The weekly Retail Tech Roundup compiles technology news across the supply chain, manufacturing, retail, e-commerce, logistics and fulfillment sectors.
Fit technology
NetVirta
NetVirta introduced a 3D foot scanning mobile app, Verifyt, which can be used by skiers and snowboarders to 3D scan their feet for contactless boot fitting. The free Verifyt app, which features an augmented reality (AR) experience, is available for Apple and Google devices.
Users can 3D scan their feet, view their 3D foot models and foot measurements, and send their foot data to a ski retail or rental shop to order the correct boot size based on their individualized data.
Using Verifyt, ski rental operators can improve the boot fitting process and mitigate health risks to their customers and employees by preventing breakdowns in social distancing. Additionally, as more ski shops and brands adopt Verifyt worldwide, the platform aims to eliminate lines at crowded shops.
Livestreaming
Bambuser
Interactive live video shopping provider Bambuser and watch and accessories brand Daniel Wellington have partnered to jointly launch and expand Live Video Shopping into new markets. Both headquartered in Stockholm, the companies initially leveraged the livestreaming technology in China. With the latest expansion, Daniel Wellington will launch its live shopping concepts in India, Mexico and Germany through Bambuser’s Live Video Shopping capabilities.
“Our live shopping business in China has been running successfully for a while now, and we are ready for the next step; to introduce Live Video Shopping in the rest of the world. To enable this, we were looking for a reliable partner with the ambition to grow with us and Bambuser was the obvious choice,” said Johan Johansson, CEO at Daniel Wellington, in a statement.
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Bambuser also entered a partnership with an interactive technology company, Ombori, to jointly launch new digital store experiences.
The partnership combines Ombori’s reusable architecture to bridge cognitive services, IoT, mobile phones and digital signage with Bambuser’s proprietary live streaming solutions. By using Omni-queue, the store staff can handle physical and online visitors in the same queue. At the same time, visitors can be switched to online staff in a another store or working remotely.
With the integrated technologies, retail staff can call on the next customer in the queue and the system will select the correct one, regardless of whether the request originates from a digital ticket, a paper ticket, or a pre-booked visit.
Supply chain compliance
Qima
Ariat International, a manufacturer of performance equestrian footwear and apparel, has selected Qima’s collaborative digital platform, Qimaone, to digitize its supply chain. With the platform, Ariat seeks to further its commitment to establishing a collaborative, proactive and cost-effective approach to supplier quality management.
Ariat practices a transparent and proactive approach to managing supplier quality, having partnered with Qima for the past six years. By deploying Qimaone, a digital platform designed to bring all players in the supply chain together, Ariat believes it can access a full view of the chain’s quality.
Inspectors from factories, third-party agencies and the brand can use the Qimaone mobile app to collect data on site, and can submit real-time interactive reports and discuss corrective actions immediately. Drawing from real-time data, brands can schedule local inspectors or have factories conduct self-inspections. This provides analytics and insights that help better track and predict potential issues before they become critical challenges. The platform is designed to work for the Covid-19-influenced environment, where travel restrictions can limit in-person inspections.
“Its intuitive, easy-to-use dashboard and mobile app enable us to collect reliable data on inspections and provides a more accurate view of the quality and compliance performance of our supply chain,” said George Rodriguez, vice president of sourcing, procurement, quality at Ariat. “We can now empower our vendor partners with the ability to conduct self-inspections, analyze results, plan corrective actions, and monitor progress with full visibility. We’re confident that Qimaone will help us to establish transparency and synchronize efforts to ensure product quality, drive proactive continuous improvement, and reduce associated costs in the most effective manner.”
IT governance
ASG Technologies
Lands’ End has extended its relationship with IT software provider ASG Technologies to continue to use the company’s Mobius Content Services to meet its information governance needs.
Mobius is a modular, open, API-led platform designed to provide users with a flexible and scalable architecture that helps firms of all sizes capture, manage, govern, distribute and output large volumes of information. Mobius manages information generated by people, applications, processes and machines while ensuring it is available wherever and however people and applications work.
In the case of Lands’ End, the company uses Mobius to digitize mainframe records, reports and other documents, resulting in faster throughput and an overall gain in end user productivity. More than 400 Lands’ End employees leverage the Mobius platform.
“ASG’s Mobius Content Services has been a useful tool for our organization over the past few decades,” said Scott Heise, senior vice president and chief information officer for Land’s End, which has used Mobius since 1989. “As the way we work becomes increasingly digital and consumer expectations are higher than ever, it was natural that we extend our relationship with ASG and continue to leverage this solution to drive our business forward.”
E-commerce
Rakuten/Fillr
Rakuten Inc. has completed the acquisition of intelligent autofill service Fillr. Based in Melbourne, Australia, Fillr powers tens of millions of transactions monthly for the world’s top e-commerce, fintech and “buy now, pay later” apps, including for Rakuten’s shopping rewards and Cash Back destination in the U.S. and Canada.
The Fillr autofill platform is designed to grow shopper conversion rates by simplifying registration and checkout processes. When shoppers were offered autofill functionality with Fillr integrations instead of manual typing, they were up to 120 percent more likely to convert, with average revenue per user increased by nearly 20 percent, the platform provider said.
Fillr’s platform also is designed to simplify enroll in buy now, pay later payment services by auto-populating virtual credit cards issued by the installment payments providers at checkout.
“Accelerating checkout with autofill presents tremendous opportunities for digital retailers and financial services to grow their conversion rates and overall revenue,” said Amit Patel, CEO, Rakuten Americas. “Requiring shoppers to fill out a form at the end of a transaction is a distraction that can get in the way of completing a sale. Collaborating with Fillr will allow us to offer solutions to our merchant partners that eliminate unnecessary steps for consumers throughout the full transaction funnel.”
Rakuten and Fillr already were partners prior to the deal, with the latter having been integrated into the Rakuten iOS mobile app in 2018 and its Android mobile app earlier this year.
Last-mile delivery
GoFor
GoFor Industries, a last-mile, on-demand and same-day delivery solutions provider, announced closed a $20 million CAD ($26.7 million) Series A growth investment to continue its ongoing expansion into the U.S.
The new funding will support the company’s expansion into 11 new cities, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Memphis, Detroit, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami and Phoenix. GoFor is also available in Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, Texas, Charlotte, N.C., and across Canada.
GoFor connects retailers with independent, insured drivers, as well as professional vehicle fleet operators, through its platform. The company’s end-to-end last-mile logistics platform and SaaS marketplace also provide customers with visibility into the internal logistics business to help make it more efficient and cost-effective.
Using the GoFor mobile app or website, users can enter delivery details and choose the vehicle they need, so that a professional driver can pick up the item and deliver it to the customer safely and quickly. The GoFor app sends real-time status updates of the delivery’s progress, and when it is done, also sends photos of the completed delivery.
The company has made more than 200,000 deliveries, and since March this year, it says it has experienced revenue growth of more than 500 percent.
While GoFor has experienced success primarily delivering construction goods, building materials and other large items, the company says it is increasingly seeing interest from retailer partners across industries as online holiday shopping continues to surge.
With this new infusion, the company has now raised a total of nearly $30 million CAD (approximately $40 million).
Personalization
RichRelevance/Shopify
RichRelevance, an AI-driven digital experience personalization platform provider, has integrated its personalization suite with the Shopify eCommerce Platform. The integration is designed to help sophisticated Shopify Plus merchants accelerate their digital journey by using RichRelevance’s personalization capabilities.
Offering a full suite of solutions across content, offers, recommendations and search, RichRelevance says its customers can start personalizing their Shopify stores as much as 10 times faster than before.
With this new integration, merchants can keep product catalogs, inventory, and pricing continuously updated, with a real-time streaming catalog integration capability. Customers get added visibility with 24/7 monitoring and alerts for any errors or breakages. RichRelevance additionally integrates with Manthan’s marketing orchestration and customer data platform to deliver omnichannel personalization for Shopify clients.
Mobile task management/image recognition
Form.com/GoSpotCheck
Form.com, a mobile data collection company, has acquired GoSpotCheck, a mobile task management and image recognition software provider. The platforms will merge to further enable low-code and no-code mobile data collection and digital process automation for mid-size and large global enterprises.
GoSpotCheck first launched its image recognition technology to support growing needs for accurate and timely store-level operations data. Leveraging mobile technology and advanced machine learning, this image recognition is designed to help frontline workers audit retail displays, coolers, shelves or menus using their mobile device cameras.
As photos are taken, Form’s machine learning engine is designed to identify, categorize, attribute and analyze products in seconds to deliver highly actionable data, optimize labor and ultimately improve retail execution and sales performance, according to Ali Moosani, CEO of Form.com.
Beyond arming companies with improved data, the merged platform enables tens of thousands of field workers to spend more time selling and solving problems rather than auditing market presence.