Troy, Ohio — Hobart has introduced the newest edition of HTe Enterprise Asset Scale Management Software. HTe Enterprise is the latest in fleet management and offers several new features. Hobart’s HTe Enterprise improves efficiency, reduces downtime and increases profitability all from the convenience of a desktop PC. This web-based tool is a software package for retailers to directly manage their scale fleets and lends itself to a multi-user experience in grocery environments. In today’s grocery stores, scales are all connected devices and require firmware updates, configuration updates and updates to …
software/technology
— By Jason Roeder — Advancing restaurant and retail sustainability: the power of equipment data. Last March, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed new rules that will impact every publicly traded multi-unit retailer or restaurant. If the regulations are adopted, these organizations will have to disclose their greenhouse-gas emissions, climate goals and the effect of climate risks on their businesses. This development adds a new level of urgency for these sectors, which are already working to reduce their carbon footprint. It’s far from easy; a previous study cited …
Brooklyn, N.Y. — Global design company West Elm, a member of Williams-Sonoma, Inc., the world’s largest digital-first, design-led and sustainable home retailer, has launched its own virtual world, West Elm Home Design, on Roblox, a global platform bringing 52 million daily users together through shared experiences. The first major specialty home retailer to premiere on Roblox, West Elm’s debut into the metaverse offers a best-in-class virtual experience with high-fidelity design and unprecedented photorealism that will appeal to new and existing West Elm fans and design enthusiasts. The West Elm Home …
Los Angeles — chargeFUZE will scale its innovative and autonomous out-of-home mobile phone charging stations into Westfield shopping centers in the U.S. The initiative is part of an effort to ensure that Westfield guests have the best experience possible and can take advantage of all digital and tech-forward initiatives onsite. chargeFUZE’s portable charging network is being rolled out across Westfield’s US shopping centers, allowing guests to charge their devices while ‘on the go.’ chargeFUZE’s technology will enable Westfield visitors to remain untethered and to charge any device from the comfort …
Minneapolis — Target Corporation has hired Prat Vemana as executive vice president, chief digital and product officer. Vemana will join Target on Oct. 31 as a member of Target’s leadership team, reporting to Cara Sylvester, chief guest experience officer. In this role, he will oversee Target’s digital business, including site merchandising, user experience, digital operations and product, and Target+, the retailer’s growing online third-party marketplace. Additionally, Vemana will provide key support for Target’s industry-leading product teams across the company by bringing a holistic view to the retailer’s overall product strategy. …
— By Rob Tedesco — The next digital frontier for restaurants. Brands have spent the past few years adapting to a digital-first mindset. They’ve reoriented their businesses toward programs like online ordering, invested in their tech stacks and started gathering first-party customer data But as the paradigm now truly shifts, and “outside the four walls” matters more, what’s missing from brands’ digital roadmaps? What will be the next major leaps in restaurant technology and digital guest experiences? Here, we discuss four ways in which digital tools help restaurants …
— By Kristin Naragon — Communicating a brand’s commitment to environmental impacts requires transparency in today’s omnichannel shopping landscape. More so than ever, consumers are inundated with choices. For any given product or service, they have a seemingly endless list of options to choose from — meaning they have the ability to choose to support corporations whose values align with their own. It happens more often than you may think; according to this Global B2C Survey conducted by our team, half of the 3,500 survey participants said …
Malvern, Pa. — Cantaloupe, Inc., a digital payments and software services company that provides end-to-end technology solutions for the unattended retail market, has named Ravi Venkatesan as chief executive officer, effective October 1, 2022. Venkatesan, who currently serves as Cantaloupe’s COO, will succeed Sean Feeney, who will retire from Cantaloupe on September 30, 2022. Feeney will step down from the board of directors and Venkatesan will join the board of directors, effective October 1, 2022. “On behalf of the board of directors, I would like to congratulate Ravi on this …
Menlo Park, Calif. — Dragonfruit AI, retail’s first massively scalable video AI platform, has named Ray Cooke — most recently senior vice president at Hanwha Techwin America — as its new vice president of business development. Dragonfruit’s Frontier was custom-built for Retail Loss Prevention/Asset Protection (Video Summaries, ORC Investigations, OSHA Compliance, Slip/Fall, Liquid Spill), Store Operations (Checkout Metrics, Point-of-Sale Analysis with Video Verification) and Marketing/Merchandising (In-store Commerce Funnels). Designed from the ground-up for multi-location retailers, Frontier provides the flexibility for retailers to start solving their most pressing needs and add …
— By John Moody — Insights for boosting profit margin with technology. According to the USDA, the level of food price inflation for restaurant food purchases rose 7.4% from May 2021 to May 2022. While some operators are forced to increase menu prices to accommodate this remarkable spike in food costs, others are trying desperately to find other ways to remain profitable without passing the additional burden on to their customers. There are three primary controls that restaurant operators need to pay careful attention to when trying …