Channels

Midwest grocer Schnuck Markets Inc. is expanding Instacart’s Caper Carts to new stores across Missouri and Illinois. In addition to Caper Carts, Schnucks has introduced a number of Instacart Platform technologies, including e-commerce, Carrot Ads, Eversight and Carrot Tags. Meanwhile, Instacart has introduced a new feature to its Caper Carts: a lower tray. Designed to improve the cart’s versatility, this option now makes it easier for customers to add heavy, bulkier items such as cases of water, soda or pet food to the cart. By simply scanning the item and placing it on the bottom tray, customers can shop for every item on their shopping list, without having to skip heavy items or lift them all the way to the basket. Caper Carts are equipped with AI, cameras and a built-in scale, which work together to automatically recognize items as they’re added to the cart. Customers can bag as they shop, watch their running total, and, once shopping is complete, they can conveniently check out directly from the cart. The Caper Carts at Schnucks stores also alert customers to available promotions and discounts by syncing to their Schnucks Rewards account, as well as provide Caper-exclusive coupons just by shopping with the cart.             

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IntelePeer, an end-to-end conversational AI platform provider, launches next generation voice capabilities. Designed to handle verbal communications, the new speech processing technology enables automatic speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS) streaming that provides users with advanced control and customization within a communications workflow. The system improves customer experience with more natural interactions, ensures low latency that enables real-time conversations, and improves the overall performance of the company’s AI and automation platform. With minimal wait times between responses, the new functionality provides a more natural conversation between a caller and AI Agent while also increasing the speed at which information is processed within an AI workflow.  The proprietary ASR handler provides TTS streaming and can deliver accurate and reliable voice interactions with high confidence scores, is able to detect and change languages, and can understand customer behaviors and preferences. Benefits of this new functionality include: Record Breaking low ASR Latency, Enhanced Customer Experience, and Enhanced Platform Analytics.

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Fullpath, automotive’s leading Customer Data Platform (CDP), announced latest integration with Urban Science, a leading global automotive consultancy and technology firm. This data integration enables Fullpath to enrich its customer profiles through Urban Science’s unrivaled defection (lost sales) data – updated daily – allowing dealers to identify customers who made new, or certified preowned (CPO), vehicle purchases at same- and competitive-brand dealerships each day. Urban Science’s defection data empowers dealers to know when leads in their CRM buy cars elsewhere, driving Fullpath’s marketing automation efforts to more efficient and productive outcomes. In the dealer space, Urban Science’s daily defection data powers the company’s turnkey SalesAlert and TrafficView solutions, which are used by almost 4,000 dealers to uncover previously unseen insights regarding dealership traffic across brands and locations. These insights deliver unmatched visibility of a dealership’s losses, helping dealers learn from missed opportunities to improve marketing/CX and sales effectiveness. Christina Rosenbach, VP of Customer Experience at Fullpath said, “This intelligence enables dealers to immediately recognize when a lead has purchased elsewhere – enhancing a dealer’s depth of customer insight and personalization options so marketing workflows can stay agile and easily target active, high-potential service opportunities. Through Urban Science’s defection insights, Fullpath clients can craft personalized messages to acknowledge key concerns that may have resulted in a lost sale, positioning the dealership as a reliable partner for future service needs and enhancing the potential for long-term loyalty and relationship building. Key features of this integration include: Targeted Communication, Data-Driven Insights, and Resource Optimization.

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Fintech startup Sprive is a “mortgage overpayment” platform aimed at the U.K. market that helps users repay their mortgages faster using automation and cash-back rewards. It claims to save users an average of £10,000 each over the lifetime of the mortgage. Sprive said the app works by letting homeowners pay off their mortgage faster through their everyday shopping, by automatically putting spare cash toward overpayments and continuously scanning the market to help customers find better mortgage deals. Users can pay toward their mortgage from a bank account linked to the Sprive app by shopping as they would normally with mainstream U.K. supermarkets. They then use cash-back offers, discount vouchers, and more in order to  pay off a mortgage faster. It does this by allowing the user to save money on the interest on the mortgage and shave potentially years off the mortgage term. CEO Jinesh Vohra said Sprive gives lenders a more efficient digital means of being able to acquire new customers. “Every time someone shops or switches mortgages, we make money. Within 15 minutes of shopping, you get money towards your mortgage, and we scan the market every day for better mortgage deals. Every time a customer refinances, we get commission from the mortgage lender.”

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Consumers are feeling the squeeze from economic uncertainty and are turning more to financing essential purchases like groceries. An April survey from Lending Tree shows an increase in Americans using buy-now, pay-later services for groceries—25% this year compared to 14% in 2024. Meanwhile, 41% of respondents said they’ve paid back their loan late over the past year, though the vast majority have paid back the money in a week or less. Men, young people, and higher-income borrowers were more likely to make late payments. The increase in popularity of BNPL has coincided with growing fear of a recession as a result of uncertainty around tariffs and interest rates. Consumer sentiment has continued to weaken, with the index falling to 52.2 last week from 57 a month prior. “It’s pretty clear that as people struggle with inflation and other kinds of economic uncertainty, people are looking to things like BNPL loans to help them extend their budget,” Matt Schulz, Lending Tree chief consumer finance analyst, told. “When buy-now, pay-later started, it was typically about designer handbags and appliances and things like that,” Schulz said. “But now people are looking at it for things like groceries and food delivery.” The ubiquity of BNPL may indicate a growing comfort with financial risks, especially among younger spenders. The rise of BNPL opportunities signals that consumers interpret the service as less risky, despite it not helping shoppers build credit that could help them down the line financially. With the current economic backdrop, expect these loans to remain popular, Schulz predicted.

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1) Outdoor apparel and gear retailer The North Face has a flagship store in London designed to function like a real base camp. For the hub of the store, North Face has recreated a campfire setting with base camp duffel bag seating as a community area, under an immersive 3D experience tent where projections of mountain summits change between night and day featuring different weather conditions, as life is outdoors. To help consumer navigation, North Face has split the consumer journey, zoning areas with wide lightboxes from its athletes’ expeditions and featuring active 3D-printed mannequins which are 100% recycled and recyclable, created to inspire adventure. The space is highly phygital with wide screens at the entrance for brand and product storytelling to help customers understand product benefits and compare products. All details connect with mountains and outdoors, mimicked in the footwear wall and the welcoming wall built with aluminum grid and rocks. A space is also dedicated to sustainability, offering a range of services to extend the life of products from customization, to repair, to returns. 2) Korean fashion retailer Matin Kim has installed highly realistic virtual reality hologram technology at five of its Matin Kim and Hago Haus stores. The hologram models from Los Angeles-based Proto Hologram can move and turn 360 degrees to show outfits to shoppers and have built-in cameras, microphones, speakers and touchscreens, as well as AI capabilities. The hologram avatars can also be activated to answer questions for shoppers about products, in any language, using Proto AI tools. In the future, Matin Kim intends to be able to beam hologram versions of live special guests into its stores with the ability to see, hear and interact with shoppers in real time. 3) Employee-owned sporting goods retailer Scheels has created immersive in-store digital environments with LED display walls. Known for its mega-sized stores filled with all sorts of fun attractions, Scheels has completed an $11 million digital signage initiative with experiential media company Mood Media. The digital signage project involved the installation of approximately 460 LED screens throughout five strategic zones in each store, including men’s and women’s shoe sections, store corners, structural columns and above the grand staircases. Scheels can synchronize the display network for store-wide takeover campaigns by brand partners such as Nike, Adidas and Lego; or segment promotional content for localized zone delivery. The initiative consolidates 32 individual store systems into a single unified application through Mood Media’s Harmony platform, which provides centralized management of audio and visual experiences. 

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DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse has teamed up with Imbox Protection, an in-store shoe protection solution, to place Imbox kiosks in nearly 500 U.S. locations. Using a water-based spray, the enclosed Imbox machine shields shoes from water, stains, dirt, mud and fading without the use of harsh chemicals, offering customers a fast, eco-conscious protection that extends the life of their footwear in only 60 seconds, noted DSW.  The touch-free, in-store service costs $8.99 and provides up to eight weeks of invisible protection (or longer with light wear). Customers place their new shoes into the enclosed unit, and within a minute, leave the store with fully protected footwear.  The Imbox Protection unit is approved by Underwriters Laboratories and its spray is AllergyCertified, making it safe for indoor use and aligned with growing consumer demand for environmentally-responsible solutions. Imbox also holds global patents for its technology. Laura Davis, president of DSW said, “This partnership elevates the in-store experience by offering an easy, effective way to protect the shoes our customers love. It’s innovation that meets them where they are – right at checkout.”

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Walmart plans to be able to deliver to 95% of Americans within three hours by the end of the year, President and CEO Doug McMillon wrote in his annual letter to shareholders, in conjunction with the retailer’s annual report. This delivery capability will be enabled by Walmart’s investments in technologies throughout its supply chain, which are supporting both its stores and its eCommerce business, according to the letter. “We are more tech-powered than we’ve ever been,” McMillon said in the letter. “We’re building and deploying today’s technologies, including AI, in its various forms, and automated storage and retrieval systems in our distribution and fulfillment centers.” This supply chain automation helps Walmart eliminate or replace mundane tasks, better flow inventory and personalize experiences, per the letter. These investments are part of the retailer’s continuous effort to improve its abilities to “serve people how they want to be served” by offering them the choice of deliveries of eCommerce orders, curbside pickup or visits to a brick-and-mortar store.

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Walmart Inc. is providing sponsored search advertisers a deeper view into the sales they generate. The discounter is introducing incremental sales measurement to sponsored search ads offered by its Walmart Connect retail media network. Leveraging Walmart’s first-party retail data and industry-leading, test-and-control methodologies, advertisers will be able to gain insights the retailer says will enable them to make sharper data-driven decisions about their channel investments. Walmart advertisers will be able to evaluate how current sponsored search strategies are driving incremental sales both online and in-store, identify top-performing brands within their portfolio, and reallocate budgets to meet demand, including during key moments like seasonal campaigns.  Advertisers will then be able to report the incremental impact of their Walmart sponsored search investments back to their organization. 

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Mastercard teamed with Sam’s Club to power the retailer’s Cash Bonus Offers program. The collaboration employs Mastercard’s personalization technology to help Walmart-owned Sam’s Club better communicate appropriate rewards offers to its members. Marie Elizabeth Aloisi, executive vice president for U.S. market development at Mastercard, said ”With our advanced personalization technology, businesses can boost retention and revenue, while consumers get more value, more efficiently than ever.” Barb Berg, vice president of membership Sam’s Club, the program is “a perfect example of how we can expand our data-driven consumer engagement to provide relevant and valuable offers that benefit our members.” The partnership is happening as retailers embrace the power of personalization, as Narvar Chief Technology Officer Ram Ravichandran said. Consumers expect sophistication in their retail experiences, from intuitive chatbots to smart product recommendations to seamless support, Ravichandran said. By providing relevant content, tailored promotions and timely support, businesses can deepen customer trust while building a foundation for sustainable growth.

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