Breakfast briefing: Retail news on Made.com, Peacocks and Amazon

Made.com introduces product scanning technology in London showroom

Online furniture specialist Made.com has installed scanning technology by CloudTags that allows digital interaction with physical products in its showroom, The Drum reported. The etailer has made the move in an attempt to “connect the offline with the online”. By using hand-held tablets in its London showroom, shoppers can scan NFC tags such as images or symbols to gain additional information about the product and create a list of items they are interested in.

Made.com is also investing in other technology to blur the lines between physical and digital with the introduction of a virtual reality app. The app allows users to see what items of furniture would look like in their homes.

Peacocks’ ‘Made in Britain’ top actually from India

Fashion retailer Peacocks has been accused of trying to deceive shoppers by appealing to their sense of patriotism, the Daily Mail reported. Customers said the company misled them after they found out a maternity T-shirt featuring a large Union flag and the slogan ‘Made in Britain’ was actually made in India. A Peacocks spokesman said: “The T-shirt is a slogan style that refers to the wearer’s baby bump being ‘Made in Britain’. It was never our intention to imply the T-shirt itself is made in Britain and it was clearly labelled to show that this was not the case.”

Amazon seeks permission to test drones outdoors

Amazon.com is seeking permission from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US to test its delivery drones near Seattle, as part of a rapid expansion of the programme, Reuters reported. At present Amazon can test drones indoors and in other countries. But it cannot conduct research and development flight tests in open outdoor space in the state of Washington, where it has its headquarters.