London, November 10, 2026 – Hanshow, a global leader in digital store solutions, has been named a winner at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards in the Retail Media Innovation category for its Merlin Smart Cart solution with shopreme and Lucky cart.
Now in its eighth edition, the RTIH Innovation Awards celebrate global technology innovation across the fast-moving omnichannel retail landscape, judging by an independent panel of retail, technology, data and digital leaders from organizations including Walmart, Amazon, Boots, Holland & Barrett, East of England Co-op and IGD.
Retail Media Innovation is a new category for 2026, reflecting the growing role of technology platforms in helping retailers develop retail media propositions across physical and digital channels. The category recognizes projects that use innovative technologies to create new opportunities for shopper engagement, strengthen retailer-brand relationships, and unlock new commercial value from retail media.
At the heart of the award-winning solution is a new approach to in-store retail media: treating media as part of the shopper service rather than as a standalone advertising touchpoint. Merlin Smart Cart brings relevant engagement closer to product discovery and purchase decisions while supporting practical shopper needs throughout the journey.
Hanshow provides the Smart Cart technology and in-store digital infrastructure, shopreme delivers the software layer, self-checkout experience and retailer-system integration, while Lucky cart adds personalization and retail media capabilities. Together, these complementary technologies connect shopping context and loyalty identification with product discovery, relevant offers, basket visibility and streamlined checkout within the Smart Cart journey.
By combining shopper utility with retail media capabilities, Merlin Smart Cart creates opportunities for more relevant, contextual and measurable engagement within the physical shopping journey. For retailers and brands, this opens new ways to connect media activity with shopper interaction and commercial value, while supporting new models of collaboration across the retail media ecosystem.
Designed for practical, modular deployment, Merlin Smart Cart uses a clip-on format that works with existing trolley fleets, enabling retailers to introduce digital shopping and retail media capabilities without extensive infrastructure changes. The solution also gives retailers the flexibility to tailor the experience to their own brand and commercial strategy.
Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor of Retail Technology Innovation Hub, said: “Merlin Smart Cart stood out to the judging panel for a number of reasons, but chief among them was how the solution's entry showed that in-store media has dramatically changed in recent years. It has moved beyond traditional channels and now happens on the shelf, on the label and in the shopping cart, at the exact moment that shoppers make their decisions. And it can also be measured. Congratulations to Hanshow on building something both powerful and innovative in this dynamic space.”
“This recognition reflects an important shift in physical retail: retail media is moving closer to where purchase decisions actually happen. Smart Cart has the potential to become a new interaction layer in the physical store, bringing together shopper utility, personalization, and measurable brand engagement at the point of decision,” said Philippe Brochard, Chairman of the Advisory Committee at Hanshow. “With our ecosystem partners, we are bringing more of the precision and relevance of digital commerce into the physical retail journey, while keeping the shopper experience at the center.”
For Hanshow, the award marks another step in its broader retail media vision: bringing the relevance, personalization and measurability of digital commerce into physical retail. Merlin Smart Cart makes this vision tangible, showing how shopper interaction, store technology and ecosystem collaboration can work together to create more engaging experiences and new sources of commercial value for retailers and brands.
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