synergy in communication and a joined-up working approach across the board has significantly enhanced our operational efficiency, enabling remarkable progress with this project.”
“We’ve seen PMC rise to the challenge, proactively plan for the narrow time window and ramp up resources to ensure the work gets done on time,” says Sheila Whitfield, Retail Service Delivery Manager at B&M.
