Björn Weber

Whether they like it or not: German grocery retailers cannot avoid e-commerce. Amazon is not letting up. For the likes of Edeka, Rewe and Schwarz Group, it is worth looking at the French market. Through innovative concepts and investments into technology, companies such as Groupe Casino and E.Leclerc are confidently securing their business against Amazon.

At the beginning of next week, Lidl will officially launch its digital customer loyalty programme in Germany. With it, Europe's largest discounter has solved another problem: Lidl Plus offers the digital receipt.

At last the most important manufacturers of drugstore goods seem to have reached an agreement with Edeka, dm, Rossmann and Müller at GS1 Germany on an industry-wide reusable transport container for drugstore goods. The plastics processor Georg Utz and the pool operator IPP have been commissioned to initially circulate 100,000 standardised reusable boxes from spring 2021.

In Pioltello, near Milan, Esselunga has installed the first machine for online orders which transports the goods automated to the output tray. The Click&Collect store complements a range of chilled parcel lockers that the Italian retailer has already installed for the pick-up of online orders.

Lenta turns its Zebra mobile self-scanners into navigation devices with software from Re-Vision and indoor positioning specialists Signify. The team of the Russian hypermarket operator also want to use the solution in future to offer individual promotions depending on the location in the store.

The world's first Amazon Fresh supermarket has opened: A short tour provides insights into Amazon's food strategy.

Kaufland is introducing self-scanning with customers' smartphones in its shops in the Czech Republic. Software partners are the Dutch specialists of Re-Vision.

At Woolworths Australia, Tiliter's self-scanning scale automatically indentifies produce. This also interests European grocery retail companies.

Groupe Casino's Cdiscount is starting another test run with the new generation of smart returnable packaging from LivingPackets.

At the first inner city store of its Combi format, Bünting sells 500 articles fully automatically around the clock. This is the first use of the automatic store, which Wanzl and the Knapp subsidiary KHT presented at this year's EuroShop in Düsseldorf.