Joachim Pinhammer

Aldi Nord allows customers to shop at its cashierless store in the Dutch city of Utrecht without the Shop & Go app.The discounter is testing a new feature from technology partner Trigo that also accepts card payments without app.

Aldi Nord and Süd have completed the Europe-wide introduction of reusable fruit and vegetable containers from Ifco. The recyclable load carriers save logistics costs and packaging waste.

Spanish footwear retailer Merkal will expand its use of Nextail's optimisation platform. The retailer has already been deploying the cloud-based solution for demand planning, allocation, replenishment and stock transfers across its more than 200 shops and online business since September 2001.

Carrefour is piloting smart carts from Israeli manufacturer Cust2mate in Sainte Geneviève des Bois, near Paris. The smart trolley allows customers to shop without scanning and waiting at the checkout.

Hanshow has recruited Klaus Smets as Vice President for the DACH region. The former Toshiba managing director is to drive the growth of the retail technology and ESL supplier in the region. Retail Optimiser spoke to him about the market for retail digitisation.

Ikea is modernising order management and fulfilment with software from Made4net and is rolling it out worldwide. Ingka Holding had acquired the logistics specialist in May this year.

Amazon is relying on AI to weed out damaged goods before they are shipped to customers. The e-commerce company is already using the inhouse developed solution in two of its fulfilment centres and plans to roll it out to ten more international facilities.

Douglas is piloting mobile checkout directly on the sales floor. Sales assistants use the S-Payment app on their smartphone. This is integrated with the GK POS software and allows PIN entry on the device's touchscreen.

Walmart is equipping 500 of its stores in the USA with a total of 60,000 Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs) over the next 18 months. The retailer will deploy battery-free labels from SES Imagotag.

Fashion retailer Zalando is enabling customers in its outlets to check the fit of a selected range of jeans using a 3D avatar. By testing the virtual fitting room, the company wishes to gain insights into customers’ usage in order to develop a scalable solution for the future.