Annette Böhm

Polish convenience store leader Żabka is rapidly pushing ahead with the expansion of cashierless stores. While large retail chains such as Aldi Nord and Süd, Carrefour, Edeka's Netto, Tesco and Rewe are testing checkout-free stores at individual locations in Europe, Żabka Group has already opened fifty stores of its AI-based banner line Żabka Nono in Poland.

Coupons are a proven marketing tool for grocery retailers to boost sales and retain customers. But they are still far from being a sure bet. Swiss Coop shows how it can be done profitably: through intelligent personalisation of offers. Through several touchpoints, the Swiss-based retailer provides an online shop adapted to the personal interests of their customers and personalises the…

dm Drogeriemarkt is currently testing self-checkouts from Pan Oston in four selected stores in Germany. At the self-checkouts, customers can only pay with credit or giro cards. The Karlsruhe-based company confirmed to Retail Optimser that around 100 more dm stores in Germany will also be equipped with self-checkouts this summer.

Tegut has launched its new smartphone-based loyalty programme Tebonus this week. It replaces the regional grocery company's previous customer card Gute Karte. In the new loyalty app, customers can choose which products they want to score the most points with, thus providing the grocery retailer with valuable insights for shaping its assortment.

In the converted ServiceStore DB of Swiss retailer Valora at Düsseldorf's central station, customers can now shop around the clock, seven days a week. During normal business hours, staff from the retail company are present during the day, while the store runs completely autonomously at night. During times without staff presence, shoppers gain access to the hybrid store via the…

In the Upper Franconian village of Pettstadt, Rewe Markt GmbH is piloting Josefs Nahkauf Box, a retail format with around 700 items for daily needs. On an area of 39 square metres, customers can independently scan goods at a self-checkout from 4POS and pay by debit or credit card seven days a week, around the clock.

In High Road of London’s borough of Greenwich, Aldi UK's just-walk-out pilot store has opened for the public this week. Previously, only staff have been able to test the discounter's high-tech store, as reported by Retail Optimiser. In this store, shoppers do not have to scan their purchases or go through a checkout.

Cosmetics specialist Cosnova Beauty optimises the provision of individual product content to retail groups with the Product Content eXchange platform SyncManager. Connecting cosnova’s active SAP and Stibo source systems to SyncManager.

Aldi Nord plans to open a cashierless store in the Netherlands in early 2022. With the Israeli specialist Trigo, the discounter wants to test under real conditions how the checkout process can be automated using artificial intelligence (AI), cameras and shelf sensors.

French retail group E.Leclerc won one of the Reta Awards 2021 for its project to digitally connect its suppliers with the Alkemics platform. The winners of the awards were announced this week. A nine-member independent jury, on behalf of the EHI Retail Institute, honored outstanding technology solutions in retail.