Björn Weber

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.

With Edeka's Netto, another German discounter is testing self-scanning with customers' smartphones. The team of IT Managing Director Claus Leitl deliberately relies on a proprietary development that is fully integrated into Netto's customer app.

In Portugal, Auchan has started a project with Trax using robots to report out-of-stocks, incorrect price labels or placement of items. Will the use of such robots, which is already widespread in the USA, also be successful across Europe?