The newest reporting, analysis and explainers from Retail Runtime.
JD.com says it will source robots from several manufacturers and build maintenance hubs so machines can run in sustained retail and logistics roles.
Software is evolving faster than the physical infrastructure expected to support it. For retailers, that mismatch is becoming a strategic issue.
Retailers have spent years improving systems and, more recently, improving models. The harder task is making sure that a useful digital signal changes what happens in the business.
Artificial intelligence is beginning to reshape online shopping around information that machines can interpret. Physical retail presents a harder problem: the distance between what a retailer’s systems record and what is actually true in the store.
Zeta Smart Center Busan uses a goods-to-person grid, robotic picking for standard SKUs and staff for fragile items, with Ocado technology in deep freeze.
With Mealz.ai, shoppers can turn household needs into a list, check stock, start an order and link a Bonus Card from a ChatGPT conversation.
The ASTY Ichinomiya store now runs without staff from 7–10 a.m. and 9–11 p.m., using LINE for access and cashless self-checkout. The format is designed around low-density trading hours, not a fully autonomous bookstore.
Simbe’s autonomous shelf scanner is now operating beyond a single Tesco supermarket, still as a limited trial rather than a national rollout.
A JD.com–DexTeleop partnership puts TA-series machines on a supermarket floor for samples, restocking and shopper guidance, with further data collection planned in Beijing and Tianjin.
The convenience chain is making a fleetwide register change with Tote AI, betting on a more adaptable counter system rather than a shopper-facing AI moment.
The agreement gives Amazon worldwide access to AutoStore cube-storage systems, but AutoStore has said it includes no orders, volumes or deployment timetable.
A 20-store test with SoftBank and Japan Weather Association tied weather, footfall and store data to production, markdowns and staff explanations versus similar control stores.
