retail technology deals and deployments at a glance — Retail Technology Innovation Hub
Uber Eats is launching two autonomous delivery pilots in Los Angeles with Serve Robotics and Motional.
Both of the pilots will initially deliver food from only a few merchants.
Serve’s part of the initiative will focus on shorter trips in West Hollywood. Motional’s will handle longer distance deliveries in Santa Monica.
Customers who place food orders via the Uber Eats app can opt to have their order delivered by a robot.
They will see a confirmation screen, receive app notifications and be able to track the robot’s location as their order approaches. Once it arrives, they can use the Uber Eats app to open the robot and retrieve their order.
Veeve has announced an agreement with Albertsons Companies that later this year will make its smart carts available to customers at a few dozen stores across the US.
Shoppers can use them to skip checkout lines.
“Veeve smart carts offer a sophisticated, yet simple self-checkout experience for people who value flexibility and time savings,” says Alyse Wuson, Senior Director of Omni Experiences at Albertsons Cos.
“Our goal is to enhance the grocery experience no matter how our guests choose to shop, and Veeve’s technology brings the ease and integration of e-commerce right to the grocery cart.”
Yochananof, an Israeli supermarket chain, has placed a follow on order for an aggregate of 1,000 Cust2Mate smart carts, after an initial roll-out in stores.
Stationery retailer, Paperchase, has been working with Retail Assist on a full upgrade of the infrastructure and operating system that underpins its omnichannel supply chain solution, Merret, also provided by Retail Assist.
Decathlon is set to equip dozens of additional stores with Quadient’s automated parcel lockers in 2022.
Starbucks will launch its own NFT collections later this year.
During its fiscal Q2 2022 earnings call this week, the coffee giant said that NFTs can help Starbucks extend its concept of the “third place”, that is, a place between home and work where people can feel a sense of belonging over coffee.
The company has brought in Adam Brotman, the architect of its Mobile Order & Pay system and the Starbucks app, to help serve as a special advisor on the project.
Tesco has teamed up with Uber Eats to help expand its Whoosh rapid grocery delivery service.
The supermarket giant launched Whoosh, which aims to deliver food and drinks in under 60 minutes, in May 2021 and it now covers 200 Express outlets across the UK.
The deal with Uber launches from 20 stores, including Edinburgh, Bradford, Portsmouth, Norwich, St Albans and Letchworth.
Tesco says that the partnership will help towards the target of offering the service from 600 locations by the end of 2022.
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