Aldi Nord

Aldi Nord is testing a modified self-checkout strategy at three stores in Germany. Similar to its competitor Lidl, the discounter is using GK's software consistently for both manned checkouts and self-checkouts. The discounter also uses the same hardware components in the checkout lanes as at the self-checkouts. The counter for the current self-checkout prototype is supplied by shopfitting specialist Kesseböhmer.

Hornbach is implementing AI-based forecasting and replenishment solutions from Relex across Europe. With the platform from the Finnish software provider, the DIY store operator is replacing SAP's F&R Engine.

Retail companies today have unprecedented opportunities to use technology to bring their customers out of anonymity and to gain valuable data about individual purchasing behaviour. If retail companies succeed in consistently using customer data collected at various touchpoints, they create ideal conditions for completely transforming the way they do business and communicate with their customers.

Aldi Nord is piloting a customer loyalty programme for the first time. Users of the Aldi app can collect bonus points in 70 of the discounter's stores in Belgium. The application was developed together with software specialist GK.

In one of the largest technology projects in Europe, Aldi Nord has built a completely new SAP-based merchandise management IT system in the cloud under the decisive influence of Accenture consultants. However, the conversion of the first pilot region was anything but a success: the inventory record in the system no longer worked in the Dutch region Culemborg, resulting in…

Edeka independent retailer Pascal Gerdes is piloting the new Tomra R2 multi-feed reverse vending machine. His Trinkgut beverage store in Moers is the first in Germany to deploy the compact, wall-mounted machine. In future, it will also be able to accept returnable glass containers.

Esselunga has opened a 600 square metre test centre in Milan with a Grab & Go store and a cafeteria to enable agile testing of technologies and design concepts. The Italian retail company is testing a scanless store in its Esselunga Lab, which is equipped with technology from Israeli provider Trigo.

For a long time, it was the taboo subject number one in the retail technology industry. Whether Amazon, Tesco, Aldi Nord, Aldi Süd or Rewe Group: nobody wanted to talk about the question of how much manual intervention in low-wage countries is involved in the shopping processes in their scanless stores. Now it's suddenly in the public media: Has Amazon…

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.

Aldi Süd is testing the use of a technology that makes the scanning of goods obsolete for the first time in the USA. However, for its Aldi Go store in the city of Aurora near Chicago in the US state of Illinois, the discount giant is not relying on AiFi technology to automatically recognise purchases, as in London, but on…