Annette Böhm

Retail companies today have unprecedented opportunities to use technology to bring their customers out of anonymity and to gain valuable data about individual purchasing behaviour. If retail companies succeed in consistently using customer data collected at various touchpoints, they create ideal conditions for completely transforming the way they do business and communicate with their customers.

Douglas has introduced theft prevention solutions in more than 300 of its German stores to minimise shrinkage and improve operational efficiency. The beauty specialist relies on tags from Sensormatic Solutions and their tamper-proof detection gates at the entrance and exit areas for electronic article surveillance in its stores. Douglas had previously tested the system from the Johnson Controls subsidiary in…

Norma is putting its e-commerce business on a new foundation. As reported by Lebensmittel Zeitung, the German retailer based in Fürth will migrate its Norma24 online shop from the current online shop system Shopware to Spryker's headless commerce platform by the end of this year.

Sainsbury's will upgrade 22,500 checkouts in its grocery and convenience stores and petrol stations with the NCR Voyix commerce platform and the latest generation of point-of-sale solutions. NCR Voyix cloud technology enables the retailer to access real-time data and AI-powered analyses of its stores.

Sam's Club displays ads from the consumer goods industry in the Scan & Go function of its membership app. The US retail company, which is part of Walmart, is thus opening up new opportunities for advertisers to reach their customers in physical stores at that point in the customer journey when they ultimately decide to purchase products.

Kroger has ordered further automation solutions for online fulfilment from the British technology company Ocado. As the second-largest US retailer announced this week, proprietary Ocado technologies such as On-Grid Robotic Pick and Automated Frameload are to be implemented in all eight existing Customer Fulfillment Centers (CFC).

The British Co-operative Group plans to implement Walmart's online fulfilment app Store Assist. The solution was developed by Walmart Commerce Technologies, the US retail giant's profit centre subsidiary.

Hy-Vee uses VusionGroup's platform to digitise more than 230 of its stores. The retail company, which operates in nine Midwestern states, has implemented digital shelf labels and numerous other VusionGroup solutions to optimise the shopping experience for its customers.

Last week, Rewe Group launched a new distribution centre in Magdeburg Rothensee with automation technology from Kuka subsidiary Swisslog. Up to now, the retail group has mainly relied on Witron for the automation of distribution centres, whose automation technology largely operates without robotics.

Baby-Walz has equipped its relocated and newly opened store in Frankfurt (Main) with digital touchpoints in cooperation with Bütema. The specialist for baby and toddler equipment, which is part of the Walz Group, is starting a test run with this step, which will be extended to other stores if successful.