1 Japanese mobile giant Softbank

A humanoid robot named Pepper, which is able to read emotions with sensors in its eye sockets, has been serving customers at Softbank stores in Japan.

Restaurant chain Pizza Hut Asia will work with credit card firm MasterCard to use Pepper to take orders and serve customers by the end of the year.

2 Swedish furniture giant Ikea

In 2013, Ikea launched a mobile app that allows customers to virtually place and view some 400 products in their homes using augmented reality.

After launching the app on their mobile phones, users can use the camera function to capture an image of a room and then select Ikea products to view what the product would look like in their homes.

3 Baby product firm Motherswork

The local retailer has redeveloped its website to target the China market more effectively. Customers can surf the site in multiple languages, pay using different currencies - such as the Chinese yuan - and have their orders confirmed instantaneously.

Melissa Lin