Reports

For the 16th time, EHI Retail Institute this week announced the winners of the Retail Technology Awards Reta. The eight-member international jury of the award includes Retail Optimiser editors Björn Weber and Joachim Pinhammer as well as the publisher of the British trade magazine Retail Technology, Miya Knights.

Every year, almost 500,000 tonnes of food waste are caused in the retail sector in Germany alone, according to the UN Food Waste Index Report from last year. This is not only bad for the industry's image – the commercial damage caused by food being written off without sale is also immense. The problem has been recognised in retail companies,…

Coupons are a proven marketing tool for grocery retailers to boost sales and retain customers. But they are still far from being a sure bet. Swiss Coop shows how it can be done profitably: through intelligent personalisation of offers. Through several touchpoints, the Swiss-based retailer provides an online shop adapted to the personal interests of their customers and personalises the…

Robots take over routine tasks at retail companies that have tagged all products on the sales floor with RFID. In addition to Kmart Australia and Adler Modemärkte, French sporting goods retailer Decathlon in Germany is also planning to use the Tory RFID inventory robot from MetraLabs to automatically record inventory in more than twelve stores. This should relieve employees of…

German retailers see the greatest need for action in the use of mobile devices with checkout functions as well as self-checkouts and self-scanning systems. This is the result of EHI’s study POS Systems 2022. Overall, the number of cash registers used in retail is continuously decreasing. At the same time, systems are faced with growing tasks.

Migros plans to enable its customers to self-scan with smartphones in almost all its grocery stores by the end of March 2022. Under the name subitoGo, the newly developed application of the Swiss retail market leader complements self-scanning with proprietary handheld devices and stationary self-checkouts. Migros works with the same software for all forms of scanning and checkout as it…

With its GK Go store, which launched last week in Schöneck, GK is showing a different approach to the hot topic scanless store technology. Together with its partners Hitachi and Shekel Ltd, the in-store experts show that real-time processing of shopping is also possible in scanless stores, bringing transparency and interaction to customers’ smartphone — while they shop.

With touchscreen displays instead of Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL), the Latvian retail company Spirits&Wine brings online shop content to the shelves. And it earns money with it – the use of the displays is paid for by the suppliers of branded goods. Spirits&Wine owner Andris Lukins had the technology developed in his own start-up Vivid Tech – and is now…

Since January 2020, retailers and restaurants in Germany have been legally obliged to issue receipts, a major annoyance for the industry. Digital receipts are a way to avoid the additional burden on the environment.

Retail companies aim to test innovations faster in unvarnished real-world use. What they expect from their core technology suppliers is: more openness. Preferably in the style of Apple and Google's app policy, they should enable start-ups to develop on their platforms and provide add-ons. A wish that does not go unheard.