RTIH rounds up the stand out retail technology deals, launches, deployments and pilots from the past seven days. Including Coles Group, Coveo, Circana, Ocado Group, AiFi, Primark, Brompton, Commerce, Old Spike, Square, Debenhams Group, Booker Wholesale, and Samsung Electronics.

Coles Group

Coles Group has selected Coveo to power AI search and product discovery on coles.com.au. 

"We're always looking for ways to make shopping with Coles easier for our customers, and search is an important part of the online experience," says Ben Levinson, General Manager of Digital Product at Coles. "Coveo demonstrated that its technology will make it easier for customers to find the products they are looking for, and we look forward to continuing to improve the Coles online shopping experience."

"Helping Australians find their everyday grocery products faster and easier is a great opportunity for Coveo" says Alexander Mahr, Managing Director, APAC, at Coveo. "We're proud to support Coles as it creates a smarter, more intuitive online grocery experience for customers across Australia."

RV@Olympic

AiFi has partnered with RV@Olympic camp site and resort in Port Angeles, Washington, USA on the launch of a checkout free store.

In a LinkedIn post, AiFi said: "It’s 9 PM near Olympic National Park and you’ve just realised you’re out of snacks for tomorrow’s 6am hike. Most campground stores closed hours ago. At RV@Olympic in Port Angeles, Washington, guests can still walk over and get some."

It added: "We’ve partnered with RV to open the first fully autonomous campground store in the United States. Guests walk in, take what they need, and leave. AiFi’s spatial intelligence platform handles checkout in real time, so nobody has to staff a register overnight."

"A staffed store here would run 9am to 5pm. Today, 56.6% of the store’s revenue comes in outside those hours. A store that closes at 5pm sends most of that demand back to the campsite empty-handed."

Co-op

Circana and Co-op have announced a new multi-year agreement, extending a partnership that launched in 2020.

Over the past few years, the former's HIVE portal has become a key part of Co-op’s data strategy, enabling the retailer and its suppliers to work from the same data and build a shared understanding of customer behaviour, category performance and market trends.

HIVE brings together EPoS transactions, shopper insights, loyalty metrics, purchasing behaviours and market performance to provide a single view of performance across the business.

The renewed agreement marks the next phase of HIVE’s development, with the aim of strengthening Co-op’s ability to unlock value from its data assets while helping suppliers make faster, more informed decisions.

Over the next five years, Circana and Co-op will expand the platform’s capabilities through the integration of new data assets and measurement solutions, including supply chain, quick commerce and wholesale insights.

Imran Rasul, Chief Commercial Officer, Co-op, says: “We are delighted to deepen and extend our relationship with Circana. The next evolution of HIVE will provide suppliers with broader, more connected insights across our business, enabling faster decision-making, stronger collaboration and greater opportunities for shared growth. Together, we're creating a platform that helps turn data into action and supports long-term success for both Co-op and its partners.”

Ocado Group and AEON

Ocado Group and AEON have announced the official go live of their second customer fulfilment centre (CFC) in Japan. The facility in Hachioji City, Tokyo was unveiled by AEON executives at a ceremony at the site.

This will provide additional capacity to enable the growth of AEON’s Green Beans online grocery delivery brand across the Tokyo region, as well as driving logistical efficiency and shorter delivery distances across its network. Hachioji is the second Ocado CFC to use its Auto-Freezer system following the recent launch of Lotte's CFC in Busan, South Korea.

This uses a specialised version of Ocado’s fulfilment bot to process frozen orders 2.7 times faster than AEON’s first CFC in Chiba, and increases freezer inventory capacity by 150% while reducing the required storage footprint by 50%. The Auto-Freezer will also reduce the time spent by staff in freezer conditions to below 5% of their working hours.

The four-storey CFC has a gross floor area of approximately 40,000 m², and is equipped with a full suite of Ocado’s Re:Imagined technologies, including On-Grid Robotic Pick. The site will also offer a Pickup service, allowing customers to collect orders directly from the site in as little as three hours.

Sam's Club

Affirm has announced an exclusive, multi-year tie up with Sam’s Club that will give eligible shoppers a buy now, pay later option. Affirm will be available on SamsClub.com in the coming weeks, with plans afoot to expand availability to Sam’s Club locations in 2027.

“Making every dollar count shouldn’t stop at checkout,” says Wayne Pommen, CRO at Affirm. “When people pay over time with Affirm, they know what they’ll owe and choose a plan that fits their lives. That way, every dollar counts after checkout, too.”

At checkout, shoppers will complete a quick, real-time eligibility check for purchases. If approved, they can choose a monthly plan and see each payment and exactly when they’ll be done before they commit. Affirm says that it never charges late fees, and interest never compounds.

Fran's Chocolates

Fran's Chocolates, a US-based gourmet chocolatier, is among the first customers worldwide to test Aviator, Avalara's newly unveiled agent hub for tax and compliance.

For years, Fran's Chocolates had little reason to worry about multistate sales tax compliance. That changed as the company's e-commerce and wholesale businesses grew across the country and the Wayfair decision expanded states' authority to enforce economic nexus rules.

The company implemented Avalara AvaTax to automate tax calculations across jurisdictions, Managed Returns to handle filing and remittance, and Exemption Certificate Management (ECM) to track and validate exemption certificates.

Fran's Chocolates says it reduced reliance on additional full-time employees, saving up to $120,000 annually in salary and benefits, and reclaimed more than 100 hours a year by automating tax classification across a catalogue of more than 900 SKUs, including the 40 to 60 new products it typically introduces annually. Automated, jurisdiction specific tax reporting has also helped shorten its financial close cycles.

"Economic nexus rules are always changing, and keeping up with them used to mean hours of manual cross-checking," says Ken Harrison, Senior Accountant at Fran's Chocolates. "Avalara helps us see where we're approaching nexus before it becomes a problem, and recently using Avalara Aviator has shown us how much further that early warning can go. The agent does the scanning, and we decide what to act on."

As part of the Aviator beta process, Harrison put the hub's orchestrator agent, Avi, to work on real, day-to-day compliance questions. Work that traditionally meant combing through transaction grids line-by-line was surfaced for review in a fraction of the time, with Harrison retaining full control over which findings to act on.

Primark

Primark has partnered with Kallikor to introduce a simulation led approach to supply chain decisions. The aim being for the retailer to test and validate operational and capital changes before implementation.

The tie up begins with creating digital twins of Primark’s distribution centres, allowing teams to test alternative operating configurations before implementation.

By comparing scenarios in a simulated environment, the retailer says it can identify more efficient approaches while protecting customer service and avoiding downstream cost or operational impacts across the store estate.

Adam Hoccom, Director of Supply Chain at Primark, says: “As we continue to grow across markets, ensuring our supply chain is designed to support that ambition is critical."

"A key part of that is making sure our distribution centres operate efficiently while remaining aligned to store needs. Working with Kallikor allows us to test and compare different operating configurations - from layout and flow changes within sites to broader network considerations - before we commit capital spend."

"This gives us greater confidence in the choices we make and how they will perform in practice, strengthening our ability to innovate and make well informed decisions as we evolve our network.”

Walmart and Wing

Starting on 21st October, Walmart customers in Charlotte, USA can order drone delivery powered by Wing. This marks the official launch of this service in the region.

Over the next year, Wing and Walmart are expanding drone delivery to 270+ stores, with a view to building a coast to coast network in 2027, ultimately reaching over 10% of the US population.

Bypassing heavy traffic, inclement weather and crowded parking lots, residents can get game day supplies, routine essentials, and weeknight dinners delivered straight to their yard.

Ikea

Ikea UK is investing £31.5 million across its Peterborough and Doncaster customer distribution centres (CDC) as the retailer aims to make online fulfilment more efficient and sustainable. In Peterborough, new technology is packaging customer orders to size and reducing material usage by up to 30%, by preventing waste from oversized boxes and filling paper. In Doncaster, Ikea is trialling a new regional fulfilment capability, serving customers in the north and Scotland from a closer location to them.

The investments will strengthen Ikea’s UK fulfilment network as online sales account for 43.3% of total UK sales in financial year 2026. It is investing £30 million in new technology for its Peterborough CDC, with the upgrades taking place over a two-year period. As part of this, it has launched new PackSize technology to prevent waste from oversized cardboard boxes and filling materials by packaging customer orders to size. On average, the technology reduces material usage by up to 30% and void fill by up to 60%.

The technology is expected to increase the share of parcels processed through automation at the Peterborough CDC from 47% today to 75% in 2027, helping the fulfilment team prepare orders for delivery more efficiently. These additional orders would otherwise have been packaged by manually creating a packing carton which includes having to measure the article then creating the cartons to fit the order. Three drones and nests were introduced at the site in January to support inventory management. They scan each aisle in short cycles, helping Ikea to keep stock in the right place and meet customer demand.

Ikea is investing £1.5 million in trialling a new fulfilment capability at its Doncaster CDC. The site now fulfils orders for customers in the Gateshead, Edinburgh and Glasgow areas, with plans for Sheffield to follow. By fulfilling these orders from Doncaster rather than Peterborough, Ikea expects to reduce emissions from delivery journeys by an estimated 280 tonnes of CO2 annually. The new capability has created an additional 80 jobs at the Doncaster site.

Co-op

The number of retail crime cases solved has almost doubled during a new crime reporting trial between Co-op and Devon and Cornwall Police in the UK. The partnership, according to those involved, delivers significantly faster justice for offences carried out, with data from Devon & Cornwall Police showing crimes reported through the platform - which is called SentrySIS - achieving a solve rate of almost 60%, which is approaching double the force’s average solve rate for retail crime versus retail crime being reported by those using traditional channels.

Data from Devon & Cornwall Police also revealed that 90% of identified shop theft offenders are repeat offenders, with just 50 individuals responsible for around a quarter of all shop theft offences in the Devon and Cornwall force area, often with more than 100 known offences each. The new system enables stronger intelligence sharing; improved tracking of repeat offenders - connecting multiple offences committed by the same individual and building stronger cases against prolific offenders and, closer collaboration with police both at a local and central level. 

Store colleagues upload incident details, CCTV, photos and impact statement enabling police to record and allocate the crime in as little 30 minutes - a process that could take police up to seven days. Furthermore, it removes the need for investigating officers to then approach the retailer for evidence, saving time for retailers and resulting in the average time taken for investigations to be completed and assigned an outcome being slashed by more than a third to 35 days.

The success of the pilot has seen the SentrySIS system, which links to Co-op’s wider partnership working with UK Partners Against Crime (UKPAC), now activated across all Co-op stores in Devon and Cornwall, with discussions now underway with additional police forces. Co-op’s own retail crime levels are falling with the retailer expected to see its lowest levels since the pandemic.

Brompton

Commerce reports that Brompton, a British foldable bicycle manufacturer, has launched its new partner portal on BigCommerce B2B Edition. 

The aim here is to give Brompton’s global network of independent retailers a modern ordering experience, with the portal running on the same BigCommerce instance and product catalogue that powers the company’s direct-to-consumer business.

Brompton first launched its composable direct-to-consumer site on BigCommerce in 2024. The new offering extends that foundation to the wholesale side of the business, which accounts for roughly 75% of Brompton’s total sales across over 1,000 retail partners worldwide.

“Our retail partners are central to Brompton's success. The new Partner Portal gives them a modern, intuitive way to explore our product range, place orders and access the information they need to support our joint customers.” says Oliver Boardman, CTO at Brompton. “This investment is about making it easier for our partners to do business with Brompton and grow alongside us.”

Five Below

poq has announced the launch of new native iOS and Android mobile apps for Five Below. Tiffany D’Amato, Vice President of Digital, Five Below, comments: “Our customers live on their phones, and these apps give them a faster, more engaging way to experience everything they love about Five Below.”

“Partnering with poq allowed us to bring that vision to life quickly and effectively, with a truly native experience built for our shoppers. We’re confident these apps will drive stronger customer engagement and long-term growth for the brand.”

Helen Slaven, Chief Revenue Officer at poq, says: “Five Below is exactly the kind of brand app commerce was made for, with a huge, engaged customer base and a shopping experience built on discovery. We are thrilled to partner with them to turn mobile into an owned channel that retains customers, grows lifetime value and scales with the business.”

A built-in price scanner lets shoppers scan an item in store and check its price and details on the spot, while personalised search helps customers explore the various products Five Below has to offer. Store aware features surface the nearest store and stock availability and push notifications, keep customers close to new arrivals and seasonal drops. The apps are built on poq’s platform and integrated with the Five Below commercetools commerce stack.

SPAR International

Footprints AI and SPAR International have announced a partnership to develop a media marketplace that supports independently operated food retail. The platform would be available to all SPAR licensees, enabling SPAR country organisations to access a single platform to plan, buy, optimise, and measure retail media campaigns, with the same simplicity, precision, and sales tracking as digital advertising.

Footprints AI’s software sits on top of SPAR country organisations’ existing physical and digital retail infrastructure (stores, screens, instore radio, e-commerce, mobile apps, and PoS data) and connects it into one advertiser facing marketplace, while ensuring each organisation keeps full control of its own data, assets, and commercial model.

“Retail media has reached a point where brands and agencies no longer need an isolated network. They need a marketplace that can scale outcomes. The first phase of retail media was about individual retailers monetising their own assets. The next phase is global marketplace infrastructure: advertisers get a more consistent way to plan, buy, optimise, and measure retail media across markets, while local retailers keep control of their data, assets, and commercial model. That is the shift we are building with SPAR,” says Dan Marc, CEO, Footprints AI.

“Retail media is an important growth platform in modern retail. At SPAR our ambition is to connect the strength of our global SPAR network with the power of local retail entrepreneurship, creating a scalable platform that delivers value for customers, retailers and brand partners alike."

"By combining our vast physical presence, shopper relationships and data capabilities with advanced retail media technology, we are evolving our SPAR network into a connected commercial ecosystem that enables brands to engage consumers more effectively across markets while generating new revenue opportunities for SPAR country organisations,” says Tobias Wasmuht, CEO, SPAR International.

AliExpress

AliExpress has announced a partnership that brings its global product selection into YouTube’s creator ecosystem, giving eligible creators access to various products to feature in their content, along with new commission earning opportunities.

Following the launch of the collaboration in South Korea in March, the partnership will expand to four markets: the United States, Brazil, the United Kingdom and Germany. Further expansion will take place in phases, in line with the roll-out of YouTube’s affiliate programme in new markets.

With YouTube's recent extension of its Shopping Affiliate Programme to eligible creators in Germany and the United Kingdom, the partnership will connect participating creators not only in Europe but also eventually worldwide with AliExpress's product offerings. A particular focus is Brand+ - a dedicated selection of branded products from international and local brands.

Creators can discover and select AliExpress products directly within YouTube Studio. The integration connects AliExpress products with YouTube's three major content formats - long-form videos, shorts, and livestreams - allowing creators to tag shoppable product recommendations across key moments of audience discovery and engagement. 

They can explore AliExpress's products across categories such as consumer electronics, sports and outdoor, home and living, and lifestyle. Using data on bestselling and trending products, they can handpick items that resonate with their audiences. Viewers can link directly from YouTube to AliExpress to complete their purchases.

Matalan

Matalan reports that its first fully native app has recorded 1.76 million downloads since launching in August, with monthly active users growing by 10% month-on-month since go live. App orders increased 20% year-on-year in August and 28% in September, while conversion has reached 4.4%, ahead of its 3.4% target. Average order value is also 14% higher than on Matalan's website.

Developed in partnership with Apadmi, features include intelligent search to help customers find products more easily, richer product content and streamlined checkout through Apple Pay and Google Pay. 

The app also brings Matalan Me rewards and account information together in one place, making it easier for customers to access their benefits and personalised offers.

It is designed to connect Matalan's digital and physical shopping experiences. An in-store barcode scanning feature allows customers to check product details, availability and reviews using their phones, helping them move more easily between shopping in-store and online.

Samsung Electronics

Samsung Electronics and Checkout.com have announced a global partnership across Samsung’s digital commerce ecosystem. Samsung Electronics has 221 operational sites across 76 countries. Its broad portfolio spans mobile devices, consumer electronics, software, connected experiences and digital commerce, including Samsung.com, Galaxy Store, Samsung Wallet and Samsung Pay. 

Checkout.com currently processes payments for Samsung Gulf Electronics, supporting Samsung.com across the MENA region. Under the aforementioned partnership, Checkout.com will extend its support to additional Samsung Electronics’ digital commerce environments and markets in the EU and North America across both the Galaxy Store and Samsung.com.

The partnership will bring together Checkout.com’s global and local acquiring capabilities, payment processing platform and payment optimisation technology to support Samsung Electronics’ payment flows as it expands across markets. Samsung Electronics will use its Intelligent Acceptance, an AI powered solution that uses real-time data from Checkout.com’s global network to help optimise transactions, reduce payment failures and improve performance.

Samsung Pay will also launch on Flow, Checkout.com's low code payments integration, on 31st October. This gives Checkout.com merchants a new way to add Samsung Pay as a digital wallet option for online and in-app checkout and tap into over one billion Samsung Galaxy phone users.

Debenhams Group

Debenhams Group, which is home to Debenhams, Karen Millen, boohoo, MAN and PrettyLittleThing, has launched a new cash flow solution with the aim of giving its 30,000+ brand partners faster access to sales revenue as soon as orders are shipped.

Now live on Debenhams ahead of the Christmas trading period, Storfund’s Daily Advance solution allows partners to access their sales revenue daily, rather than waiting for the standard marketplace payment cycle.

Dan Finley, CEO at Debenhams Group, says: “Our marketplace-led strategy is built on creating an ecosystem where great brands can scale with us. As we grow our marketplaces, we want to make Debenhams Group the partner of choice for brands looking to reach millions of customers and accelerate their growth. Giving sellers faster access to their sales revenue gives them greater flexibility to reinvest in their businesses when they need it most - particularly as we head into peak Christmas trading. It’s another example of how we’re supporting our 30,000+ brands and making it easier to do business with Debenhams Group.”

Justin Hanna, Director of Platform Partnerships at Storfund, says: “Marketplaces have spent the last decade building better shopping, advertising, fulfilment and settlement experiences. Liquidity is the next frontier. When businesses have cash on hand to respond to demand, buy stock and invest in growth, that benefits the entire marketplace. Embedding Daily Advance within Debenhams gives sellers greater control over their cash flow at a crucial point in their growth.”

Klarna and Fiserv

Klarna has announced its availability on Commerce Hub, Fiserv's enterprise commerce platform, for the first time. Merchants in the US, Canada, the UK and select European markets will be able to offer Klarna both in-store and online.

The agreement follows the buy now pay later specialist’s launch this week at 100,000 US in-store merchant locations through Clover, Fiserv's PoS platform for small businesses.

"We're rapidly expanding Klarna's footprint in physical retail, now live in 100,000 physical locations across the US through Clover," says David Sykes, Chief Commercial Officer at Klarna. "Deepening our integration with Fiserv's Commerce Hub allows us to support merchants across channels. We're giving consumers clear, flexible ways to pay, with a new credit decision made on every transaction."

“Consumers expect flexibility wherever they shop, and merchants need technology that enables consistent experiences across every channel," says Sanjay Saraf, Chief Product Officer, Merchant Solutions, Fiserv. 

"By expanding our partnership with Klarna through Clover and Commerce Hub, we're helping businesses offer more payment choice, connect their in-store and digital experiences, drive growth and customer loyalty.”

Muffato Group

Sensei has deployed its technology in a new Muffato Go store in Curitiba, Brazil. This has been developed in partnership with supermarket specialist Grupo Muffato.

While Sensei first became known for its autonomous store technology, it says that the intelligence behind those stores has always been designed to address a broader challenge: giving physical retail the ability and the data to understand and automate its own operations in real-time.

The new Muffato Go, according to those involved, will put that capability into practice, showing how the same underlying technology can improve shelf availability, detect losses, automate checkout, manage fresh products and support online order fulfillment.

Headquartered in Portugal and operating across Europe and Brazil, Sensei has deployed its technology in more than 100 autonomous points of sale, including the world's largest autonomous store, opened in Leiria, Portugal, in 2025. 

“The new Muffato Go shows what AI can already do in a physical store. Shoppers get a faster, simpler way to buy, but that is only the visible part. Our models recognise products and shopper interactions as they happen, and store teams get the right task at the right time," says Vasco Portugal, CEO and Co-founder at Sensei.

"The real value is turning what happens in the store into intelligence that supports the entire business, from the shop floor to the head office. That is what we mean by Conscious Spaces: physical spaces that see, understand and act."

Old Spike

Old Spike, a specialty coffee roaster and social enterprise, has opened its seventh London café in Southwark.

The new Great Suffolk Street location displays what it believes to be the UK hospitality industry’s first live impact dashboard powered by payments platform, Square. 

Old Spike’s central mission is to create employment for people experiencing homelessness. Its Barista Training and Employment Programme provides practical training, paid work placements and support into lasting work. Since opening in 2015, over 350 people have completed its training course.

The dashboard uses Square data to display to customers how their purchases across Old Spike’s seven cafés contribute to its training and paid work placement programme. Southwark is the first café to feature the dashboard, which Old Spike plans to roll-out across all its sites.

When a purchase is made, Square automatically sends the information to the Impact Dashboard system, which records the transaction and calculates the relevant impact measures and KPIs. These figures are turned into visuals via an animation application so they can be displayed on public-facing screens. The dashboard showcases the number of trainees completing the programme, graduates securing lasting employment and the amount paid during work placements. 

The canimations for the dashboard screens were created by motion and data visualisation studio Algo which developed a modular animation system powered by Rive, the same technology behind Spotify’s Wrapped campaign.

Booker Wholesale

Booker Wholesale has deployed more than 500 Sony BRAVIA Professional Displays to establish a new retail media network across 100 of its UK locations. The project was delivered by Pixel Inspiration in partnership with dunnhumby.

Installed predominantly at rack ends and above palletised merchandise, the displays provide a platform for targeted advertising and promotional content, while integrating into the existing wholesale environment. This presented specific challenges for the installation. 

Displays needed to be positioned for maximum visibility while also being protected against accidental impacts from stock movement, pallet handling and day-to-day warehouse operations.

Sony BZ35L BRAVIA Professional Displays were selected as part of the hardware solution to provide the combination of image quality, reliability and operational efficiency required for the network. 

To provide additional protection, Pixel Inspiration worked with UNICOL to develop a combined mounting and protective shroud solution. This was designed to withstand the demands of a busy cash and carry environment while maintaining appropriate airflow and ventilation around the displays.

The displays use Sony’s Android-based System on Chip (SoC) technology, reducing the need for additional external media players and helping simplify the overall installation. The network is managed through the DISE content management system, enabling campaign content to be centrally targeted and distributed across Booker’s national estate.