
Search is fragmenting – credibility and trust create the new visibility
Online search behaviour has changed significantly with the rise of AI. How can African brands adapt to this new marketing landscape?
RETAIL TECH
By our African Marketing Confederation News Team | 2026
Partnership with retail tech company involves deployment of latest-generation electronic shelf labels, smart rails and AI-driven cameras.
Leading global food retailer Carrefour has signed a strategic partnership with Vusion, a specialist in digitalisation solutions for physical commerce, to digitise all its hypermarkets and supermarkets in France by 2030.
French-based Carrefour is well-known to African consumers through its supermarket presence in countries such as Egypt, Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon, Senegal, Nigeria, Gabon, DRC and Côte d’Ivoire.
The partnership covers the deployment of latest-generation electronic shelf labels, smart rails and AI-driven cameras with the aim of transforming operational efficiency and the in-store customer experience.
Photo: Allen Boguslavsky from Pexels
Vusion has recently been involved in a similar project for the giant Walmart retail group in the United States.
Taking a decisive step
In a statement, Carrefour says that by equipping its shelves with millions of smart labels connected to the cloud, it is taking a decisive step in the digitisation of its physical assets.
“This massive deployment positions Carrefour as the most advanced retailer in Europe in terms of store technology, echoing the transformation initiated in food retail with Vusion across the Atlantic. It follows successful pilots launched since June 2025,” the statement notes.
Among the objectives of the Carrefour 2030 plan are:
Comments Alexandre Bompard, Chairman and CEO of Carrefour: “Carrefour 2030 is a growth plan that relies notably on accelerating tech and AI. By partnering with Vusion … we are propelling our stores into a new era. The digitalisation of our shelves is the essential foundation for deploying our vision of modern retail – serving competitiveness, quality of life at work for our employees, and customer satisfaction.”

Online search behaviour has changed significantly with the rise of AI. How can African brands adapt to this new marketing landscape?

Researchers propose a framework for packaging that senses, learns and acts – making packaging an active, AI-powered tool against food waste.

Country needs marketers to build recognition and consumer trust around Malawian products and national brand, says Deputy Minister.

Fashion brand suspends giant lingerie high above the city’s streets, using shadows to create a moving billboard for pedestrians and motorists.

Researchers describe AI influencers as having a ‘dual identity’. Consumers evaluate both ‘person’ and ‘technology’ identities at once.

Reputation and trust, once modest influences on hotel choice, have become some of the strongest predictors of patronage, study finds.

South African brands are increasingly setting the global benchmark for customer loyalty strategies, organisers say.

Global influences among younger consumers are still present, but they are being filtered through a distinctly Zambian lens.

Researchers find that lack of perceived ‘genuine care’ is the mechanism connecting AI involvement to lower trust ratings.

Explore the 2026 AMC Conference speaker line-up. Top African marketing voices gather in Zambia to tackle AI, AfCFTA, and brand power. Register today.

New industry currency will bring South African television and online video audiences together in a single measurement system.