Björn Weber

Amazon is closing all of its physical Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh retail outlets. Other retailers are also backing away from scanless stores. The technologies had fallen into disrepute after it became apparent that they did not always work automatically.

Drugstore operator dm is planning an additional small item distribution centre at its logistics site in Wustermark near Berlin, which will use robotics from Austrian specialist TGW Logistics for picking. With the Pickcenter Rovoflex, TGW offers a new type of automatic picking system with six-axis robots that continuously improves its own work through AI.

With the rebranding to Vusion (without “Group”), the specialist for the digitalisation of physical retail outlets wants to herald a new era: instead of just implementing the Connected Store as before, Vusion now wants to enable retailers to create the AI-native Store.

Following the successful introduction of GK OmniPOS in its vast store network in South Africa in record time in 2024, the Shoprite Group succeeded in seamlessly migrating its international store network to its new POS software in 2025. In just eight months, Africa's largest retail company was able to implement the solution from Fujitsu-owned specialist GK in five additional countries:…

Relex has acquired Ida, the French platform provider specialising in store ordering optimisation for loose products such as fruit, vegetables, bakery, meat, seafood and prepared foods. French retail groups such as Auchan, Coopérative U, Naturalia, Biocoop and the Carrefour-Franchise Provencia are using the platform Ida. The Retail Optimiser reported on its use at Coopérative U. The acquisition complements Relex’ order…

The leading German drugstore operator has replaced its Tibco middleware with Solace's Event Mesh platform. In October, dm was able to completely shut down its Tibco EMS system. Now, dm is in the process of introducing Solace into its logistics operations as well, replacing Oracle AQ middleware.

Alex Schwald will take on the position of Senior Director of IT at Takko Fashion, The Retail Optimiser learnt. He is moving from MediaMarktSaturn to the radically verticalised fashion retailer. His exact start date is not yet clear but will be in February or March 2026.

Trouble for online shops: This morning, customers were again temporarily unable to access retail websites. Rewe Group's online shop was affected, as were Oetker's Flaschenpost, Knuspr and many others. Amazon and the online shops of Wolt and Bofrost, on the other hand, remained accessible. At 10:15 am, however, the problem seemed to have been resolved. Presumably, the internet service Cloudflare…

Travel retail specialists Gebr. Heinemann have launched a new project to revamp their POS software – this time with Diebold Nixdorf as the solution provider. According to information of The Retail Optimiser, the solution is set to replace the LS One system from Icelandic retail specialists LS Retail, which was acquired by Aptos in 2021.

DIY retailer Obi has introduced electronic shelf price labels from VusionGroup in selected product ranges in around 200 of its German stores. The introduction is part of an extensive digitalisation project of the DIY retailer, which also includes the introduction of McKinsey's Periscope price optimisation solution.