Carrefour

SES Imagotag plans to acquire French start-up In-the-Memory, founded by former Emnos directors Maxime Brunet and Alexis Mau. Both companies recently signed a letter of intent. With this move, SES Imagotag is sharpening its expertise in data management and analytics of in-store data.

Currys is piloting the use of robots in customer service. In four of the British retailer's electronics stores, KettyBots from Pudu Robotics help visitors find the goods they want.

Since this week, Carrefour is testing together with Goggo Network the delivery of Carrefour Drive orders with the help of an autonomously driving and electrically operated pick-up station. With the test on the Plateau de Saclay, South of Paris, the retailer aims to expand its delivery area while optimising delivery time and costs.

Polish convenience store leader Żabka is rapidly pushing ahead with the expansion of cashierless stores. While large retail chains such as Aldi Nord and Süd, Carrefour, Edeka's Netto, Tesco and Rewe are testing checkout-free stores at individual locations in Europe, Żabka Group has already opened fifty stores of its AI-based banner line Żabka Nono in Poland.

Carrefour has launched a first fully automated pick-up station for online grocery orders in Paris in partnership with Delipop. The retailer plans to open 2,000 such locations by the end of the year.

The grocery retail industry sees an massive increase in number of companies offering self-scanning with mobile devices. According to a study by Retail Banking Research (RBR), retailers already offer their customers in 32,000 sales outlets worldwide to scan items as they shop. In 80 percent of those stores, shoppers can scan with their own smartphones.

The consolidation on the market of Product Information Management (PIM) solution providers goes on. After Salsify acquired Alkemics with effect of last week, Syndigo now takes over Riversand. Syndigo is – as its competitor Salsify – a registered data pool of the Global Data Synchronisation Network (GDSN) in the US.

US-based product master data platform Salsify is taking over its French competitor Alkemics. The companies did not comment on the terms of the takeover. Both offer cloud-based platforms for collaboration between retailers and their suppliers and are each registered as data pools of the Global Data Synchronisation Network (GDSN).

Dutch start-up Wundermart is equipping its unattended convenience stores with computer vision technology from AiFi. The AI-based solution Oasis from the US specialist enables customers to shop without the need to scan the goods.

Tests in some stores and even framework agreements with technology suppliers are not yet proof that electronic labels will soon be seen in all stores. Retailers will only achieve a rapid ROI if they use the labels to react more dynamically to market developments with intelligent price optimisation solutions, to optimise in-store processes or to offer customers significant additional benefits.