Björn Weber

Equipped with a new version of Trigo's technology, the Rewe Pick&Go store in Düsseldorf allows customers to shop scanless without registering. However, the store's second major innovation, the automatic weighing of fruit and vegetables as they are picked, was out of action this week.

Four grocery retail giants are currently working together to find innovations in the field of retail technology with their Disrupt Retail initiative. Disrupt Retail was first launched in 2017 by Portuguese grocery retail market leader MC Sonae, which owns the Continente distribution lines, as a call for technology start-ups.

Food waste is a major problem. In Germany alone, 11 million tonnes of food ended up being thrown away in 2020, according to the National Statistics Office. Of this, 7 per cent (0.8 million tonnes) came from the retail sector. To combat food waste, 14 major German wholesale and grocery retailers signed an agreement with the Federal Ministry of Food…

While NCR Voyix (formerly NCR) continues to lead the ranking of all new POS software installations not only in the USA, but worldwide, European challengers GK and Flooid are achieving respectable successes in the number one’s US home market. According to the recently published Global POS Software 2023GK accounts for over a quarter of all new POS software installations in…

The world’s second largest supplier of POS hardware and market leader for self-checkout systems, NCR, has restructured itself. In October, the ATM business of the traditional cash register manufacturer from the USA was spun off into an independently listed company called NCR Atleos Corporation. Since then, the retail and hospitality division has been operating under the name NCR Voyix. The…

For its efforts to get suitable product images for the target market Germany into the Global Data Synchronisation Network (GDSN), Rewe Group won the ECR Award for 'Operational Excellence' this week together with the branded goods giants Mars and Procter & Gamble. The biggest challenge, however, may be that Germany's largest food retailer, Edeka Group, requires product images from its…

In the Bavarian towns of Burglengenfeld and Sünching, Edeka Group-owned discounter Netto is testing Wanzl's Hybridloc app-based shopping trolley system. The solution allows the shopping trolley to be unlocked either with a coin as a deposit, as before, or through the retailer's app.

Aldi Süd is introducing reverse vending machines from Tomra for both disposable and reusable beverage containers in all its Austrian stores.

Rewe subsidiary Lekkerland today put an autonomous container store with technology from AiFi into operation on its own premises in Frechen. One for all shoppers is to follow soon.

In this report, The Retail Optimiser looks at the state of play for retailers in the DACH region and shows lighthouse examples of omnichannel projects from retailers that enable cost savings, growth of their business and an improvement of the customer journey all in one go.