Retail technology deals and deployments round up

RTIH brings you the stand out retail technology deals, deployments and pilots from the past seven days.

Safepoint has been appointed by the East of England Co-op to offer a solution that protects its growing fleet of lone delivery drivers.

Each one is now equipped with a wearable alert button, allowing them to request emergency help.

Albertsons, the second largest grocery store chain in the US, has partnered with Tortoise to pilot robot delivery at two Safeway stores in Northern California.

British luxury and lifestyle brand, Barbour, has selected Metapack to head up its online shipping and returns operations.

It will use Metapack’s Delivery Manager, Delivery Options and its Returns Portal as the company looks to gain access to more carriers, automate the shipping and returns process, and further extend delivery options to consumers.

Cleveron has launched a space efficient indoor parcel robot pitched at PUDOs, kiosks and small stores.

A pilot is currently underway in Europe.

Conversational commerce tech venture Heyday AI has been selected by Lacoste as its global chat and customer messaging provider.

Other clients include Decathlon and Bestseller (Jack & Jones, Vero Moda, Bestseller).

Manuka honey brand Comvita New Zealand has partnered with commercetools on the launch of its new online store.

The company used commercetools’ APIs to create a headless checkout experience along with a cloud native, Point of Sale solution.

Ted Baker has partnered with Bambuser to launch live video shopping for customers in the UK from 11th March.

The brand will host regular events using retail store experts and in-house personnel as well as talent and influencer partnerships.

Russian food retailer, X5 Retail Group, has partnered with Sberbank and Visa to launch a ‘pay with a glance’ service at self-service checkout terminals.

Currently available at 52 Perekrestok supermarkets, this uses biometric identification based on X5’s innovation lab technology and VisionLabs solutions.

UK retailer Peter Christian’s new US site has gone live on the BigCommerce platform.

Karen Reeves, Customer Experience & Retail Transformation Manager, John Lewis & Partners, recently talked to RTIH about the retailer’s 3D commerce journey and its trial and roll-out of Marxent technology.

Pandora has partnered with Go Instore to launch a live video service.

The Remote Shopping Assistant offering enables store staff to guide customers through their buying journey from the comfort of their own homes.

M&S has launched 46 flagship websites in new markets, expanding its online reach to over 100 countries.

The launch is part of the retailer’s Never the Same Again transformation programme, and nearly doubles the number of international markets where it has a pureplay presence.

Cadbury has launched a virtual Easter egg hiding experience called Cadbury Worldwide Hide.

Using Google Maps Street View, people will be able to hide an Easter egg anywhere in the world and then share a personalised clue with a loved one to help them find it.

US retailer Kroger has opened an automated warehouse in Monroe, Ohio.

The $55 million, 335,000 square foot customer fulfilment centre, also known as a shed, is the first of 20 facilities to be created as part of a partnership between Kroger and Ocado.

Intersport has rolled out Pricer’s electronic shelf labels (ESLs) across its European store estate.

The solution, which delivered around 1,000 SmartTAG HD per store, now provides instant price changes.

Source: Retail Tech Innovation Hub