Supermarket and Convenience:
Whole Foods is testing what it’s calling a “click and collect” online ordering system at its store in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. The test will be expanded in early 2014 to the Whole Foods store in Laguna Niguel, California.
Discount and Specialty:
Apple is reportedly very close to implementing the iBeacon location technology across its retail stores in a bid to boost sales and improve customer experience. The system allows a store to install transmitters that could then wirelessly connect to an iPhone when a customer walks near a certain product, providing updates and additional information such as pricing.
IKEA Group has chosen POS infrastructure solutions from Wincor Nixdorf. Over the next two years, 12,000 POS systems will be installed in 300 IKEA stores in 25 countries. Wincor Nixdorf’s POS TP.net software will control furniture checkout transactions in each store and consolidate all data across the retail group.
Jonathan Adler, a high-end design and furnishings company, has gone live with SuitePOS for NetSuite at all store locations.
Home Center:
Home Depot plans to spend at least $300 million on supply chain improvements to increase online sales and offer same day delivery service starting next year.
Lowe’s has integrated Point Inside’s StoreMode mobile shopper engagement platform into its mobile app to improve the in-store customer experience.
Drug:
Jean Coutu Group has chosen Microsoft Dynamics for Retail to manage all of its retail operations.
Department Stores and Apparel:
CATO has launched its first e-commerce site built by Celerant Technology.
Chico’s is rolling out new Fujitsu POS systems in its U.S. stores. The new system will replace the current 12-year-old system and allow the use of iPads and mobile checkout.
HUGO BOSS has selected Toshiba for a global deployment of store technology solutions. The United States market deployment includes TCxWave, with an option for Toshiba SurePOS 785.
Puma is improving the performance and reducing operational cost of its retail stores by giving district managers access to custom payroll and labor reports on a daily basis. Puma employs workforce analytics technology from Kronos to enable real-time analysis of how store employee hours trend against payroll goals.
Saks Fifth Avenue is leveraging RFID to improve the shoe shopping experience in its flagship store in New York City.
Foodservice:
Applebee’s plans to install 100,000 E la Carte Presto tablets, powered by Intel, on every table and multiple bar positions at more than 1,800 restaurants in the United States by the end of 2014.
Corner Bakery Café has launched a nationwide online ordering system, allowing patrons to visit the company’s website to place their orders in advance so their food is waiting for them at the counter.
Red Robin Restaurants has selected to deploy UniFocus as its labor management system.
Tim Hortons is now offering tap-to-pay technology using NFC technology. Customers using certain BlackBerry smartphones will be able to register a Tim Card on the TimmyMe mobile app.
