ETIH Awards 2026 shines a light on higher education campus physical retail technology innovation
RTIH’s sister site, EdTech Innovation Hub, recently announced the launch of its inaugural ETIH Innovation Awards, celebrating excellence in global education technology, with a particular focus on workforce development, AI integration, and innovative learning solutions across all stages of education.
The awards recognise the companies, platforms, and individuals driving innovation and transformation in this fast moving space, whether through personalised learning, upskilling tools, or powerful digital platforms that prepare students and professionals for the future.
Categories include Campus Retail Innovation. This focuses on technology deployments enabling retail experiences to thrive on educational establishment campuses, even as online shopping continues to grow.
ETIH is looking for examples of cutting-edge technology that reduces friction in the customer journey, appealing to tech savvy students and staff members, and catering to their fast paced lives – for instance, checkout-free stores, contactless payments, and autonomous deliveries.
Further details (including entry forms) here.
Joe White departs Zebra Technologies to take on CEO role at retail AI specialist Everseen
Everseen, a specialist in Vision AI solutions for the retail industry, has announced the appointment of Joe White as Chief Executive Officer.
Greg Clark, Managing Partner of Crosspoint Capital, Vivek Mani, Managing Director of Crosspoint Capital, and Alan O’Herlihy, Founder of Everseen, will continue to serve on the company’s board and work with White as Everseen focuses on its next phase of growth.
“Joe brings deep expertise in product leadership, customer-centric innovation, and global execution to the role having led teams at Zebra, Motorola, and Symbol which deliver foundational technologies – machine vision, RFID, barcode scanning, and mobile computing – to the world’s largest businesses,” says Clark.
“Joe’s ability to drive enterprise grade innovation at scale makes him ideally suited to lead the company into its next phase of growth as we extend Everseen’s AI leadership with new agentic value propositions that will move the needle for our retail customers.”
“Joe’s leadership is the perfect complement to Everseen’s exceptional R&D and customer-first approach. Under his leadership, Everseen will continue to advance its mission to make store operations more intelligent, efficient, and maximise ROI for retailers around the world.”
REWE Group’s Jan Kunath: checkout-free stores face a rethink as a hybrid world prevails
It’s a question put out there recently by Jan Kunath, Deputy CEO at REWE Group.
In a LinkedIn post, he said: “Recently, there have been increasing reports that manless store concepts in the UK, USA and Europe are closing again or will not be rolled out further. Certainly not, but in practice there are differences in customer acceptance depending on various criteria.”
He noted that 60 to 70% of consumers in Europe are still critical of unmanned charging. But he believes that the hybrid world will prevail, one in which the customer will choose between human service and autonomous purchasing.
“The success story of self-checkout checkouts is a good example of how it can develop. It only takes time: In countries such as Lithuania, for example, the usage rate is already well over 50%. The mix of efficiency, control and trust in technology convinces customers,” he commented.
“For me, one thing is certain. The supermarket of the future will therefore continue to be an exciting field of experimentation that will show many more new innovative solutions.”
“But for me it is also clear. Between automation and personal customer contact, it remains to be seen which concepts are suitable for everyday use. And it will continue to be “humanised” in many supermarkets.”
Varner deploys Sitoo PoS solution on Zebra Technologies handheld mobile devices across its stores
Scandinavian fashion retailer, Varner, reports an estate wide roll-out of Sitoo’s PoS solution on Zebra Technologies’ handheld mobile devices, allowing staff to serve customers anywhere in the store.
Instead of being tied to fixed tills, staff can now move freely – checking stock, completing purchases or helping with Click & Collect orders. They also have access to real-time product and customer data, including previous purchases and loyalty membership details, at their fingertips.
This has been well received by Varner’s customers, with 93% now confident about completing mobile payments anywhere in the store, while internal feedback showed rapid adoption by store staff, with 89% rating Sitoo as highly user-friendly. 68% of associates now frequently use it to check product information, while 32% use it to look up customer memberships.