Top Things You Missed IN Retail

Dakota Hotels has chosen hospitality technology specialist Shiji to power the chain’s properties with property management system (PMS) and point-of-sale (POS) solutions.

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Marathon Petroleum Corp. (MPC) is piloting a new and improved loyalty program across select retail stations. Powered by Stuzo's Open Commerce product suite, Marathon Rewards is designed to provide a personalized customer experience with targeted offers for specific store locations. It replaces the MakeItCount Rewards platform.

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The digital rush is flowing into store design. McDonald’s on Thursday opened a new small-format test location in Fort Worth, Texas, designed for on-the-go guests. The location features an order-ahead lane, or a separate drive-thru lane where customers receive their orders via a food and beverage conveyor. McDonald’s said the option is ideal for users who place their order ahead of arrival through the app. They can then skip the traditional drive-thru line and receive food quickly and conveniently.

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Recognizing that retail media is increasingly critical within the modern marketing mix, BJ’s Wholesale Club has launched BJ’s Media Edge using Microsoft PromoteIQ. The retail media program offers brands a comprehensive advertising solution to connect with BJ’s members.

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We are using Workday Accounting Center to automate financial processes across our 500-plus stores to create one experience for our in-store general managers and district managers. Rather than having to manually post data and pull reports once a month, it’s all automated.

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Pandora, is adopting SAP S/4HANA, SAP Customer Activity Repository and SAP Business Technology Platform as it aims to deliver “an omnichannel experience for customers across 100 markets that meets expectations for seamless and personalised services both online and in-store”.

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Rubio's Coastal Grill, which has over 150 locations, has tapped Kansas City-basedService Management Group to help improve real-time, prescriptive feedback across its guest journey.

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BJ’s Wholesale Club Holdings Inc. is joining the club of retailers operating proprietary media networks. The membership-based warehouse club retailer is rolling out BJ’s Media Edge, a comprehensive advertising solution designed to connect advertisers with its members. using Microsoft PromoteIQ automated vendor e-commerce marketing technology.

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Kotsovolos-Dixons South East Europe, an electronics retail chain in Greece and Cyprus, has been working on a pilot project with MarTech startup Displayforce.

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Lord & Taylor will use InMobi Commerce technology to provide partner brands and ad agencies with a full-funnel retail media platform, including shoppable videos, designed to move immersive product discovery from third-party social platforms back to its owned channels.

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Nudie Jeans has partnered with headless commerce platform Centra to develop a ship from store solution.

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Given current economic uncertainties, companies are embracing a data-driven culture and building out infrastructures to harness trusted data in an expedient and scalable manner. The latest in that growing list is Bridgestone Americas Inc., which has leaned on the expertise of Accenture PLC and the Amazon Web Services Inc. platform to create its Central Data Platform. In doing so, the company hopes to add solutions to its well-known product reputation.

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Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. is making progress on several customer-focused initiatives. During the second quarter of its 2023 fiscal year, the company expanded its data-driven assortment optimization work with a rollout to all categories in North America.

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Runsvengruppen, which operates ÖoB, one of Sweden’s leading discount chains, has driven significant improvements in reducing inventory, improving forecast accuracy, and standardizing retail planning processes through their partnership with RELEX Solutions, provider of unified supply chain and retail planning solutions.

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Walmart has extended their partnership with digital identification and detection-based solutions company Digimarc, entering into a multi-year deal that aims to optimize store operations and allow for the broader distribution and deployment of Digimarc’s platform across Walmart stores.

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Brain Corp, working with Tennant, has completed the deployment of over 40 autonomous in-store scrubbers with the Czech Republic’s Albert, part of the Ahold Delhaize company.

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Batteries Plus has rolled out a new online experience, using customer data to create a more customized and personalized shopper journey. The company will continue to build on its new digital offerings in order to cultivate deeper relationships with its customers.

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CVS Health Corp. is testing a system that allows pharmacists to process prescriptions in part remotely, a move it said could improve store working conditions and the experience for customers as the company grapples with a shortage of pharmacists.

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Partnering with Attensi, Village delivers open-pathway, game-based training that allows employees to receive cross-department training and unleash their full potential.

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HIVED, a startup that was founded in 2021, has announced a partnership with Asos to fulfil the fast fashion pureplay’s same-day delivery orders in Greater London.

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Independent cooperatively owned grocery wholesaler Associated Food Stores is installing digital displays from Mesmerize, an out-of-home media company specializing in patient education at the point of care, in 40 stores owned and operated by the co-op under the Macey’s, Lin’s and Fresh Market banners.

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PT Map Aktif Adiperkasa Tbk (MAPA), a leading lifestyle retailer, has selected to enhance its business processes with Blue Yonder’s SaaS-based Luminate Planning solutions.

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With benefits extending from increased collaboration to enhanced safety, more consumer goods companies are investing in digital twins, including Unilever, Mars, Coca-Cola, Kraft Heinz, and Johnson & Johnson. By leveraging myriad technologies to provide virtual replicas of processes and/or physical objects, digital twins are particularly valued within the industry for their ability to identify manufacturing and supply chain disruptions in advance.

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Cervera, Sweden’s leading player in quality kitchenware, houseware, and gifts, has secured high availability for their e-commerce sales through their partnership with RELEX Solutions, provider of unified supply chain and retail planning solutions.

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Beverage giant Coca-Cola India has partnered with Adani Group subsidiary ‘Adani Digital Labs Private Limited’ to optimise the reach of its brands to consumers across the country. As part of this first-of-its-kind initiative, Coca-Cola India is working with Adani Digital Labs Private Limited to use the consumer-centric platform for product sampling and develop deep consumer insights and unparalleled ‘direct connect’ with the consumers.

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Verify Energy has signed a multi-year, multi-site monitoring and controls agreement with leading electric vehicle (EV) fast-charging development and AI-driven software company, ChargeNet Stations. The deal will see ChargeNet Stations deploy Verify Energy’s universal clean energy controller, the PowerFly, to act as a communication bridge between the hardware components of its proprietary renewable EV charging system.

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Amazon has advice for e-commerce retailers seeking to prevent and mediate cybercrime, based on its own successes. Dharmesh Mehta, VP of Selling Partner Services, Amazon, recently discussed the serious issues online retailers face from scams and fraud perpetrated by bad actors.

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Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza & Wings will introduce an AI phone answering system in all 60 corporate-owned Anthony's locations. The systems will leverage ConverseNow, a voice AI tech platform for restaurants, according to a press release.

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Since its inception, the world of e-commerce has traditionally been oriented toward sales and marketing. Get people to notice your brand through various engagement channels and advertising, then get them to visit your online store while providing a differentiated online shopping experience via product assortment, pricing, promos, personalization, etc. — all with the end goal of getting customers to place items in a cart and check out, hopefully with no or minimal returns.  

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In mid-November, Shake Shack renewed its contract with Uber Direct as the company’s exclusive nationwide delivery partner on the Shake Shack App.

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Instacart continues expanding the targeted advertising capabilities it offers CPG brands. The grocery technology company is introducing Instacart Promotions, a suite of advertising solutions for its CPG brand partners. Now all of its brand partners, including emerging brands, have self-service access and capabilities to launch new deal structures, promotions, and incentives with their Instacart Ad campaigns.

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Kingfisher and Google Cloud have announced a five-year strategic partnership. The former, whose brand portfolio includes B&Q, Castorama, Screwfix, Brico Dépôt and Koçtaş, will tap Google Cloud’s infrastructure, platform services, and artificial intelligence solutions, Kingfisher.

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FIT:MATCH has announced the launch of its bra fitting experience in the following Macy’s stores this holiday season: Boca Raton (FL), Century City (CA), Dadeland (FL), Herald Square (NY), Kings Plaza (NY), Queens Center (NY), Roosevelt Field (NY), South Portland (ME), South Shore Plaza (MA) and Willowbrook (TX).

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Travelers at Pittsburgh International Airport can have smartphone orders delivered to them by autonomous robots.

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Cantaloupe, Inc. is excited to announce that Sodexo’s InReach convenience business has chosen Cantaloupe as its hardware provider and business platform. As part of the agreement, InReach will upgrade all 18 of its branches — including 18,800 vending machines and 1,200 micro markets — onto Cantaloupe’s Seed platform, bringing cashless payments and operational visibility to its business units.

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Scandinavian retailer Varner has chosen the Sitoo PoS and Unified Commerce Platform with the software set to be rolled out in 1,200 stores.

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A.F. Blakemore & Son is set to launch a SPAR Christmas campaign giving away up to £100,000 worth of prizes.

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Batteries Plus, the nation's leading battery retailer, is setting new standards with the rollout of a complete digital transformation in an effort to reinvent the online shopping experience for its customers. Through leveraging customer data, the brand will be bringing a high level of customization and personalization to its site, and will be providing its trademark expertise to ease a user's shopping journey.

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The use of retail media to enhance shopper engagement and activity is ramping up and becoming more sophisticated. Warehouse club operator BJ’s Wholesale Club is launching a retail media program that it says will increase brand exposure to its more than 6.5 million shopper members.

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A Kansas City-based local grocer is equipping its store with Amazon “Just Walk Out” and Amazon One cashierless shopping solutions. Community Groceries, located in the Crossroads neighborhood of Kansas City, Mo., is set to re-open with a brand-new customer experience on Friday, Dec. 16. The company is collaborating with Amazon to deploy “Just Walk Out” technology and Amazon One palm-based payment in a Kansas City grocery store for the first time.

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CVS Health has added time-delay safe technology in 800 CVS Pharmacy locations in 13 states. This latest installation brings the total number of states with the technology to 45 states across the U.S. The safes are intended to help prevent pharmacy robberies and the potential for associated diversion of controlled substance medications — including opioid medications such as oxycodone and hydrocodone — by electronically delaying the time it takes for pharmacy employees to open the safe.

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ReposiTrak, operating the world’s largest food supply chain network of nearly 30,000 suppliers, has begun implementation of traceability services for a 300-store Midwest retail grocery chain. Known as a thought leader in the industry and recently named to the Top 10 Supermarkets in America (2022) by both USA Today and Food & Wine, the retailer is taking a three-step approach toward compliance with the Food and Drug Administration’s new FSMA 204 rule.

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Parents in need of baby supplies will appreciate a Baby Vend machine at the Rivertown Mall in Grandville, Michigan.

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Panera Bread became the latest restaurant brand to invest in drive-thru automation technology, with the announcement of the bakery-café chain’s partnership with OpenCity to test out AI voice ordering technology in two café locations in the Rochester, N.Y. area.

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Rothy’s is utilizing product lifecycle management (PLM) technology to overhaul the design, manufacturing and distribution of shoes, handbags and accessories.

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Digital Wave Technology is pleased to announce a multi-year PIM contract renewal with Samsonite, global lifestyle bag and travel luggage company. Samsonite initially selected Digital Wave in 2018 to support ongoing e-commerce growth in Asia.

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Sheetz Inc. has long been known for its made-to-order (MTO) foodservice offerings — and along with it, ordering kiosks — but its innovation stream has moved beyond what has become standard in the industry to new technology spaces like digital currencies and subscription programs.

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Most think of loyalty programs as an essential tool to learn about customers' behaviors, but they can also teach convenience store retailers more about the items they add to their offering.

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Walgreens is now fulfilling online orders 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in select markets across the country. In available markets, Walgreens is enabling customers to place orders from an assortment of more than 27,000 items via its website or app for delivery in as little as one hour, at any time of day.

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