Joachim Pinhammer

Walmart is equipping 740,000 store employees with Samsung smartphones. With the in-house-developed Me@Walmart app, these are designed to help employees perform their daily tasks more efficiently and serve customers better.

WMF personalised its customer approach in newsletters and online shop with AI solutions from Prudsys. This boosted the click-through rate and significantly increased sales from recommendations.

Swedish chain of unattended C-stores Lifvs has started to deploy Pricer electronic shelf labels (ESLs) for price communication. Using cloud-based control system Pricer Plaza, the retailer can dynamically adjust prices centrally.

Dutch supermarket chain DekaMarkt has implemented solutions from Centric to handle online orders. With growing demand, the retailer was looking for ways to reduce costs and optimise delivery processes.

Rewe is the first German full-range food retailer to test shopping without payment at the checkout. The technology, called Pick&Go, has been tested with employees in a Cologne supermarket since the beginning of May and is expected to become available to all shoppers in late summer. Rewe Digital developed the solution with the computer vision specialist Trigo Vision from Israel.

Australian supermarket chain Woolworth is planning its first online fulfilment centre in Auburn, in Western Sydney. The new logistics site will deploy automation technology from Austrian supplier Knapp and is scheduled to begin operations in 2024.

Australian supermarket chain Coles has centralised planning for its fresh produce assortments on the Living Retail platform from US specialist Relex. The solution integrates with the retailer’s in-house developed forecasting software and automates replenishment in order to streamline supply chain processes.

Japan's Aeon Group will open an autonomous supermarket in Tokyo this summer. A store of its Daiei sales line in the Koto district will be equipped with camera and sensor technology from Chinese start-up Cloudpick.

Kaufland customers can cash in surplus coins for vouchers at Coinstar machines. A growing number of Edeka and Rewe stores is also offering the service.

British drugstore chain Boots is digitising its store processes with the Yoobic task management solution. Supported by an app, store staff can work more efficiently and offer customers a better shopping experience.