Robotic suits and Web3 returns: Last week’s biggest retail technology plays at a glance
RTIH rounds up the stand out retail systems deals, deployments and pilots from the past seven days. Featuring Jumbo, Tesco, Aldi Nord, Trigo, Currys, Burger King, M&S, and Victoria’s Secret.
Jumbo
Jumbo, the second largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands which also has stores in Belgium, has announced an exclusive electronic shelf labels partnership with Hanshow.
The retailer currently owns more than 700 stores in the Netherlands and Belgium.
To date, Hanshow’s solutions have been rolled out in over 250 locations. Jumbo will soon have upgraded all 700, with over 11 million Hanshow electronic price tags installed.
Spacee
Spacee has launched a new version of its Deming shelf-mounted robots with live video feed capabilities, allowing retail store managers to see shelves and get real-time inventory snapshots remotely.
Skip Howard, Founder and CEO at Spacee, says: "There is a huge gap between what data retailers can collect in their e-commerce operations and what they can get from physical stores.”
“Spacee helps fill that gap with critical in-store customer and supply chain data. Our latest Deming robots now take it to the next level with live and recorded video feeds."
The robots roam across shelves capturing inventory data. Spacee says that, while it can take several days for staff to capture inventory manually and a full day for a floor robot, Deming can provide an accurate inventory accounting of an entire facility in under a minute.
Installation requires one tool and about 30 minutes per aisle.
Currys
UK tech retailer, Currys, says it has invested over £250,000 in a fleet of robotic exoskeleton suits to help colleagues from logistics partner, GXO, work safely and efficiently through the festive period.
The suits, which are being used at Currys’ facility in Newark, will help people carry out their physical day to day tasks, with the aim of putting less pressure on their joints and muscles while lifting heavy loads.
The Newark site will help deliver 8.7 million units of stock to all 309 of its stores this Black Friday period.
The robotic suits are worn like a small backpack and give colleagues at least 10 tonnes of relief over the course of a typical working shift — with up to 30kg of assistance to the lower back per lift.
Made with ultralight carbon fibre, the waterproof exoskeleton incorporates the AI-based Smart Safety Companion ergonomics early warning system to alert of signs of poor posture and incorrect lifting practices in real-time.
Ocado Zoom
Collect&Go
Collect&Go, Colruyt Group’s online shopping service, is trialling an autonomous vehicle built by Clevon that combines remote teleoperation with autopilot functionality.
The Clevon 1 will cover a four kilometre route, from distribution centre to Collect&Go's pick-up point in Londerzeel. This is the longest route ever covered in Belgium by an unmanned vehicle.
M&S
Marks and Spencer says that it has reduced workplace incidents by 80% just 10 weeks after introducing AI driven health and safety technology from Protex AI to its distribution centre in Castle Donington.
Protex AI uses CCTV systems to provide health and safety teams with technology that autonomously captures unsafe events and flags them to health and safety officers.
By increasing visibility of these incidents on-site, it helped the M&S HSE team to catch patterns in unsafe behaviour and take proactive action, providing focused training to staff to correct issues.
Aldi Nord
Aldi Nord has announced a partnership with autonomous stores firm Trigo.
This builds on a tie up in Utrecht with Aldi Nederland where the pair are working on a checkout-free test store, Aldi Shop & Go.
"To successfully lead discount retail into the future, technology and business must go hand in hand," says Sinanudin Omerhodzic, Chief Technology Officer at Aldi Nord.
"Our close partnership with Trigo unites exactly that and brings together two true experts in their field. The cooperation in Utrecht has shown that we share the right values and that together we can develop quick solutions with an eye for essentials, always focusing on customer benefits."
Nashville Predators, Delaware North, and Amazon
The NHL’s Nashville Predators and food and beverage partner at Bridgestone Arena, Delaware North, are opening two stores powered by Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology and Amazon One.
The first store will open this Friday when the Predators face the Colorado Avalanche, and the second will make its debut in early 2023.
This is the first time Amazon’s physical retail technologies are being deployed in a sports and entertainment venue in Tennessee.
People can insert their credit card or hover their palm at the entry gates to shop.
Once they’re inside, anything they take off the shelf is automatically added to their virtual cart, and anything they put back on the shelf comes out of their virtual cart.
When they have completed their shopping experience, they will be able to leave the store and the credit card they inserted or linked to their Amazon One ID will be charged for the items they took.
Offerings include an assortment of packaged beer, spiked seltzers, soda, bottled water, chips, candies and sundries.
Macy’s
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade returns to the Web3 world this holiday season with a new experience that will enable people to select the first ever NFT Parade balloon.
In celebration of its 96th march, the Macy’s Parade can be experienced in the metaverse and will include virtual galleries from five NFT projects and the opportunity for fans to vote for their favourite creators, helping one of their designs come life in high flying form in next year’s event.
Tesco
Tesco has announced the opening of a fourth Trigo powered store in London.
The hybrid autonomous store is located in the Fulham Reach real estate development.
While still in the capital, it has shoppers with different needs than the on the go shopper which is typical of
Tesco’s other Trigo powered locations in Central London High Holborn and Chiswell.
The grocery giant says that it is catering to a new subset of customers who use the location for their weekly shopping trips, with larger basket sizes.
Bloomingdale’s
For the holidays, Bloomingdale’s will introduce what is pitched as a first of its kind multi-brand virtual shopping experience, developed by Emperia.
This features spaces for CHANEL, Ralph Lauren, and Nespresso, in addition to holiday exclusives that include a luxury beauty/spa room, party room, and gifting experience.
Users can transition between brands through an elevator located in the store.
FatFace
FatFace is partnering with True Fit to deliver size and fit guidance to digital shoppers.
This was implemented on to the company’s site by Astound Commerce, FatFace’s strategic integration partner, as part of its digital transformation journey.
The partnership will leverage True Fit’s Fashion Genome, which brings together data from 80 million active members and 17,000+ brands, to unlock insights and serve fit personalisation to shoppers.
Metro Digital
SymphonyAI Retail CPG reports that implementation of its shelf planning and assortment solutions will expand beyond Metro Romania to more than 8,000 Metro and Makro locations in Eastern Europe, including Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia.
Burger King
Lolli users can now earn Bitcoin rewards at every Burger King in America.
In a LinkedIn post, Lolli CEO and Co-Founder Alex Adelman said: “This is what Bitcoin adoption looks like.”
Domino’s Pizza
Domino’s Pizza reports that more than 100 custom branded 2023 Chevy Bolt electric vehicles are arriving at select franchise and corporate stores throughout the US this month, with an additional 700 rolling out in the coming months, making it the largest electric pizza delivery fleet in the country.
L’Oréal
L’Oréal has deployed grab and go technology from payfree in a pop-up store in Düsseldorf, Germany.
It is also using RFID tags from Avery Dennison.
Customers pass their shopping bag with beauty products through a u shaped scanning unit at the exit.
The payfree Bag Fast Track solution automatically identifies the items in the shopping bag because a RFID tag is attached to eachj one. Customers then pay via contactless using a card or digital wallet.
STARK Finland
Superdrug
UK health and beauty retailer, Superdrug, says it has signed 300 brands to the Superdrug Marketplace, which officially launched last week.
Third-party products on the platform will sit alongside Superdrug products on the company’s website and will be identifiable with a marketplace logo and banner.
The aforementioned brands include Up Circle, Nature Spell, FFS Beauty and Jecca Blac.
Marketing and E-commerce Director Matt Walburn, who led the development of the Marketplace at Superdrug, comments: “Marketplace is the exciting next step in our digital transformation programme.”
“Our intention is twofold; to promote diversity by supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses within the industry and to dramatically increase our range on Superdrug.com, broadening and strengthening our accessible beauty and health offering to our customers.”
Victoria’s Secret
Victoria’s Secret & Co. is rolling out new technology to help customers find the right size when shopping on the brand’s app for Victoria’s Secret and Victoria’s Secret Pink bras.
In partnership with NetVirta, the creator of Verifyt, customers will be able to leverage 3D scan technology to receive personalised bra size recommendations.
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