Featuring Pricer, Gander, and Trustly: last week’s biggest retail technology plays at a glance
RTIH rounds up the stand out retail systems deals, launches, deployments and pilots from the past seven days. Including DFS, Currys, home24, Holland & Barrett, John Lewis Partnership, Nike, Carrefour, and Gym+Coffee.
A.F. Blakemore & Son
SPAR wholesaler and convenience store retailer, A.F. Blakemore & Son, has launched a new app called Plant & Win, where shoppers in Wales, central England and the Southeast can play to plant trees and win prizes.
Partnering with environmental charity One Tree Planted, a tree will be planted in the UK for every Plant & Win app downloaded.
Running from 27th April until 17th May, the game will be live in SPAR stores serviced by A.F. Blakemore.
DFS
UK sofa manufacturer and retailer, DFS, has chosen Fluent Commerce’s order management system (OMS) to underpin the development of its home fulfilment programme.
Filco Market
Anti food waste app, Gander has embarked on a partnership with South Wales-based Filco Market.
The retailer has rolled out its technology in all nine of its stores, in Llantwit Major, North Cornelly, Sarn, Cowbridge, Taibach, Talbot Green, Caerau, Bryntirion and Maesteg.
The Gander app will integrate with Filco Market’s EDGEPoS system, which is powered by Henderson Technology.
Klarna
Nike
Cognizant has announced a new agreement with Nike to manage its technology operations in 40 countries.
This builds on a 14-year history of collaboration between the two companies and will consolidate several of Nike’s existing IT support functions.
Cognizant will use hyper-automation, AI, and process re-engineering in three key areas of technology operations: Multilingual IT Customer Service; Deskside and Dispatch Depot, and Application and Infrastructure Support.
home24
Home and living e-commerce company home24 is tapping Constructor AI-based technology to improve product search on its website and mobile app.
Using clickstream behavioral data, AI and machine learning algorithms, Constructor’s platform surfaces search results that are personalised to each shopper and their journey across channels, as well as optimised to home24’s key performance indicators (KPIs).
It also uses natural language processing (NLP) to instantly infer intent, even from more complicated search queries, and makes it easy for home24 shoppers to filter results to find the right products faster.
ShipStation and Mirakl
Cloud-based e-commerce shipping solution, ShipStation, has announced a partnership with online marketplaces specialist Mirakl.
This has gone live in the UK, France, Germany, North America, Australia and New Zealand.
Merchants in the Mirakl Connect ecosystem can now access ShipStation through a direct integration.
In parallel, ShipStation merchants can tap Mirakl Connect, an ecosystem of global brands and marketplace partners.
Within the ecosystem, ShipStation merchants get access to Mirakl’s 350+ marketplace channels and selling tools, with the ability to retrieve and print order labels through their ShipStation accounts.
Kodiak Robotics and C.R. England
Self-driving truck company, Kodiak Robotics, has announced a partnership with truckload carrier C.R. England.
To kick things off, the pair have launched a pilot to autonomously ship Tyson Foods protein products between Dallas and San Antonio, Texas.
The deliveries will launch in April using Kodiak self-driving trucks and C.R. England refrigerated trailers. Safety drivers will be in the trucks in the initial stages of the pilot.
Holland & Barrett
Trustly’s Open Banking-based payment method is now available on health and wellness retailer Holland & Barrett’s online store in the UK.
This allows consumers to pay directly from their bank account in the checkout.
Holland & Barrett is one of the largest UK retailers to embrace this type of account-to-account payment technology and is Trustly’s first major e-commerce partnership on these shores since its acquisition of UK-based Open Banking platform provider Ecospend.
By implementing the technology, Holland & Barrett says it will solve several payment challenges including refunds, reconciliation, and rising costs relating to payments.
It integrated Trustly’s services into its current infrastructure thanks to the latter’s long-term relationship with Adyen.
John Lewis Partnership
Eagle Eye has secured a five-year contract with The John Lewis Partnership for its new pan-partnership loyalty project launching in 2024 alongside dunnhumby.
This brings together Eagle Eye’s existing relationships with John Lewis, as first announced in 2017 to improve the retailer’s digital marketing capabilities, and with Waitrose, as subsequently announced in 2019.
The project aims to integrate the group’s high street business, online and app touchpoints, building on the My John Lewis and My Waitrose loyalty programmes.
The Eagle Eye AIR platform will provide The John Lewis Partnership with loyalty management capabilities, enabling dunnhumby’s data science to be executed at scale to deliver more personalised rewards, offers and experiences to customers.
Clix Technology
Clix Technology, a UK-based startup combining mobile technology with customisable smart locker design for the retail sector, is launching a new product - the Clix Smart Locker - having trialled it in B&Q Cardiff since July 2022.
Currys
LTIMindtree has been selected as a key digital transformation partner by UK retailer Currys.
During the five-year engagement, Currys will leverage LTIMindtree’s retail business consulting and technology capabilities to deliver the next phase of its omnichannel transformation initiative.
The pair have been working together since 2022.
Carrefour
Carrefour has picked Pricer as its exclusive supplier of electronic shelf label (ESL) solutions for the next three years.
This covers new installations and replacements as the French retail giant looks to boost its store automation and communication solution.
The deal with Carrefour, which has been a Pricer customer for the past 20 years, contains no commitments with regard to volumes or amounts.
Gym+Coffee
Irish athleisure brand Gym+Coffee has implemented Oracle NetSuite.
Excellent Zephyr led the project in collaboration with Patchworks.
This comes off the back of Gym+Coffee, which was founded in 2017, securing €17 million in funding last year to pursue growth across Europe.
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