Ikea cooks up a Swedish storm on UK high street: 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 Walmart de México y Centroamérica, Poundland, Apadmi, Harrods, The Empik Group, Costa Coffee, Lacoste, Instacart, and Party City.

Walmart de México y Centroamérica

Walmart de México y Centroamérica is deploying Quorso’s Co-Pilot across its 2,850 Bodega Aurrera and Walmart Supercenter stores.

The technology will be used to empower Walmart’s “tech powered, people led” strategy by digitising and simplifying activities.

“Walmart de México y Centroamérica uses technology to simplify our associates’ work and to improve the customer experience. Quorso is a valuable partner in our desire for continuous improvement,” says Portfolio Manager Leonardo Golfin. 

“Walmart de México y Centroamérica has a reputation as one of the best operators globally,” says Quorso CEO Julian Mills.  “We are delighted to partner with them and help them to implement our new technology across their store network.” 

Poundland

Apadmi has created a new loyalty app for Poundland.

Following trials, Poundland Perks has been rolled out nationwide, with the app becoming the number one free download in the Apple and Google Play stores in just 24 hours.

It offers a new loyalty scheme which provides a combination of personalised offers, Poundland Perks Points and interactive games. The app had more than 500,000 sign-ups in the first few days.

Poundland’s Director of Digital, Tom Hill, says: “It’s been a very strong start for our new rewards app, as we give customers the opportunity to save, earn and play through their smartphone, making shopping with us even more fun, and even more amazing value – whether in-store or online.”

The app underwent several rounds of testing over the last year initially on the Isle of Wight, in Northern Ireland and latterly in Scotland before its national launch.

Ikea

Ikea has opened the doors to its first stand-alone restaurant on the UK high street. Shoppers in Hammersmith, London will now be able to drop in and enjoy the retailer’s iconic meatballs and other treats, on King Street.

This is the first time Ikea has created an exclusive dining space on the high street – opening next door to the newly revamped Hammersmith City store.

The space, formerly home to a Wasabi restaurant, has been kitted out to seat 75 diners, serving a range of Swedish dishes, and featuring self-service terminals.

“We know how much our customers love the Ikea restaurant and we’re excited to celebrate the opening of our very first high street restaurant,” says Matthew Gould, Market Manager at Ikea London City.

“Fans of our delicious dishes can recharge during their shopping trip with our famous Swedish meatballs, pop in for a traditional Swedish ‘fika’ break for coffee and a sweet treat, or find an affordable meal for the kids right on the high street.”

Harrods

Harrods has announced the launch of its new e-commerce platform, powered by SCAYLE.

The luxury department store will leverage SCAYLE’s set of out-of-the-box capabilities which offers flexibility for customisation and personalisation, including product information management (PIM), shop management and an order management system (OMS).

Additionally, SCAYLE has built custom brand landing pages for Harrods, developed the headless frontend, and integrated an ERP alongside all other third-party systems.

Instacart and Party City

Grocery technology firm, Instacart, and Party City, a celebrations category specialist, report that customers can now shop from over 700 of the latter’s stores across the country on the former’s platform for same-day delivery in as fast as an hour.

“We understand that life’s celebrations come in all shapes and sizes, from birthdays and holidays to graduations and game day get-togethers,” says Shannon Symalla, Chief Marketing Officer at Party City.

“Our partnership with Instacart brings a new level of convenience to the Instacart customer’s party planning experience, no matter the occasion. Same-day delivery means the platform’s users can get what they need without missing a beat of the celebration, for everything from last minute Halloween party decorations to extra balloons for their child’s birthday.”

Stanley 1913

Stanley 1913 has selected Kinaxis as it looks to modernise its supply chain and ensure operational efficiencies to help increasing consumer demand. 

Stanley 1913’s products are distributed in more than 60 countries worldwide.

The Kinaxis Maestro platform will enable its team to sense potential supply chain hurdles quickly, analyse impacts and mitigation options, and implement rapid actions to address or prevent challenges that impact supply.  

Costa Coffee

Excel London and Costa Coffee have unveiled their refreshed in-venue stores, including touchscreen ordering systems.

With thousands of visitors attending Excel London every month, the venue prioritises efficiency and speed.

The upgrades to both Costa Coffee stores focus on innovative technologies to streamline the ordering process, ensuring more customers can place their order seamlessly to receive their coffee quicker than ever.

In addition to new touchscreen ordering systems, additional coffee machines have been installed to expedite service during peak hours. Both stores are also using staff headsets, making them the first non-drive thru Costa Coffee stores to implement this communication technology.

The Empik Group

The Empik Group, an omnichannel retailer in Poland, has picked RELEX Solutions for a supply chain management solution.

It is looking to transform its previously manual, legacy systems with a unified approach encompassing forecasting and replenishment as well as space and assortment planning to synchronise its end-to end planning process.

“We are one of the leaders in Polish digital transformation, driving innovation for over 75 years. We are looking forward to embarking on our strategy to shift away from legacy systems and manual approaches towards a sophisticated, AI driven retail planning solution. This transition is crucial for upholding our commitment to customer satisfaction and supporting even more rapid omnichannel growth,” says Karol Ignatowicz, COO at Empik Group.

“With RELEX, we can ensure that our customers always find what they need, whether they shop in-store or online.” 

Lacoste

Cypheme reports that Vrai AI, its AI anti-counterfeit technology that can detect fake products based on just a picture of a specific detail of a product or label, purely with visual analysis, is now available to brands worldwide.

Lacoste is the first company to tap this technology.

The CW Network and Shopsense AI

In a first for US college sports, viewers of the Virginia Tech vs. Syracuse game at 12 p.m. ET on 2nd November will be able to shop game day essentials and team merchandise directly from their mobile devices with technology powered by Shopsense AI’s Commerce Operating System (Commerce OS).

The partnership will kick off with ACC college football broadcasts and will expand to other live sports, scripted series, and unscripted programming across The CW Network. Whether viewers are engaging with game-day content on broadcast television or via social media, they'll be able to buy products while enjoying their favourite programmes.