Top Things You Missed IN Retail

Check out the news and information from the latest issue, or browse back issues.

With the recent addition of Alaska to its service area, Instacart has become the first and only online grocery marketplace to accept Suppmental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in all 50 states and Washington D.C. The benefits can now be used to buy groceries online via Instacart in every state.

Full Article ›
John Lewis Partnership, operator of the John Lewis and Waitrose brands, will migrate more of its technology to Google Cloud as it seeks to take advantage of advances in AI, machine learning and loyalty program support.

Full Article ›
La-Z-Boy launched a new marketing platform, “Long Live The Lazy,” to reclaim the term “lazy,” according to a press release. A national ad campaign will begin airing this week across broadcast, digital, streaming, social media and mobile gaming.

Full Article ›
Newegg, an online retailer for PC hardware, consumer electronics, gaming peripherals, home appliances, automotive and lifestyle tech, is tapping artificial intelligence (AI) for customer reviews.

Full Article ›
Reitan Convenience Sweden (RCS), a leading company within the convenience store industry in Sweden with over 400 stores, announced today the expansion of their partnership with unified supply chain and retail planning solution provider RELEX Solutions.

Full Article ›
Two retailers will account for close to 40% of an expected windfall from radical industry transformation caused by artificial intelligence (AI). According to the new Retail AI Readiness Index from analyst firm IHL Group, the top 212 North American public retailers and restaurants could see over $1.5 trillion in additional financial impact through 2029. Amazon and Walmart are expected to account for more than $580 billion, or 38.5% of the total.

Full Article ›
Taco Bell is on the fast track toward 10,000 U.S. restaurants, and it's doing so through a variety of innovative store designs, from its urban-based Cantinas to digitally focused Go Mobile prototypes. The latest iteration is part of a familiar trend in the quick-service industry—drive-thru and pickup only.

Full Article ›
As a result of deploying the company’s platform, the retailer says it can establish even closer contact with its customers and respond to their requests more quickly, as both parties take stock after two years of cooperation.

Full Article ›
German Guys in Stockton, Calif., is saving time and over $7,000 a year after switching payroll software.

Full Article ›
Stingray Advertising and Loblaw Media, the retail media division of Loblaw Companies Limited (Loblaw), announced today a new relationship that expands Stingray’s retail audio advertising network into Loblaw grocery stores this summer. The Loblaw store audio network will span nearly 300 stores.

Full Article ›
The home field of the Seattle Seahawks NFL pro football franchise, which became the first NFL stadium to implement both Amazon’s Just Walk Out checkout-free shopping technology and Amazon One palm-based entry and payment solution technologies in a single store in August 2022, is launching new deployments.

Full Article ›
Wakefern Food Corp.’s ShopRite banner has debuted an electric vehicle (EV) fast-charging station from EVgo Inc. at its 801 Roosevelt Avenue location in Carteret, N.J. This latest launch is part of a push by Wakefern to bring more EV charging stations to communities served by ShopRite stores.

Full Article ›
The Golden State Warriors NBA basketball franchise and Chase Center have opened ampm ASAP Grab-and-Go,a new store offering autonomous checkout that runs on Verizon Business and AiFi technology.

Full Article ›
Delivery service Uber Eats and Midwest grocer Hy-Vee have partnered to offer on-demand and scheduled grocery delivery, expanding access to the chain’s private label products.

Full Article ›
Homeware brand Pigment has chosen Brightpearl by Sage technology ahead of its e-commerce and wholesale expansion.

Full Article ›
Dollar Tree's Family Dollar banner has partnered with the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) Educational Foundation to launch a program that helps Family Dollar shoppers make informed, educated choices about choosing and using over-the-counter (OTC) products and dietary supplements.

Full Article ›
Last month, Velvet Taco had a limited-time offer and the newest installment of the brand’s Weekly Taco Feature (WTF), the Chat GPTaco.

Full Article ›
The e-tailer is rolling out a new generative artificial intelligence (AI)-based feature that provides a short paragraph on the product detail page highlighting the item features and customer sentiment frequently mentioned across written reviews to help customers determine whether they want to make a purchase.

Full Article ›
The Florida-based furniture and home accents retailer has deployed Bluecore's Transparent Identification solution that offers a complete view of website identification rates.

Full Article ›
URBN, a consumer brand portfolio which incudes Urban Outfitters, is teaming with o9 on a digital transformation journey using a next-gen merchandise planning suite of technologies.

Full Article ›
In a clip with over 258,000 views as of Sunday, TikTok user Ellen (@taylorswiftskarmaa) shows various reusable containers from McDonald’s, each one featuring a sticker that appears to have a small circuit inside. “why r there gps trackers,” she writes in the caption. In the text overlaying the video, she adds, “bro calm down McDonalds nobody’s gonna steal ur cups.”

Full Article ›
The Wills Group's Dash In stores selected GSP to provide retail marketing services at the chain's 55 locations.

Full Article ›
UK hospitality company, Heart with Smart Group, has selected Vista to provide technology support and project services for its estate of 150+ Pizza Hut restaurants across the UK, and its growing portfolio of itsu stores.

Full Article ›
UK-based Azumi Limited has chosen Oracle MICROS Simphony Cloud Point-Of-Sale (POS) to upscale its restaurant management in selected locations. With Oracle, the group will be able to unify reporting and get real-time insights into its operations to help to keep costs down and adapt to the changing needs of its customers.

Full Article ›
Colgate-Palmolive is piloting a generative AI-enabled chatbot that marries digital shelf data curation with content creation, and it’s developed a cross-functional team for the closed-beta test.

Full Article ›
The on-demand delivery platform is partnering with loyalty/ordering technology provider Paytronix to equip restaurant retailers using its service to develop loyalty programs and support gift card payment.

Full Article ›
The Canadian e-commerce company is providing retailers the option to utilize the True Fit Fashion Genome solution, which lets consumers create an online fit profile by entering some basic information about their body type and preferred retailers and apparel brands.

Full Article ›
Central Retail Corporation (CRC) has partnered with Ant Group to introduce Alipay+ across its stores, offering full services for international digital payments to boost convenience for Asian tourists from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and South Korea.

Full Article ›
Walmart Inc. has announced plans to expand electronic shelf pricing technology in the next 18 months to 500 more stores for 60 million shelf labels through a partnership with Vusion. The retail giant began testing the digital technology in some stores about a year ago.

Full Article ›
Garrett Brands LLC., known for brands like Garrett Popcorn Shops and Frango Chocolate, has teamed with ToolsGroup to leverage its a suite of AI-based supply chain planning functions to help to increase growth while maintaining product freshness and customer satisfaction.

Full Article ›
Limehome is one of a growing band of hospitality companies using platforms that resist ever becoming out-of-date. Their so-called ‘composable hospitality’ allows operators to bolt together off-the shelf tools and add those that they develop themselves in-house. It’s the most powerful way to build a PMS and technology ecosystem that is bespoke, affordable and scalable.

Full Article ›
The quick-serve hot dog chain is deploying SOCi CoMarketing Cloud solutions including social, reviews, and listings, with the goals of improving overall digital presence and engaging with customers more effectively.

Full Article ›
Amperity is working with Shiseido Americas to help create connected and personalised digital customer experiences across all of its brands.

Full Article ›
The e-tail giant announced that Prime Visa and Amazon Visa cardmembers can now pay with equal monthly payment options when using the Amazon Pay solution during checkout at tens of thousands of participating online retail sites, including Lenovo, Tennis Express and Authentic Watches.

Full Article ›
The company is partnering with Flowspace, a software platform and distribution network powering e-commerce fulfillment and logistics, to add 30 Tricont Logistics’ temperature-controlled storage facilities to the Flowspace fulfillment centers. Tricont Logistics and Tricont Trucking is Del Monte’s third-party logistics and trucking company.

Full Article ›
Generative AI has been the term on everyone’s lips this year, and CPGs are not immune. The expansion of intelligence capabilities – including technologies like ChatGPT – is not only redefining operational processes, but also opening doors to unexpected applications that can amplify efficiency and consumer appeal.

Full Article ›
When Pacific Pearl Hotels began investigating new accounting software for its growing portfolio of independent hotels, it conducted a deep dive into the leading accounting and financial management programs on the market. Enterprise accounting solution PVNG by Aptech won hands down for its wide scope of features, transparency, and ease-of-use.

Full Article ›
German retailer Netto Marken-Discount reports that its private labeled food and beverage products are now digitised using Digimarc technology, including incorporating covert Digimarc digital watermarks into the packaging.

Full Article ›
Tapestry (parent company to such brands as Kate Spade and Coach) is bolstering its marketing efforts by leveraging generative AI tech to automate online personalization, and Marks & Spencer is following close behind.

Full Article ›
Target has begun brewing up a chainwide rollout of one of its most requested services — allowing its Drive Up customers to add Starbucks items to BOPIS orders that are then delivered to their cars at no charge.

Full Article ›
USAopoly, a specialty game manufacturer, is using Alloy.ai technology to combine sell-through, shipment and forecasting data for more accurate planning, data management time savings and better retail execution – resulting in six figure sales increases at Target and Amazon.

Full Article ›
Verizon is deploying new innovative solutions across multiple touchpoints aimed at enhancing and streamlining the customer experience.

Full Article ›
A cultural icon of American dining, Waffle House now is offering diners new contactless ways to pay with Oracle Payment Cloud Service. Whether settling a check for the chain's signature waffles or 'scattered, smothered, and covered' hashbrowns, customers can use the latest contactless payment options, including debit/credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay.

Full Article ›
It’s undeniable that GenAI is have a major impact across industries, especially since OpenAI introduced ChatGPT last November. But what does that mean in terms of dollars and cents? Research firm IHL Group has taken a stab at the collective impact of AI, GenAI and machine learning on the retail and restaurant sectors through 2029 in its new report: $1.5 trillion, with a “T.” Worldwide, IHL estimates, that figure is $9.2 trillion.

Full Article ›

E-NEWSLETTER

Subscribe to our E-Newsletter for our latest news & analysis!

UPCOMING EVENTS

Join us for upcoming events where IHL Analysts will be attending and speaking!