Annette Böhm

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.

Falke has expanded the use of the personalisation solution from GK Air to all countries in which the clothing specialist is active. In future, the omnichannel-capable GK Air Personalization solution will not only provide individualised product recommendations in the 26 online shops and the associated newsletters, but also in the stores.

Tesco is planning a hyper-personalised loyalty programme promotion for selected members of its Clubcard with technology company Eagle Eye. The collaboration with Eagle Eye on this is initially limited to one year – with the option to extend for a further year.

Esselunga has opened a 600 square metre test centre in Milan with a Grab & Go store and a cafeteria to enable agile testing of technologies and design concepts. The Italian retail company is testing a scanless store in its Esselunga Lab, which is equipped with technology from Israeli provider Trigo.