Retail Technology Innovation Hub

April – June 2022 · No. 01

Retail Technology Innovation Hub Marxent:

Metaverse creates new opportunities for retailers leveraging 3D

WHY DARK STORES ARE HERE TO STAY QVALON’s Andrey Podgornov and Boris Shkolnikov tell RTIH how customers can benefit from DARK STORES

PMC’s Rapid Retail Development

Interview: Qualcomm’s Ketal Gandhi

Reimagining retail: digital transformation of payments

Platform and Dev Ops team transform Crew’s in-store experience

Chris Kronenthal gives RTIH the lowdown on FreedomPay and discusses the importance of payments tech to retailers today

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November 2012 · CORP. Magazine

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Contents Comment

4

Editor’s letter

26

10

Retail Technology Show exhibitor list

28

14

Shoptalk Europe preview

16 20 24

Qualcomm - Reimagining retail - digital transformation of payments Chris Kronenthal gives RTIH the lowdown on FreedomPay and discusses the importance of payments tech to retailers today NOUMI - Is your business ready for the transition to digital receipts?

32

50

Belly buttons and the pursuit of better customer experiences

54

Is the war between online and offline over?

58

Did Metaverse Fashion Week give us a glimpse of retail’s future? Potentially

60

Retail ubiquity - how to approach marketplace selling

QVALON - How do customers benefit from dark stores?

Marxent - Metaverse creates new opportunities for retailers leveraging 3D How PMC’s Rapid Retail Development Platform and Dev Ops team transformed Crew’s in-store experience

35

2022 RTIH Innovation Awards

36

12 retail tech funding rounds you need to know about

48

Brightpearl Lightning 50

62

Five questions for retail analyst Christine Russo

Interviews

7

40

42

46

Matt Bradley

Brittain Ladd

Martin Newman

Nikki Baird

Event Manager, Retail Technology Show

Former Amazon exec and supply chain consultant

Founder, The Customer First Group

VP of Strategy, Aptos

Retail Technology Innovation Hub · April- June 2022

3

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November 2012 · CORP. Magazine

”

Scan to find out more

Editor’s letter

Retail Technology Innovation Hub

ON THE COVER The latest from QVALON, Qualcomm, PMC, FreedomPay, Marxent and NOUMI

ISSUE April – June 2022 EDITOR AND FOUNDER Scott Thompson Tel: 07528 807353 Email: scott.thompson@retailtechinnovationhub.com Website: www.retailtechinnovationhub.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/RTIH_RetailTech CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Mark Smith Mike Cadden Richard Hammond PRINTED BY The Manson Group 8 Porters Wood Valley Road Industrial Estate St Albans AL3 6PZ UK Tel: 0800 118 2871 Email: enquiries@mansongroup.co.uk GRAPHIC DESIGN Steve Kelly Concept Graphics Tel: 07734 264835 Email: steve@conceptstudio.co.uk © 2022 RTIH

From online to printed magazine, Retail Technology Innovation Hub makes the jump into the physical world

W

elcome to the first ever print edition of Retail Technology Innovation Hub. I launched RTIH (as those into the whole brevity thing like to call it) in 2017 and it is now a leading website for the global omnichannel retail technology community.

So it is with great excitement that I introduce to you RTIH in magazine format and, in the process, connect with even more retail tech buyers, suppliers and enthusiasts.

I can’t wait to hear your thoughts, and look forward to publishing further magazines that complement our digital offering and events portfolio.

Within these pages, you will find Retail Technology Show and Shoptalk Europe previews, company profiles, interviews with major industry players, and thought leadership pieces.

Retail is one of the most competitive, resilient, and dynamic industries in the world and it is a genuine pleasure to write about and comment upon the tech side of things.

I first started covering this space in 2006. Back in the day, things were pretty straightforward.

It was difficult for new entrants to compete with the heavy hitters and gain a foothold in various sectors.

Retail technology was an expensive business and the big boys were not afraid to splash the cash in order to maintain market dominance.

How times change! The status quo remains in place, but they now have to contend with a plethora of cool startups looking to change the retail landscape.

Covid-19 has driven a seismic change in shopping habits, with the likes of checkout free stores, automation in stores and the supply chain, rapid delivery services, the metaverse and NFTs breaking through to the mainstream.

This is arguably the most significant era in the history of retail tech.

The digitalisation of retail means we have even (finally!) stopped talking about online shopping and physical stores as separate experiences.

A state of affairs which no doubt will be reflected at both Retail Technology Show and Shoptalk Europe, two must attend events.

If you’re attending the former, please do drop by our stand (number 6A77) and say hi.

We will also be out in force at Shoptalk Europe.

Here’s to the return of in-person events and the start of RTIH’s print magazine journey!

Scott Thompson Editor & Founder, RTIH scott.thompson@retailtechinnovationhub.com

Retail Technology Innovation Hub · April- June 2022

5

Interview

Interview

Retail Technology Show’s

Matt Bradley RTIH Editor and Founder, Scott Thompson, discusses the highs and lows of exhibition/conference planning during a pandemic with Matt Bradley, Event Manager at Retail Technology Show, which takes place at London’s Olympia on 26th-27th April.

Retail Technology Innovation Hub · April- June 2022

7

Interview ST: So, Matt, how have the past 24 months been for you?

for a physical event after two years of lockdowns and restrictions.

MB: It has been an incredible rollercoaster ride. From a simple text message from Nineteen Group’s Peter Jones asking for a chat to a completely sold out Retail Technology Show, with six weeks still to go. It all feels a bit of a blur if I’m honest.

MB: I would agree, obviously. Although I also would concede that physical events need to move with the times. There have been too many shows doing the same old thing year in and year out.

ST: Let’s go back to October 2020. Reed Exhibitions, the organisers of RetailEXPO (Retail Technology Show in its previous incarnation), have cancelled the show for a second year in a row, due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

MB: Yeah, it was devastating news. I tweeted at the time: “Without doubt today has been one of my saddest days. Huge thank you to everyone who made the last 10 years so rewarding and enjoyable. It’s been an absolute pleasure. RetailEXPO would never have happened without you.”

There were various frustrations on my side, but I’m over it now. I’ve moved on and things have actually turned out for the best.

ST: Yes, you mentioned Nineteen Group at the beginning of our conversation.

In the aftermath of RetailEXPO being cancelled, you spoke with Nineteen Group’s Chief Executive, Peter Jones, and the rest, as they say, is history.

ST: How has Retail Technology Show moved with the times then?

MB: In various ways. Yes, there is an exhibition and that’s obviously a big part of the show. But you need to offer more than that in this day and age, in order to get people through the doors and keep them coming back.

I’m hugely proud of our conference programme, covering leadership and culture, e-commerce growth and omnichannel, innovation and technology, customer obsession and marketing, supply chain and delivery, and payments and checkout.

Our list of speakers stacks up against anyone else in the industry. We’ve also not been afraid to deviate away from the conventional idea of what makes a good retail technology speaker. Yes, we have traditional retailers etc as that’s an important part of the puzzle.

But there are also some left field picks like Dragon’s Den investor and Social Chain Keynote speaker: Dragon’s CEO, Steven Bartlett.

Den investor and Social Chain CEO, Steven Bartlett.

MB: They are the perfect company for this project. They’ve got the nimbleness of a startup and are also backed by private equity.

ST: What will he be speaking about?

MB: I’m absolutely buzzing. A few things have gone in our favour. NRF were hit so hard by Covid-19 that some UK and European retailers didn’t head over to New York.

Subsequently EuroCIS pushed their show back to May/June. So, all of a sudden we were the first ones out of the traps; an ideal scenario for us.

MB: Steven will join Andrew Busby, Founder and CEO at Retail Reflections, on the Headline Stage for his keynote session.

The fireside chat will look to demystify the metaverse and explore how this new frontier, and the growing trend for NFTs, will change the retail landscape and redefine consumer behaviour.

Retail Technology Show is all about reuniting retail and helping retailers unlock the innovations that will power future business performance.

We’re not just talking next-generation tech, we’re talking the next dimension of retailing - and that means bringing the brightest minds covering the hottest topics, with an event format that makes those disruptive discussions accessible to the entire industry.

ST: The show is a sell out with 206 exhibitors.

Throughout the Covid-19 outbreak, we kept hearing that virtual events were the way forward.

But there certainly appears to be a huge appetite

ST: You’ve also got Ella Mills, Founder and Brand Director of plant-based food and wellness brand, Deliciously Ella, onboard as a headline speaker.

She’ll put bums on seats, as they say.

ST: Nineteen Group officially announced the launch of Retail Technology Show in March of last year, and that you and your RetailEXPO show team were onboard. And now here we are, just weeks away from Retail Technology Show 2022 taking place.

8

April- June 2022 · Retail Technology Innovation Hub

Interview MB: Yes, we were very pleased to announce the addition of Ella.

She will join Chris Field, Managing Editor of Retail Connections, on the Headline Stage for her keynote session on day two of the show. It will be a fireside chat, which examines how retailers can maximise customer engagement by building a fan-based, authentic brand.

ST: From day one, a big part of RTIH’s remit has been covering the retail tech startup space. So I’m particularly looking forward to the Baringa Startup Safari initiative.

MB: That will enable visitors to explore the top ten picks of the most exciting technologies set to disrupt the retail sector. The top ten consists of: London Dynamics; Ometria; Personify XP; Shoppermotion; Blockdox; TruRating; Slip; Brand Conscience; Kindred; Face Donate.

With tech that answers some of retail’s most pressing issues around customer engagement, the digitalisation of the store, data enrichment and sustainability commitments, there’s a wealth of forward looking tech to be seen on the Safari and throughout the show.

ST: Is there anything else you’d like to say before we sign off?

MB: I just want to say a huge thank you to our PR guys, Fieldworks, Nick Field, our advisory board, our media partners, including RTIH, our speakers and each and every one of our 206 exhibitors. Your support will not be forgotten.

And special mention to the whole of Nineteen Group and Phoenix Equity Partners but particularly Peter Jones, Alison Jackson, Jonathan Lacey, and Philip Soar for their unwavering support and advice throughout.

And lastly, to the incredible team of Michelle Thomas, Lee Allen, Neema Sharma, Katy Flaherty, Catherine Trelawny, Jayne Kennedy and Carl Goodman, whose dedication and hard work has made all of this possible.

We cannot wait to finally bring the world of retail back together.

RTIH is exhibiting at Retail Technology Show. You can find us on stand number 6A77. Please do drop by and say hello.

A full list of exhibitors appears on pp. 10-13 of this magazine.

Retail Technology Innovation Hub · April- June 2022

9

Retail Technology Show exhibitors and stand numbers EXHIBITOR

ZONE

STAND

EXHIBITOR

ZONE

STAND

51T Charging Solutions

6B09

Castles Technology

6C70

6DX

6J18

C-BURN MUSIC

6J83

Ada

6C28

Cegid

6C80

Advanced Retail UK

6J70

Centrex Computing Services

6B40

Adyen

6D58

Cipherlab

6C18

6A60

Code Corporation

6B81

Akoustic Arts

6J76

Nordic ID

6B81

Amazon

6G40

Codeo

6B20

Anderson Zaks

6J85

Cradlepoint

6D28

Anker Kassensysteme GmbH

6E90

Crosscan

6A67

APG

6D40

Datalogic

6B88

Armis Security

6J14

Dayrize

Attensi

6B58

Denso Wave

6G80

Aures

6C78

Ecommpay

6J71

Axonify

6C90

Ecosio

6J69

BenQ

6C50

Enactor

6C58

Billigence

6A46

ENS, A Havis Company

6H28

Bink

6E94

Ergonomic Solutions

6E20

BIXOLON

6C20

Evoke

6H70

BOARD

6C68

FEC UK

6H48

Cardlytics

6A66

Fidel API

6A45

AKIS Technologies

10

Discovery

April- June 2022 · Retail Technology Innovation Hub

Discovery

6A50

Retail Technology Show EXHIBITOR

ZONE

STAND

EXHIBITOR

ZONE

STAND

Flooid

6G88

Omnio

6J73

FreedomPay

6E70

One Compliance

6A74

Givex

6B80

OneStock

6A48

GK Software

6D48

Origina

6J30

Hemisphere West Europe

6B05

Orridge

6A75

Herbert Retail

6A40

Panasonic TOUGHBOOK

6C48

Honeywell

6E88

PAX Technology Limited

6G60

HP

6G70

Paysend

6A38

HSO

6E50

PayXpert

6B19

ID Tech

6J31

Peak Technologies

6C60

Image Holders

6E40

Pexip

6B42

Innovation Hub

6C89

PFS

6J79

Innovative Technology

6J74

PIS

6E92

Integrex

6G01

Planet

6H60

Inurface Media

6H52

Point Mobile

6C30

InVue

6E48

Portable Power Solutions

6A69

ITL Group

6G68

POSPOLE

6A20

KFP Total IT Solutions

6C38

Price Trakker

6J80

LocknCharge

6H80

ProGlove

6A30

Logile

6G20

Realmore

Mako Networks

6B38

Relesys

6B41

Mastercard

6E58

Renovotec

6H10

Mercaux

6B68

Retail Manager Solutions

6G50

Mobile Data Collection

6B30

Retail Pro International

6E28

Mollie

6H88

ReThink Productivity

6B39

myPOS

6J41

Saturn Visual Solutions

6B28

Newland

6G20

Scala

6G58

Newland

6G18

Scanbot

6J49

Nextail

6B46

Scandit AG

6D01

NMI

6B31

Schneider Electric

Noumi

6B78

Secure Retail

6D18

NRC Radio

6B03

Seiko Instruments

6J38

Nylas Inc

6h18

SML

6E30

OKI

6H20

SolvedBy.Ai

6B48

Discovery

6A62

Theatre A sponsor

Retail Technology Innovation Hub · April- June 2022

11

EXHIBITOR

ZONE

STAND

EXHIBITOR

ZONE

STAND

Discovery

6B51

Sony

6A36

Waizu

SOTI

6D20

Windcave

6J72

Springboard

6D50

Wintec

6A70

Square

6B60

Workforce Software

6A28

Star Micronics

6G10

Workforce Software

Starwind Software

6H38

Workforce.com

6J59

StoreForce

6H58

Worldline

6C10

StorIQ

6B01

Worldpay from FIS

6D80

StorMagic

6G02

YOOBIC

6B50

Stylumia

6J11

Zebra Technologies

6E10

SUNMI

6B18

Zyler

6A81

Zucchetti UK

6H30

MTI

6H62

Tag Retail systems

6E01

Lexmark International

6J51

Tailored Fire and Security Group Ltd

6h68

Retailigence

Talos360

6A18

Divido Financial Services

6H12

TeamViewer

6B90

Ultraleap

6J54

Tellermate

6B10

Okta

6H50

Vertical Systems

6B65

Toshiba

Retailer’s lounge

Theatre B Sponsor

Discovery

6A52

TPP Retail

6D30

Thames Technology

6B66

Traka

6H40

Samsung

6D70

TreviPay

6J29

Checkout.com

Truevo Payments

6E80

DigitalGenius

Trust Payments

6H78

Extenda Retail

Discovery

6B56

Trust Systems

6A10

Trackin Tech

Discovery

6A51

UKG

6B70

refive

Discovery

6A54

Unique Technology

6J21

Red Ant

6D85

Varlink

6G38

Mirakl

6d88

Ve Global

6J39

Element

Vestel UK

6B28

Cortex Territory

6A72

VoCoVo

6C40

TransferMate

6b75

Volumatic

6G30

Avassa Systems

12

April- June 2022 · Retail Technology Innovation Hub

Champagne Bar sponsor 6A63

Discovery

Discovery

6A53

6B53

Retail Technology Show EXHIBITOR

ZONE

STAND

EXHIBITOR

ZONE

STAND

ASH Tech

6J78

Kindred

Start-Up Safari

6J20

Swedx UK

6B76

London Dynamics

Start-Up Safari

6J20

ELO

6C60

Ometria

Start-Up Safari

6J20

Juniper Networks UK

6A47

Personify XP

Start-Up Safari

6J20

Uberall GmbH

6A78

Shoppermotion

Start-Up Safari

6J20

Neptune Software

6E10

Slip

Start-Up Safari

6J20

Sitoo

6E10

TruRating

Start-Up Safari

6J20

Stor.ai

6E10

Quorso

6B52

Ivanti

6E10

Shift Group

6B61

M-Netics

6E10

Demandtec by Acoustic

6C88

Magnetto International

6B63

Bolt

Headline Theatre Sponsor

BlockDox

Start-Up Safari

6J20

RTIH

6A77

Brand Conscience

Start-Up Safari

6J20

Retail Systems

6A44

Face Donate

Start-Up Safari

6J20

Pennies

6J84

Retail Technology Innovation Hub · April- June 2022

13

Rehent pre, ut laboren iminihi tintist, sunditium.

ES E R F KET

TIC

fer n of d o l e an av & tr tailers e . for r rands b

2022 attend shoptalk europe Shoptalk is the world’s largest community of retail change makers.

14

April- June 2022 · Retail Technology Innovation Hub

Shoptalk Europe marks the global expansion of Shoptalk.

Shoptalk europe 2022

F

ounded in 2016 by serial event and technology entrepreneurs Anil and Simran Aggarwal, it became America’s largest retail innovation conference in just three years and is now widely accepted as the global home for retail innovators.

Shoptalk Europe marks the global expansion of Shoptalk.

Taking place at ExCeL London on 6th-8th June, over 2,500 attendees from large retailers and brands, startups, technology companies, investors, media, and analysts will come together to learn, network, collaborate and evolve.

It will be uniting the entire European retail and grocery ecosystems as they come together to reimagine the future of retail.

Furthermore, 250+ companies will be demonstrating the latest innovation and trends that continue to transform the sector globally.

Attendees can expect this diverse community to unite and lead the narrative for the global retail and e-commerce industry.

Shoptalk Europe 2022 will also feature Groceryshop - the leading event for grocery and FMCG, putting both centre stage.

The Shoptalk and Groceryshop audiences come to learn, collaborate and create the future of retail across three days of highly relevant content, curated meetings, productive networking and facilitated social engagements.

The community consistently describes their Shoptalk experience as amazing, educational, energising, exciting, insightful, inspiring, productive and fun.

Shoptalk’s key themes give ample opportunity to learn about: Groundbreaking digital experiences The transformation of physical retail The changing consumer The future of grocery and FMCG Innovative growth strategies Groundbreaking marketing strategies and tactics The future of brands Emerging retail technologies Global retail experiences and innovations Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) Innovative approaches to sustainability in retail Culture and leadership

More info here: www.shoptalkeurope.com Speakers announced so far include: Andy Logan, Global VP eCommerce, Anheuser-Busch InBev Frans Muller, CEO, Ahold Delhaize Elodie Perthuisot, Executive Director E-Commerce, Data and Digital Transformation, Carrefour Group Katharina Sutch, Director of Shopper & OmniChannel Activation, The LEGO Group Tim Steiner, CEO and Co-Founder Ocado.

Uniting the entire European retail and grocery ecosystems.

In addition, 3,000+ 15-minute onsite meetings will be scheduled for 500+ individuals at Shoptalk Europe through the Hosted Retailers & Brands programme.

Individuals from retailers and brands attend Shoptalk Europe to improve their knowledge of retail’s latest technologies, trends, and business models, as well as to collaborate with peers, startups, tech companies, and investors in an open, friendly environment.

3,000+ 15-minute onsite meetings will be scheduled for 500+ individuals at Shoptalk Europe.

If you’re with a retailer or brand, you may qualify for complimentary Shoptalk Europe tickets plus up to £500 hotel/travel reimbursement with the Hosted Retailers & Brands Programme.

The travel/hotel reimbursement is based on receipts submitted following the event. To qualify, you must be responsible for buying or evaluating retail or e-commerce technology, and take up to eight 15-minute onsite meetings.

Enroll on time and you’ll get to pick the companies you want to meet from over 250 participating sponsors as part of a double opt-in process.

You won’t need to miss any agenda sessions for these meetings.

Your up to eight 15-minute meetings (total of up to only two hours) will be held during dedicated hours on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Shoptalk Europe. Your final schedule will be sent to you the week before the event.

To date, Shoptalk has reimbursed retailers and brands over $3 million in hotel/travel and provided free tickets worth an additional $5 million. Sounds crazy? It is.

APPLY HERE:

registration.shoptalkeurope.com Retail Technology Innovation Hub · April- June 2022

15

Reimagining

RETAIL

Digital transformation of payments The world of retail has changed beyond recognition in recent years, and the pace of change has only been accelerated by the pandemic.

F

rom the growth of e-commerce to the impact of social media, technology has underpinned an unprecedented shift in the relationship between retailers and consumers.

But while e-commerce has

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April- June 2022 · Retail Technology Innovation Hub

been one of the biggest drivers of change, the resulting trends have left a legacy on how physical stores will look too.

The desire for convenience and the evolution of IoT tech means digital payments will shape retail both virtually - and physically - in the future.

Reasons for growth The surge of online retail has been one major driver of change, accounting for 20% of all retail sales 2021, up from just 8% only a decade earlier.

Much of the recent surge in growth was due to the impact of Covid. Lockdowns meant not

Qualcomm only were physical stores closed in many parts of the developed world, but cash was also regarded as a way of spreading the virus.

As a result, figures compiled

by IBM revealed the pandemic accelerated the move towards e-commerce by five years.

The introduction of new technology on the front and back end of the payment system, effective security protocols, as well as changes to the payment mix with things such as digital wallets and crypto have also contributed to this acceleration.

A desire for more information about consumers is also a driver, with 90% of banks’ useful customer data coming from digital payments, according to PwC.

Beyond online But technology has not just impacted on e-commerce, it has changed physical stores too. The internet has only increased an appetite for convenience which the physical retail sector has had to embrace.

Consumers are now also better informed about what they want thanks to their ability to research online. A survey found 39% of shoppers will not buy in-store without reading online reviews first.

The industry is moving towards a more omnichannel approach which includes both online and offline, a combination to referred to as ‘clicks and mortar’.

It describes a model where both physical stores and an online presence interact seamlessly. In this new world, stores are more than just a place to browse and buy, but to pick up orders and interact with products.

Tech has not just impacted on e-commerce, it has changed physical stores too.

To enable this transformation where consumer demand for the convenience and choice of online is replicated on the ground, retail stores will have no choice but to embrace new technology. Central to this, will be how they take consumer payments.

Payment trends Long gone are the days when a customer would pay for something with cash at a register. The evolution of payments has seen breakthroughs in technology which have benefited both consumers and the retail sector.

From card readers to biometrics, QR codes and crypto the possibilities for making payments are more diverse than ever.

“This has accelerated in Covid,” says Ketal Gandhi, Global Lead Retail Payments and Signage at Qualcomm. “The US, which is usually behind when it comes to contactless payments compared to the EU and Canada, has caught up in the Covid period. In Covid, many more ground-breaking trends emerged.”

The pandemic accelerated not only the roll-out of the technology, but a willingness by consumers to embrace it.

“Retail stores are improving experiences for consumers with multiple shopping modalities.”

Ketal adds.

“There are multiple ways of checking out in the store. There is self-checkout, scan and go, buy online and pick up in store, there is completely autonomous checkout with cameras and AI.” “In addition, some retailers even offer options such as line busting so that their staff can check out and accept payments anywhere in-store where the customer wants and Endless Aisle for customers to order instore and get it delivered.”

The impact of PCI-CPoC A milestone in Point of Sale (PoS) payments was the introduction of PCI-CPoC. A security standard approved by the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC).

Ketal Gandhi, Global Lead Retail Payments and Signage at Qualcomm.

Changing store designs These changes to payments methods are also having an impact on the physical layout of stores. There no longer have to be rows of customers funnelled towards a few cash registers.

Technology means shoppers can make purchases in a diverse range of ways which frees up more space for the store to fulfil other roles, such as for picking up online orders and sampling products.

Retail Technology Innovation Hub · April- June 2022

17

Qualcomm It enabled merchants to accept contactless payments with commercial, off the shelf (COTS) mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones which has nearfield communication (NFC).

“This is huge” Ketal says. “As we use our phones and watches and our IoT devices to make payments and those payments are accepted on another smart device. Qualcomm is powering all of these devices.”

The ramifications for this are far reaching and enable merchants of every size to be able to take contactless payments, without having to invest heavily in specialist technology. And the figures bear out that change.

According to a Nilson report, 135 million PoS terminals shipped in 2020. The majority of these were Android based.

Evolution of payment ecosystems and the need for security Digital payments appear simple to the consumer - at least if everything is working

correctly - but the whole process is underpinned by a complex network of companies all interacting at the same time.

Acquiring banks, terminal providers, card networks have to work in concert to enable payments to go through safely and security.

But this complex web provides the opportunity for criminality.

“There’s a saying that wherever the consumer goes, fraudsters follow them.” Ketal says. “Payment, anti-fraud and verification industries have seen tremendous growth because of this.”

Security for secure payments revolves around three central pillars: • • •

Device security Identity Data security

This security remains a prime source of concern for consumers.

According to one survey, more than two-thirds of digital payment users (69%) said they

About Qualcomm Discover the impact of digital transformation from stockroom to shopping cart, and back office to back end. Qualcomm Technologies retail solutions are a comprehensive suite of connected products utilising IoT to help keep retailers informed and agile across their operations.

Its solutions, tying online to offline, drive efficiencies and elevate retail insights to create more rewarding retail experiences for the retailer, store associates, customers, and brands.

Further information at: Qualcomm.com/retail

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April- June 2022 · Retail Technology Innovation Hub

had security concerns.

Effective security must involve a range of techniques as part of a system-wide approach. Peripheral security tech, cellular and WiFi security, key management solutions are all part of a wider ecosystem that helps secure all payment transactions across multiple devices.

Looking ahead The growth of e-commerce accelerated by the pandemic, new technology and changing consumer habits mean the use of digital payments will only increase in the future.

This will have an impact on both physical and online shopping, with an omnichannel approach creating a seamless retail experience for modern consumers.

But with concerns about security still one of the major barriers to uptake, ensuring transactions are secure will be a challenge which companies must respond to effectively.

The retail industry is moving towards a more omnichannel approach.

Learn more: Qualcomm.com/Retail

Chris Kronenthal joined FreedomPay almost 14 years ago.

RTIH: Can you explain your current role and what you do at FreedomPay? CK: I joined FreedomPay almost 14 years ago, and since then, we’ve become one of the world’s fastest growing FinTech companies.

We’re delivering Next Level Commerce™ to some of the biggest brands in the world across retail, hospitality, F&B, gaming, and much more. Companies such as Marriott, IHG, HMS Host, Delaware North, Foot Locker, Sephora, and Dine Brands.

My workday is never the same. From a strategy call at Marriott to technological innovation with Klarna as the President, I drive our strategic business development, product innovation, network infrastructure management, and software development processes.

I continually advance a security focused perspective to the scalable needs of companies worldwide.

RTIH: What is FreedomPay?

Interview

FREEDOMPAY’s

Chris Kronenthal Chris Kronenthal gives RTIH the lowdown on FreedomPay and discusses the importance of payments tech to retailers today.

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April- June 2022 · Retail Technology Innovation Hub

CK: FreedomPay is a Philadelphia-based tech company and global leader in secure commerce technology for merchants internationally across retail, hotels and lodging, food and beverage, and hospitality, including restaurants and stadiums.

We deliver a revolutionary technology platform that allows businesses to serve their customers with best-inclass security, speed, and personalisation.

We have a long history in secure and innovative payment technology. We were founded over 20 years ago, and our genesis was a stored value proposition for contract food service companies.

Fast forward to today, and the company is an industry leader. FreedomPay continues to transform the world of commerce and drive the future of payment innovation.

From PoS integrations to cashless solutions, business intelligence to data management, and electronic payment services to loyalty: our Next Level Commerce™ solution provides a fully integrated infrastructure for managing commerce in omnichannel environments.

In other words, we’re the engine inside the world’s ever expanding, interconnected ecosystem of commerce and payments.

RTIH: Why is there a need for a unified commerce platform like yours?

CK: An increasing number of merchants, especially at the enterprise level, have multiple technology partners and solutions that are fundamentally important to their operations.

However, many continue to utilise legacy systems which are old, outdated, and deficient in their relevant

Interview data delivery and functionality.

In many cases, an “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” mentality has long hindered the evolution and progression of retailers’ payment solutions. Their tech stacks may operate in silos that create friction and disconnection in the commerce experience, from security to data and loyalty.

FreedomPay is the tech that connects. Our fully agnostic and open platform offers maximum flexibility for merchants and consumers.

Rather than ripping and replacing outdated, disconnected tech, we surround and expand on the existing infrastructure to unify existing commerce platforms.

Our new partnership across the Americas with French beauty retailer, Sephora, is a prime example of our integration. Sephora’s Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Sree Sreedhararaj, commented on the value of FreedomPay’s solution: “Now, more than ever, it is critical for us at Sephora to be able to adapt to the quickly changing retail environment and that’s especially important at the Point of Sale.

Our clients desire a seamless experience in every step of the shopping journey, and our partnership with FreedomPay allows us to maximise efficiencies and capabilities at checkout.”

This is what Next Level Commerce™ is about: enabling our merchants to offer their customers a frictionless

payment experience, enhanced by speed, security, and personalisation at every touchpoint.

RTIH: Supporting loyalty programmes is a key plank of the FreedomPay offering. Can you explain how this works?

CK: Our loyalty proposition sits alongside our payment gateway to provide a full 360-degree view of consumer and cardholder behaviours within their environment.

Our business intelligence capabilities empower merchants to offer personalised incentives to their customers, such as customised rewards and discounts to build long-term brand relationships.

If we look back on the pandemic through a retail lens, it really shone a light on consumer behaviour and customer loyalty to specific companies or brands across demographics and countries.

The paramount importance of consumer loyalty and the purchase experience became apparent to businesses.

It highlighted the criticality of understanding consumer behaviour and preferences through smart, insightful data.

Unless you fully understand your loyal customers and how to communicate with them, how can you upsell and cross-sell? Customers need and expect to feel valued and rewarded for their loyalty.

In the race to secure customer loyalty through better connected user experiences, the winners will be those that can connect the data dots within their businesses

We’re delivering Next Level Commerce to some of the biggest brands in the world across retail, hospitality, F&B, gaming, and much more. Companies such as Sephora.

Retail Technology Innovation Hub · April- June 2022

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Interview and the multiple touchpoints along their channels.

FreedomPay intrinsically intertwines the payments process and the loyalty journey. We track each brand loyal customer to interpret their purchase habits and how certain variables affect their consumer behaviour.

We help retailers envisage those consumers and how to target them best. Are they Gen X or Gen Y? What is their gender? Are they located in a rural or urban area?

Do they exclusively shop online or in-store, or both?

FreedomPay can even tell how the weather correlates to an individual’s buying power.

RTIH: With many retailers planning to invest in omnichannel excellence, why is it important to have a commerce tech partner who supports this approach?

CK: In 2021, FreedomPay commissioned an independent study to understand the pain points of mid-to-enterprise Chief Technology Officers.

The number one finding was that leaders are increasingly dependent on third-party vendors as ‘business consultants’ and ‘guardians of reputation’ to democratise data, drive stakeholder value, and cope with compliance and ethical complexity.

FreedomPay hasn’t lost a single enterprise client on our platform, and our guiding principle is customer satisfaction. We behave almost as the consultant tech partner for the merchant.

We often hear about how businesses struggle with the complexities of managing disparate, siloed systems such as Point of Sale devices, payment processors, and incentive engines. Meanwhile, the customer is unaware of the merchant’s struggles.

Across all touchpoints, the entire commerce experience should be safe, secure, and uniform for customers and merchants.

FreedomPay’s technology prepares retailers to deliver Next Level Commerce™ using a growth solution that is efficient, agnostic, and open.

The one key principle of omnichannel operations is to safeguard your investment with an enterprise payments platform that supports you and your customers.

RTIH: Tell us about your future expansion plans and FreedomPay’s expansion from the US across the UK, EU, and the globe CK: We are expanding across the Atlantic and beyond, with capabilities in more than 100 countries that power billions of transactions annually. We recently announced our expansion into Mexico, bringing our Next Level platform to millions of merchants and consumers in the region.

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April- June 2022 · Retail Technology Innovation Hub

Data is seen as the new, borderless, virtual currency within the digital economy that we live and work in, and that our businesses operate within.

RTIH: Payments architecture is changing rapidly, especially with the introduction of open banking. So, what do retail businesses need to be aware of?

CK: Retailers must meet consumer expectations of the checkout process regarding flexible payment processes and personalised customer experiences.

Businesses have the means and motivation to revolutionise their customer acquisition and retention approach. This involves constructing new, dynamic pathways to ‘meet consumers where they are’ with competitive offers tailored to an individual’s specific wants and needs.

This demonstrates how data management, data tools and smart technology will be vital to every merchant’s growth strategy.

Evolving ‘open banking’ legislation around data sharing and protection has changed the availability of customer and potential customer information to nonbanks.

The way that retailers and their consumers approach loyalty is changing. Fewer consumers hold physical loyalty cards for their favourite grocery store or airline.

Instead, these have shifted online, creating access to a wealth of valuable customer data that can be used to personalise incentives.

Data sharing allows merchants to target potential customers they have no prior relationship with and those they have on file; this impacts companies’ acquisition and retention strategies.

This technology is changing commerce. A successful retailer needs to choose the right partner, to identify and manage customer eligibility, acquisition, satisfaction, retention, and reward strategies.

Chris Kronenthal is the payments industry’s preeminent security expert, bringing a world class experience to FreedomPay’s software development processes and compliance solutions.

He is widely recognised for his management and architecture of global ISV solutions and omnichannel environments. He received his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Information Technology at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Find further information on FreedomPay at: corporate.freedompay.com

SCAN TO LEARN MORE ABOUT FREEDOMPAY

Digital receipts

NOUMI

Is your business ready for the transition to digital receipts?

RTIH speaks with Terry Knott, Sales and Marketing Director at ARC Product Solutions, exclusive distributor and implementation/ installation partners for NOUMI Digital Receipt Solutions.

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April- June 2022 · Retail Technology Innovation Hub

N

OUMI is a specialist technology supplier for the EPoS marketplace.

Foursquare in the company’s sights is their aim to digitise the customer receipt and make paper till rolls a thing of the past.

Most people are not aware that in the UK, more than half of Britain’s 10 billion+ paper receipts issued each year are non-recyclable. This is due to being coated in the toxic chemical Bisphenol (BPS).

This applies to most thermal receipts – the shiny pieces of paper printed by card machines and receipt printers that don’t require ink.

Millions of trees are felled each year to feed our paper receipt habit – this results in deforestation and millions of tonnes of additional CO2 emissions, alongside huge oil and energy consumption required in the production of till rolls.

Digital receipts Millions of trees are felled each year to feed our paper receipt habit.

NOUMI is a game changer in the EPoS arena.

NOUMI’s Technical Development Team have been working hard since the company’s inception in 2019 to develop the perfect antidote to all this unnecessary waste; a digital receipt EPoS solution that delivers the customer’s receipt digitally at the point of sale directly to their mobile phone.

Knott says: “NOUMI is a game changer in the EPoS arena. The convenience of having all your receipts in one place on your digital device (typically your phone), is something we see as becoming the norm in the retail marketplace.”

It’s a no-brainer for the retailer too; deploying NOUMI devices across your EPoS estate reduces your company’s carbon footprint, and your PoS operating costs. NOUMI devices maximise our retail partners’ green credentials, particularly with till roll procurement costs currently rising at 25%-35% YoY in the marketplace.”

The system works by using NOUMI’s patented plug-andplay technology to decode the receipt and wirelessly send it to the NOUMI app user’s device, in an identical format to the printed paper equivalent. Receipts transacted on a NOUMI device

can also be used for processing refunds, QR codes and barcodes.

Future feature set releases will add NOUMI customer analytics, and the capability for NOUMI retailers to offer special offers, voucher promotions and more within the NOUMI app.

Knott says: “The application benefits are endless, and go far beyond the simple conversion of a receipt from paper to digital.

We see our NOUMI solution as becoming an essential marketing

tool for our customers.”

“For example, digital receipts generated with NOUMI can be exported to other apps such as XERO and SAGE – ideal for dealing with business expense tracking and management.”

“These are long overdue real world convenience benefits in the sector, where daily transaction counts are high, and the cost savings gained by deploying NOUMI in these environments can be huge.”

The application benefits are endless, and go far beyond the simple conversion of a receipt from paper to digital.

To find out more about NOUMI contact Terry Knott: 07716 092820 or terry.knott@arcproductsolutions.co.uk

The convenience of having all your receipts in one place on your digital device, is something we see as becoming the norm in the retail marketplace.

Retail Technology Innovation Hub · April- June 2022

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HOW DO CUSTOMERS BENEFIT FROM

dark stores?

RTIH takes a deep dive in to the booming dark stores space with Andrey Podgornov and Boris Shkolnikov, CEO and CTO respectively at QVALON.

RTIH: Is the retail sector’s current love of dark stores misguided or completely justified?

AP: It is completely justified, particularly over the last two years with the increase of online ordered merchandise. We have seen empty store fronts in New York City converted to fulfilment spaces.

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April- June 2022 · Retail Technology Innovation Hub

Depending on the size of the firm and resources, re-entering physical spaces also requires financial investment, staff and customer traffic. Not all are a given depending on the firm.

Dark stores are generally more affordable to manage than retail outlets because they don’t have aesthetics such as shop design and layout and visual merchandising.

There is clearly consolidation happening in the market.

QVALON

QVALON powers over 2,500 dark stores around the world.

RTIH: Could you tell us about QVALON’s work in this space? Why are retailers choosing to work with you on their dark stores?

By converting physical stores into dark stores, retailers are able to expedite order fulfilment and bring products closer to their target markets.

RTIH: How do you respond to the argument that retailers should view the use of dark stores as a short-term measure rather than a long-term solution to the core problem of e-grocery profitability?

AP and BS: In the current environment, it is a good option. By converting physical stores into dark stores, retailers are able to expedite order fulfilment and bring products closer to their target markets.

They are then able to appeal to a much larger customer base because their products are available 24/7 online. Of course, there are more options for those in close proximity, such as curb side pick-up, in-store pickup, and home delivery.

But remember in today’s landscape you need a combination of both over the longer term.

It is the job of every type of retail business, not only dark stores, to optimise inventory, increase storage capabilities and Click and Collect options. Grocery retailers can serve more customers while minimising stockouts.

Retail unit economics should be monitored and finely tuned. It is very difficult to label a company that burns money on customer acquisition and sells every $1 for $0.5 a sustainable and growing business. It is something else.

RTIH: How do customers benefit from dark stores?

BS: Bother reports that Brits will spend the equivalent of eight and a half months of their lives in supermarkets, despite it leaving them feeling bored and impatient.

Dark stores combine safety and convenience, allowing customers to get their hands on their goods in no time, without having to leave their homes and spending just over 37 minutes in stores each time.

Dark stores are definitely the perfect solution to combat the stress of any kind of grocery shopping, so people can Netflix and chill instead.

AP and BS: Dark stores have a number of critical KPIs like picking-per-item and click-to-delivery time.

Ultra-rapid delivery services like Jiffy and Gorillaz are counting every millisecond. All related business processes should go flawlessly and precisely.

QVALON has at its core a process mining tool and process automation tool. The mix of these two identifies outlier processes, quality issues, and provide analytics related to development areas of dark stores.

Transparency reduces the risk of human error in an organisation. Faster response time always helps a company’s bottom line. QVALON helps to eliminate noncompliance and guarantee high quality operations.

RTIH: Could you give an example of a retailer you’ve worked with?

AP: QVALON powers over 2,500 dark stores around the world.

Jiffy is a perfect example in the UK. In London, we have been working together for almost a year now.

RTIH: What are your predictions for the dark stores space in 2022 and beyond?

AP and BS: Getir acquires Weezy, Delivery Hero acquires Glovo, GoPuff acquires Dija.

There is clearly consolidation happening in the market and successful ultrafast delivery first movers are being picked up by publicly traded delivery companies and delivery unicorns.

This is the severe reality of how customer acquisition cost and negative unit economics exhaust the budgets of those who will evolve (e.g. FastAF does ultra-fast delivery of premium goods like Apple AirPods) or shut down (1520, Fridge No More, Buyk).

Unit economics is mandatory for monitoring and control. This is a highly competitive market and the future is bright for those who are fine tuning their business models and keeping an eye not only on their investors’ injections but also their bottom lines.

Further information on Qvalon can be found at: www.qvalon.com

Retail Technology Innovation Hub · April- June 2022

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We’ve imagined a shared virtual world integrated with a retail experience since 2015 where we shared our vision at a TedX event

Metaverse creates new opportunities for retailers leveraging 3D Beck Besecker, CEO and Co-Founder, Marxent, tells RTIH why his company has been at the cutting edge of the metaverse for over 10 years.

RTIH: Tell us about 3D Cloud by Marxent BB: 3D Cloud by Marxent is the leader in 3D content management and applications for the home vertical.

Our solutions include design and visualisation apps for kitchen, bath, decking, furniture, office and storage.

Our mission is to make it fast and easy for everyday shoppers to configure and purchase big-ticket, configurable categories online.

Notable clients include Kingfisher, John Lewis, Fletcher Building Products, Macy’s Lowe’s, and many more leading retailers and manufacturers.

Marxent is an innovator in the space introducing the ability for consumers to design in 3D directly from inspirational photos.

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April- June 2022 · Retail Technology Innovation Hub

RTIH: When did you first become interested in the metaverse and how did you become convinced that it’s the future of retail?

BB: We’ve imagined a shared virtual world integrated with a retail experience since 2015 where we shared our vision at a TedX event.

Marxent developed the first AR application for the App Store in 2011. We launched the first enterprise implementation of VR at Macy’s in 2018.

We’ve been on the cutting edge of the metaverse for over 10 years and believe that within the home category, we’re creating a platform that will make major contributions.

Interview RTIH: How quickly will shopping habits migrate to the metaverse?

BB: We’ve generated over $3 billion in 3D enabled sales through our applications already. The metaverse creates a world of new opportunities for retailers leveraging 3D. There are a lot of gimmicky campaign applications, like product launches in Roboxand Metaverse Fashion Week, or exclusive product launches tied to NFTs. We are more interested in sustainable 3D applications that deliver ROI for retailers now and that bridge virtual and real reality.

RTIH: How important is customisation/ personalisation and configuration to the metaverse and the future of retail?

BB: The great power of 3D is the ability for shoppers to customise and personalise.

Home categories are among the first categories to come into the metaverse precisely because they are configurable, high consideration categories that require design, personalisation, configuration, and visualisation.

RTIH: How does a retailer who needs results today, get ready for the metaverse?

RTIH: As the metaverse becomes more present in the life of consumers, how should brands be rethinking their approach to omnichannel?

BB: A 3D content management system is paramount.

This is the very first investment.

The second major investment is transitioning product catalogues and business rules into that 3D content management system.

BB: Many of these 3D experiences will live simultaneously in multiple channels. Access via a retailer or manufacturer website will continue. The next phase is to make them discoverable across the metaverse.

FURTHER INFORMATION ON MARXENT AT: WWW.MARXENTLABS.COM

Sustainable 3D applications that deliver ROI for retailers now and that bridge virtual and real reality.

Retail Technology Innovation Hub · April- June 2022

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One platform,

every 3D commerce journey.

Enterprise 3D for retailers.

30

November 2012 · CORP. Magazine

Top retailers around the globe are harnessing the power of 3D to drive sales.

They choose 3D Cloud™ by Marxent.

Contact us and get started today. www.marxent.com CORP. Magazine · November 2012

31

Modern commerce journeys How PMC’s Rapid Retail Development Platform and Dev Ops team transformed Crew’s in-store experience

As retail increasingly centres around a single view of the customer, dynamically unifying channels and experiences is fundamental to driving the success of the modern store.

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A

design led approach to adopting modern commerce does not have to rely on a single change program, nor a replacement of everything that already works.

The result is that retailers are increasingly adopting a blend of rapid development, integration and packaged software approaches to delivering rapid change.

Benefitting from a low cost of entry Cloud native architectures have fundamentally changed the pace of software delivery. Getting started on a modern commerce journey no longer requires a full ‘rip and replace’ of existing systems.

Increasing focus on a single view of the customer.

Modern stores

IT teams are utilising cloud native toolsets to get started. The relative cost of entry is low if you have the necessary retail skills. In addition to a lower run cost, scalability, flexibility, security and resilience are further benefits that cloud can offer.

What are retailers building in the cloud?

Common focus areas when adopting cloud and building microservices in foundation architectures alongside existing systems include capturing customers at the Point of Sale for loyalty; gift card and reward programmes; leveraging cloud services for customer data capture; or delivering bespoke user journeys and experiences either alongside - or instead of - current systems.

Delivering agility in-store

Retailers are increasingly adopting a blend of rapid development, integration and packaged software approaches to delivering rapid change.

Benefits of mobile are well understood in retail.

The benefits of mobile are well understood in retail. The ability to bring the transaction capture to the customer in many formats (tablet, kiosk, selfscan), allows retailers to drive more agility into their store.

This agility supports assisted selling, concierge services, appointments, queue busting and improving the interaction with customers. It also drives productivity and, if implemented well, can lower costs substantially.

Modern commerce architectures can further enhance mobility strategies in stores, as they lower the hardware burden and physical back end requirement in distributed estates.

This is where the financial benefits can really accelerate, as the total cost of operation can be designed to be far lighter on hardware inventory, logistics and maintenance.

Increasingly, retailers are adopting agile mobile development at the heart of their modern commerce strategies.

The relative cost of entry is low for technology teams that already have mobile development skills in house, or through their delivery partners.

Retail mobility solutions Common focus areas for retailers adopting in-store modern commerce platforms in place of, or alongside, existing systems include:

• Replicating basket functionality on mobile devices (tablets) and integrating back to incumbent EPoS and ERP systems.

• Extending basket functionality on customer mobile devices (self scanning) and integrating back to incumbent EPoS and ERP systems.

• Developing custom applications on mobile devices for other store functions, such as inventory, order/collect and personal shopping journeys.

• Recording and managing the transaction data securely for regulatory, taxation and compliance purposes (EU fiscal compliance).

• Using retail cloud-based integration services to rapidly deploy 3rd party cloud services.

Retail Technology Innovation Hub · April- June 2022

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Modern stores The Crew Clothing Company example Crew Clothing initially needed a new way to serve customers at pop-up stores, especially when this retail format became valuable during the pandemic, when many traditional stores were still closed or under-visited.

Prioritising rapid deployment, agility and ease-of-use, Crew was able to bypass the usual constraints associated with traditional retail architecture, and rip and replace by using a retail development platform and modern development capability to transform its in-store IT infrastructure.

The ease of scalability then allowed rapid deployment and continued organic growth – from pop-ups to Crew Clothing bricks and mortar stores. The first solution was delivered within 10 weeks of conception and was expanded to 100 stores within a month, bringing a fast, agile evolution of the in-store experience to the staff and customer.

Crew Clothing store staff have been highly engaged with the transformation programme, collaborating on new initiatives and suggesting improvements.

The mobile platform enables staff to work more efficiently and focus on delivering great customer experience.

The solution design and integration has been made exceptionally straightforward allowing for employees of any technical level to pick up and use the solution with minimal training.

The mobile sales solution now in Crew Clothing stores brings the transaction to the customer.

The platform’s intelligent orchestration means retail hierarchy, roles and access management are all brought to the edge on users’ tablets.

The mobile solution ensures an equally reliable offline experience, from realtime updates to transactions, order management, and other critical tasks, all of which can be constantly synced between user devices and, when possible, the central database.

Proactive monitoring and alerting functions ensure performance SLAs are tracked and met, while integrations with payment providers, hardware and additional applications ensure a great user experience.

About PMC PMC is the UK’s leading retail technology service provider with the experience, skillsets, and flexible teams to deliver Technology Transformation. To find out more visit: pmcretail.com/ retail-cloud-solutions/ Hear more about retail mobility and transforming the in-store experience at Retail Technology Show:

• • •

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Join Crew Clothing and PMC on Weds 27th, 10:50am, Theatre B Speak to PMC on the Star Micronics Stand, 6G10 The Crew Clothing mobile journey: https://bit.ly/3Lg1y42

April- June 2022 · Retail Technology Innovation Hub

Selecting the best operating model for delivery Retailers will adopt modern commerce approaches to store in many different forms. These will be unique to their goals and plans for delivering engaging, trusted, convenient and personalised experience for shoppers.

The key to getting started is typically to move quickly into a ‘trial and learn’ approach to proving the business benefits of concepts.

Getting access to your own cloud and microservices, or buying best of breed, can happen at pace and at relatively low cost with the help of the best vendor and service provider partners.

Crew Clothing store staff have been highly engaged with the transformation programme, collaborating on new initiatives and suggesting improvements.

COMING SOON The fourth edition of the RTIH Innovation Awards goes live in May The awards celebrate global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.

We received a record number of submissions in 2021, and winners included Metapack, Asda, Carrefour UAE, Situ Live, Starbucks, Oracle, Go Instore and Halla.

Winners and highly commended companies were announced on

Wednesday, 8th December at an exclusive roundtable discussion/networking event in central London.

For 2022, we will be introducing new categories, launching a print magazine and expanding the physical event in December, further details on which will be revealed in the near future.

Scott Thompson, Editor and Founder of RTIH, says: “Innovation and technology play a critical role in the success of the retail sector, so it is great to recognise standout examples through our awards.”

“Competition was tougher than ever in 2021, so to emerge victorious was no mean feat.”

“Congratulations to our winners and highly commended companies.”

“I can’t wait to launch the fourth edition of the awards.

The 2022 event will be the biggest and best yet.”

Further information on the 2022 RTIH Innovation Awards can be found at:

https://retailtechinnovationhub.com/rtih-innovation-awards

12

retail tech funding rounds you need to know about

RTIH rounds up the retail technology ventures who have been making waves with major investments, including Triple Whale, AiFi, Zapp, Serve Robotics, and RELEX Solutions.

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Amplience

Akeneo

E-commerce platform developer, Amplience, has bagged $100 million in a Series D funding round led by Farview Equity Partners and Sixth Street.

Existing investor Octopus Ventures also participated.

The round, which brings total investments in Amplience to $180 million, will be used for expansion in the US and globally, and to support development and roll-out of the venture’s Dynamic Commerce Experience offering.

Product experience management (PXM) and product information management (PIM) specialist, Akeneo, has secured $135 million in Series D financing.

The funding round was led by Summit Partners.

Existing investors Alven and Partech also participated, bringing Akeneo’s total investment raised to $196 million. The new capital will be used for an accelerated product development roadmap, key executive hires, and expansion of Akeneo’s strategic partnerships.

April- June 2022 · Retail Technology Innovation Hub

Nvidia is investing $10m in Uber spin off Serve Robotics.

AiFi has raised $65m in a Series B funding round.

funding rounds

AiFi Checkout-free technology startup AiFi has raised $65 million in a Series B funding round.

Qualcomm and Verizon Communications participated in the round through their venture arms.

Discounter Aldi, German supermarket chain REWE and Polish convenience giant Żabka Group also took part.

The round brings AiFi’s total funding to $80 million, with the cash primarily being used to expand its technical team.

fabric

Triple Whale

Zapp

fabric, a startup that provides a headless platform for e-commerce experiences, has closed a Series C funding round of $140 million led by Softbank Vision Fund 2, with participation from Forerunner Ventures, Glynn Capital and existing investors Redpoint Ventures, Norwest Ventures and Stripes.

This closely follows a Series B round and values fabric at approximately $1.5 billion.

Funds from the Series C will be utilised for accelerating product development largely through automation and intelligence, and geographic expansion.

Triple Whale, an analytics platform for Shopify brands, has raised $27.7 million in an extended Series A, the company’s first announced funding round since its foundation in May 2021.

This consists of a $24 million investment led by Elephant VC, alongside a previously undisclosed $2.7 million seed round led by NFX, and an additional $1 million raised with participation from individual investor Shaan Puri.

The cash is being used to expand the company’s development team and integrate additional components into its platform.

Rapid grocery delivery startup Zapp has raised $200 million in a Series B round of funding co-led

by Lightspeed, 468 Capital, and BroadLight Capital.

Atomico, Burda and Vorwerk Ventures - all previous backers also participated, alongside Lewis Hamilton, the Formula One champion (because he drives a fast car, alright?)

UK-based Zapp, which launched in 2020, has now raised $300 million in total.

It is currently live in London, Manchester, Cambridge, Bristol, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and is running a soft launch in Paris.

Veho Logistics tech company Veho has announced a $170 million Series B raise led by Tiger Global with participation from SoftBank Vision, at a $1.5+ billion valuation.

This closely follows the firm closing an oversubscribed Series A round at a $1 billion valuation, bringing it to $300 million of capital raised to date.

From a network of company operated warehouses, Veho facilitates next-day delivery for e-commerce brands.

Its technology powers a platform that matches demand for deliveries with crowdsourced drivers. These drivers collect packages from its warehouses and get them to consumers.

Veho is looking to grow its headcount from nearly 500 employees today to 2,000 by end of 2022, including hiring more than 150 additional software engineers, and also evaluate opportunities for strategic acquisitions.

Retail Technology Innovation Hub · April- June 2022

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funding rounds Serve Robotics

Sona

Chipmaking giant Nvidia is investing $10 million in Uber spin off Serve Robotics.

The startup will use the cash to expand its sidewalk delivery robot service outside Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The investment is part of a strategic technology collaboration that aims to further the development of autonomous robotics.

Workforce management software startup Sona has announced a $6.8 million seed round.

This was led by Google’s Gradient Ventures and comes just four months after the company’s pre-seed raise.

In six months, Sona has built and launched its platform to an early set of customers, covering over 10,000 deskless workers within the UK and Ireland.

The London-based venture has now raised an aggregate $9 million since August 2021.

It will use the investment to triple its team, with a particular focus on engineering and product development, and to continue its growth trajectory.

Swiftly US-based Swiftly, which provides digital loyalty technology to retailers, has announced a $100 million Series B funding round led by Wormhole Capital.

This also includes investment from Liquid2 Ventures, Bramalea, Gaingels, Silicon Ventures, Proof VC, Western Technology Investment, Sand Hill Angels and The Martin Family. The latest round of funding brings the company’s total investment to $120 million.

It will use the cash to add staff and resources across all company verticals, including engineering, sales, marketing, and customer onboarding.

It will also grow its product offering to serve more retailers, brands and their customers.

Swiftly’s tech is used by retailers like Family Dollar and The Save Mart Companies. In addition, 100+ of the top CPG brands advertise on its retail media platform.

Starship Technologies Autonomous delivery services specialist, Starship Technologies, has in recent months raised $100 million, including a new $42 million Series B funding round led by the Japanese-Nordic VC firm NordicNinja and Estonia’s Taavet+Sten.

The Series B cash will help Starship further scale its service and launch in new cities in North America and Europe, including university campuses in the US. An undisclosed amount of funding is also being donated directly to the Red Cross in Ukraine.

RELEX Solutions RELEX Solutions has announced a €500 million funding round led by funds managed by Blackstone Growth, Blackstone’s growth equity investing business.

This puts its valuation at €5 billion valuation.

The company, which previously raised over €200 million, is set to hire hundreds of developers and experts to grow its technical team that currently stands at over 400 people.

Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, RELEX Solutions employs over 1,300 people globally and has offices in the US, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Singapore, Australia, and Hong Kong.

Clients include Dollar Tree, M&S Food, Franprix, Morrisons, PetSmart, Sephora, and Rossmann.

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April- June 2022 · Retail Technology Innovation Hub

RELEX Solutions has announced a €500m funding round.

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Navigate your future success through tech and digital innovations: LEADERSHIP & CULTURE

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Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List interview

Brittain Ladd

As part of a series of interviews with those who made it on to the RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List, we discuss Amazon’s bricks and mortar strategy and why the metaverse is a game changer with Brittain Ladd, a former Amazon exec and supply chain consultant.

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RTIH: What does recognition as a retail tech influencer mean to you?

BL: It means that the hundreds of hours of research I perform annually has paid off.

It means that the articles I write contain content that people believe in, and my willingness to take a position on different topics has separated me from the crowd.

RTIH: Who have been the big retail winners and losers during the coronavirus outbreak?

BL: The losers are the retailers who were deemed nonessential, and who to this day, still have not realised that they must introduce automation in their stores to allow customers to place orders, and the automation will fulfil orders from the stores.

The winners were those retailers who put their focus on food and groceries, and who were able to ramp up operations to meet increased demand for home delivery and store pickup.

RTIH: What are your retail predictions for 2022 and beyond?

BL: Rapid grocery delivery (RGD) companies will have to eliminate their promise of deliveries in 10-15 minutes, and instead will have to extend deliveries to one to two hours.

In addition, RGD companies will have to increase the number of products they sell to consumers, and also embrace the use of technology to automate order fulfilment.

Grocery retailers will invest in micro-fulfilment.

Companies like Aldi and Lidl will slowly turn to automation. Carrefour and Tesco will also embrace more automation. Amazon will accelerate opening more Amazon Fresh stores.

Amazon will accelerate opening more Amazon Fresh stores.

Interview

Two words will drive retail in 2022 and beyond robotics and automation.

I anticipate that there will be significant M&A activity in retail in 2022. The biggest opportunity is for Ahold Delhaize and Albertsons to merge. I believe this is a must have for both retailers.

RTIH: What will be the must watch retail technologies over the next year?

BL: Micro-fulfilment, robotics, and Just Walk Out adoption across retail.

RTIH: Which technologies are overhyped in your opinion?

BL: Grocery smart carts. They’re too small. Parents can’t place a child in the carts, and the value they offer is limited.

Grocery retailers would be wise to adopt Just Walk Out technology over smart carts.

RTIH: Talking of Just Walk Out technology, do you see more retailers buying into the checkout-free stores space this year and beyond?

BL: Another big change that will occur in the grocery industry will be the adoption of more checkout-free stores leveraging a variety of technology partners that offer their version of Just Walk Out. Removing cashiers is absolutely one of the best ways to reduce costs in a grocery store and increase margins. Also, as Amazon expands its use of Just Walk Out technology, it truly does make other grocery retailers’ stores obsolete.

RTIH: What is your take on the metaverse and the retail space?

BL: In my opinion, the biggest game changer in the coming years will be the metaverse.

Far too many retailers are ignoring the buzz around the metaverse because they aren’t sure if it’s hype. It’s not.

There are billions of dollars being invested in the metaverse.

Retailers must have a strategy for ensuring that they’re able to leverage the technology to their advantage.

It is absolutely plausible that consumers will shop and buy groceries in the metaverse, and have the products they purchase delivered to their home. I believe it’s too risky for retailers to sit on the sidelines while the metaverse grows.

RTIH: Finally, what are your thoughts on Amazon closing all 68 of its physical book stores, pop up shops and 4-star locations in the United States and United Kingdom?

RGD companies will have to eliminate their promise of deliveries in 10-15 minutes, and instead extend deliveries to one to two hours.

BL: The brutal truth is that the stores Amazon closed weren’t able to generate enough interest from consumers to remain open.

Amazon’s own data clearly indicated that there was no strategic value in maintaining the stores or opening new ones. Any data Amazon wanted to collect on buying habits and product assortment was also collected. Personally, I was not impressed with any of the store formats being closed.

I’ve stated since 2013 that Amazon’s retail strategy will be focused on physical grocery stores they acquired (Whole Foods) or build (Amazon Fresh). They must operate 2,500 such stores at a minimum to be competitive.

I anticipate that Amazon will open their version of a department store that will include a combination of categories similar to Target.

In 2017, I recommended to Amazon to acquire Target. They should have done so. They will continue to experiment with retail.

It plans in terms of a decade. If they can’t make their grocery retail strategy work as desired, Amazon will divest Whole Foods, and shut down Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go. I don’t anticipate this happening but it is a possibility.

Check out the RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List in full at: www.retailtechinnovationhub.com

Retail Technology Innovation Hub · April- June 2022

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Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List interview

Martin Newman

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April- June 2022 · Retail Technology Innovation Hub

Customer service is a hugely fragmented and frustrating experience for consumers, which is why many now go straight onto Twitter to complain and get a reaction.

Interview

As part of a series of interviews with those who made it on to the RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List, we discuss retail’s Covid-19 game of two halves and why customer service is broken with Martin Newman, Founder, The Customer First Group.

RTIH: Congratulations on making it on to the RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List. What does recognition as a retail tech influencer mean to you?

MN: First, it’s very humbling when others deem you worthy of being included on a list of influencers within your industry. It’s certainly not something I ever take for granted.

So, thank you to RTIH for including me. It’s important to me to be included on the list on a few levels; It creates credibility and reinforces my insight and what I have to share with my network and businesses I engage with.

To some extent, once you’ve been included on a list there is an onus to ensure you’re included in the future and therefore you need to work hard to stay on top of technology and how it’s evolving.

And ensure you’re able to impart relevant and timely feedback to customers and the market in general on the role you see technology playing in the short and long-term.

RTIH: Who have been the big retail winners and losers during the coronavirus outbreak?

MN: To borrow a football pun, it’s really been a game of two halves.

For the first year and half and during the lengthy periods of lockdown, multi-channel retailers in the main struggled as they had to close their stores.

Albeit many were able to pivot to offering customers kerbside pick-up and found ways of leveraging their stores as fulfilment centres. To offset the loss of demand in-store, along with the pureplay businesses, they saw a huge spike in online demand.

However, not all businesses were geared up to take full advantage of this. Either because they didn’t have the logistics and supply chain geared up for this or because they didn’t have the right skills and organisational structure to maximise the opportunity.

The pureplays performed well as they didn’t have to worry about lost demand from stores being closed and the cost of running a store business.

However, when everything opened again in earnest in July 2021, the multi-channel retailers started to claw back sales and profitability as consumers made their return to the physical retail environment in part to enjoy the newfound freedom this offered them.

RTIH: What are your retail predictions for 2022 and beyond?

MN: With all the turmoil in the world right now from the conflict in Ukraine to the rising energy costs and increased cost of living we’ve been experiencing, 2022 and 2023 will be challenging years for retailers as consumers tighten their belts.

From a technology perspective, retailers will continue to join up the channels. As they seek to deliver the seamless experience consumers demand and enjoy the benefits of doing so, from ensuring their stock can meet demand wherever it takes place and maximising availability, to having a single view of the customer where they can begin to move from a focus on the here and now to building lasting and meaningful customer lifetime value delivered through a more seamless and personalised customer experience.

Of course, I’d add to this the opportunity that experiential retail has to offer both on and offline. The former driven by the metaverse, and the latter driven by better use of digital technology to empower and engage consumers.

As with all new technology led experiences, the metaverse will take time to reach its potential as we move from where we are now with a small number of brands creating experiences for consumers who are early adopters to the early and late majority getting involved.

RTIH: What will be the must watch retail technologies over the next year?

MN: We will see the continuation of show casting/ showrooming and leveraging both the physical retail environment and the staff within it to deliver more engaging

Retail Technology Innovation Hub · April- June 2022

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Interview digital and online sales experiences for customers.

The metaverse will gradually evolve with the advent of many new online environments for consumers to engage.

Marketplaces will continue to dominate and take more share of the consumers spend. From Amazon to eBay and TMall to the plethora of re-loved and vintage platforms such as Vestiare Collective.

Social commerce will also continue to be a key channel to market capturing consumer demand while they’re in a more amenable and social frame of mind as they engage on social media platforms.

For transparency, I have a customer service platform.

But I genuinely believe this is one of the next areas for disruption. Because customer service is broken.

It’s a hugely fragmented and frustrating experience for consumers, which is why many now go straight onto twitter to complain and get a reaction. Why would any business be happy with customers doing this and telling many thousands of other potential customers of their bad experience?

RTIH: Which technologies are overhyped in your opinion?

MN: The metaverse is over-hyped in terms of the impact it will have in the next year or two. However, we most likely under-estimate its impact in the long run.

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April- June 2022 · Retail Technology Innovation Hub

Think driverless vehicles. We’ve been hearing about them for six to seven years at least and despite the hype, there are currently none on the road in the UK. Albeit they’re coming!

I’ve always felt that apps are over-hyped. In the context that not every brand or retailer’s proposition lends itself to having an app.

We’ve only got so much room on our phones and ability to engage with a finite number of apps. What’s more important is to think through how you can drive up ROI – return on customer involvement.

An app is not necessarily going to move the needle on that. It very much depends upon what you sell and the likely customer engagement frequency.

Previously I would have added QR codes to this list. But as engagement has soared as a result of Covid vaccines et al, we might be getting to a point where they’ll play a more active role in engaging consumers.

Chatbots – They absolutely do my head in and do not deliver the experience customers require when it comes to sales, produce advice or customer service. They simply get in the way and frustrate as they are unable to deal with any real degree of nuance.

Check out the RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List in full at: www.retailtechinnovationhub.com

Interview

Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List interview

Nikki Baird

As part of a series of interviews with those who made it on to the RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List, we discuss must watch tech and Covid-19 winners and losers with Nikki Baird, VP of Strategy at Aptos.

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April- June 2022 · Retail Technology Innovation Hub

The speed of the consumer will be the primary driver of retail strategy for the foreseeable future.

Interview

RTIH: Congratulations on making it on to the RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List. What does recognition as a retail tech influencer mean to you?

NB: That I’m getting something right! Everyone seeks validation that they are tracking the right events and interpreting those events the right way.

It always helps to triangulate across multiple points of view – and it helps to have a guide to which points of view are resonating right now.

RTIH: Who have been the big retail winners and losers during the coronavirus outbreak?

NB: Well, essential retailers were definitely the big winners, but I would also say any retailers who were prepared to pivot quickly to omnichannel succeeded at a greater pace than their peers – retailers who could reach every piece of inventory in their network.

These companies were able to weather all the ups and downs, openings and closings, and waves and surges during the pandemic.

They were able to do this as they were better positioned to continue capturing demand while redirecting it to wherever they happened to have supply that could be open and available.

RTIH: What are your retail predictions for 2022 & beyond?

NB: I think the speed of the consumer is going to continue to be the primary driver of retail strategy for the foreseeable future.

Everyone has been talking about whether customers want convenience and frictionless commerce or whether they want personalised, curated experiences; the reality for retailers is consumers are going to want both.

And it’s going to be up to the retailer to figure out which one the customer wants in any given instance, knowing that the same consumer might want frictionless one time and curated the next time – maybe even for the same category of goods.

Retailers don’t have control over the channels consumers use to engage with them – consumers have that control. The more that retailers can create both the customer insights and the flexibility to respond (to what those insights indicate the experience should be), the more successful the retailer will be.

seeking to implement now – and I do always look at it first through the lens of the store.

As far as implementing now, we’re seeing a lot of emphasis still on shoring up pandemic investments, like expanding omnichannel use cases, contactless/alternate payments like buy now pay later, etc.

The challenge is that anything that requires a device in a store is problematic right now. The supply chain for tech is still highly constrained and that slows down how fast retailers can move.

As far as the next big thing, I know we’ve made a lot of runs at digitising the store and bridging digital and physical (I see a lot of ‘phygital’ lately).

I don’t think we really have a solid grasp of what those things mean, but we’re going to figure that out in the next year or two, and it will define the store investment strategy for many years to come after that.

RTIH: Which technologies are overhyped in your opinion?

NB: Livestreaming. I mean, it’s cool, it’s interesting, it definitely has its place in selling channels. But it’s not going to turn every store into a streaming studio and every store associate into a social media influencer.

And the metaverse. Again, it’s generating a lot of creativity in thinking, but it has a long way to go before it’s ubiquitous.

If you compare where we are in retail maturity of the metaverse vs. its equivalent from e-commerce, we’re in like 1997, when every retailer realised they needed a .com URL. The metaverse is not open – what you buy in one world is not easily portable to another. And in meta’s version, people don’t even have feet – so how are you going to wear those Nike NFT shoes you just bought?

Check out the RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List in full at www.retailtechinnovationhub.com

RTIH: What will be the must watch retail technologies over the next year?

NB: Well, there are the technologies that everyone is talking about and are on the cusp of being “the next big thing” and there are the technologies that retailers are The metaverse is generating a lot of creativity in thinking, but it has a long way to go before it’s ubiquitous

Retail Technology Innovation Hub · April- June 2022

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50

brightpearl

lightning

celebrates hottest online retailers Entries are now open for the Lightning 50, a list of the fastest growing e-commerce companies in the UK and US.

B

rightpearl, which provides retail operations solutions for the likes of Puma, Holland Cooper and Shopify, is launching the search to celebrate e-tailers which have grown the most during the past 12 months.

Companies are being invited to register to be in for a chance of inclusion in the final list. They can do so at www. brightpearl.com/lightning-50, with entries closing on 12th August.

Swansea-based premium drink brand, Au Vodka, was revealed as the UK’s fastest growing online brand in the 2021 edition of the league table.

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In terms of the sectors which appeared most in last year’s list, fashion and footwear and homewares were on top, with each category recording a total of nine brands in the top 50 (36%).

Delving further into the data, Brightpearl discovered that the South West is a booming region for e-commerce.

This area had the greatest proportion of brands represented in the list with 18% of the fastest growing e-commerce brands based there, including Furniturebox, Holland Cooper and Truffle Shuffle.

The Lightning 50 researchers tracked growth rates for

Brightpearl Lightning 50 The 2021 Lightning 50 top ten included CyberJammies.

It’s truly the hyperscalable era of e-commerce.

hundreds of companies across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The combined revenue across the Lightning 50 over the past year saw UK brands earn more than £340 million, with the average growth rate for online retailers at 518%.

This year alone, online retailers have been seeing year-onyear sales increases of upwards of 700%, according to internal research from Brightpearl’s 3,000 strong customer base.

“It’s truly the hyper-scalable era of e-commerce – our data shows many online retailers reporting incredible growth rates and having huge success over the past 12 months,” says Brightpearl CMO Sara Arthrell.

“There has been a big shift to online shopping since the onset of the pandemic, and online deliveries have been one of the consistent highlights for people, even as Covid restrictions have ebbed and flowed.”

“We want to use the Lightning 50 to celebrate and shine a light on some of the incredible work online firms have been doing throughout the pandemic.”

She adds: “The Lightning 50 only takes into account one metric when scoring businesses – growth. We encourage any high growth brand to enter so they can get the recognition they deserve.”

Jordan Major, Head of E-Commerce, Au Vodka, says: “Winning the Lightning 50 has given us the chance to step back for a brief moment and see that we’ve achieved something that’s pretty awesome.”

“Finding out we had made it onto the list was a huge moment for us — we were so excited and proud,” adds Hubert Kosc, Managing Director at Arthauss, a furniture brand which ranked 42 on last year’s Lightning 50.

“My mum, who co-founded the business, was almost in tears when I told her — tears of joy, that is. Featuring in the Lightning 50 has been the ultimate reward after years of hard work.”

To compile the Lightning 50 2021, Brightpearl asked brands to submit full annual growth figures for 2019 to 2020, with each one ranked solely on its net growth percentage during that time frame.

The 2021 Lightning 50 top ten, and the recorded growth for each were:

1

Au Vodka - 10,170%

2

Powerhoop - 2,960%

3

Jericho Coffee Traders - 683%

4

Candy Kittens - 608%

5

The Sardar Co - 503%

6

Olivia’s - 500%

7

Maplin - 495%

8

IndeJuice Limited - 488%

9

Tradeprices Bathrooms - 423%

10

CyberJammies - 372%

Retail Technology Innovation Hub · April- June 2022

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Comment

Belly buttons and the pursuit of better customer experiences Most of us don’t really spend much time exploring our belly buttons.

Not until they do something extraordinary, which is rare.

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April- June 2022 · Retail Technology Innovation Hub

Comment

M It always surprises me that possibly the favourite pastime of organisations is to use customer analytics to stare intently at their own belly button.

ine has herniated, which is horrible, and I hope you weren’t eating your lunch. But it’s meant that for a short while I was very engaged with my belly button and took it, along with the rest of me, to the doctors. Who told me it was fine and stop being so dramatic. Now I’ve forgotten about my belly button again.

Because, as I say, belly buttons are quite ordinary and only really need paying attention to when they need fixing.

So it always surprises me that possibly the favourite pastime of organisations is to use customer analytics to stare intently at their own belly button.

‘Look!’ they exclaim! ‘Our belly button is nice and round, that must mean it’s a really good belly button.’ Everyone in the business says ‘good job’ and maybe the CEO brings in a cake.

A proper customer analytics tool would be the equivalent of the Big Book of British Belly Buttons – a comparative set of observed belly buttons against which an organisation could compare their own belly button.

‘Oh look, ours is actually pretty ugly now that I see all these other much nicer ones.

Maybe we should work out what makes those nicer and apply some of that insight to our own belly button?’

It’s the equivalent of me only ever judging my performance as a runner by my personal best.

I can run a 5,000m race in five days. If I train really hard and

fuel up beforehand on enough Chicken Jalfrezi, maybe one day I’ll do it in four days.

And then won’t my family be proud of me. Possibly they will, but it turns out Mo Farah runs the same distance in just under 13 minutes, and I look like the sluggish fat bastard that I am.

Are you tall?

Everyone has an instant answer to that question. Yes. No. Average.

How do you know? Because you’ve seen other people in the world. You’ve been able to compare yourself directly to them using exactly the same visual dataset.

The customer analytics we’ve relied on since Charles I’s executioner walked away chuffed to bits that his customer had given him great pre-lop feedback, however, doesn’t do that.

Instead of the Big Book of British Belly Buttons, or a comparison of our performance to Mo Farah, or from comparing ourselves directly to the alternatives; what the vast bulk of customer analytics boils down to asking customers what they thought of our belly button.

It’s a seven out of ten belly button.

‘I am fine with your belly button; though I wish it was cheaper and that I could have a choice of seven belly buttons please.’

‘This belly button is a disgrace, though I have never actually shopped in your belly button, nor do I actually understand what a belly button is.’

Now, there’s often a lot of clever dressing around that, the Net Promoter System (NPS) is a good example and does indeed generate a number that an organisation can rally around.

That’s despite its inventor, Fred Reicheld once describing a leading problem with NPS as operators creating ‘cancerous’ installations of his pride and joy.

And, of course, customers like to be heard, they like that you give them a voice; even if that voice is used to tell you idiotic accidental lies 50% of the time, and even if it were only 10% of the time, you don’t know which bits are idiotic accidental lies and so your entire data set is factually junk.

We have to move from this belly button gazing compulsion if we are truly to lead our businesses to provide better customer experiences.

Customers like to be heard, they like that you give them a voice; even if that voice is used to tell you idiotic accidental lies 50% of the time, and even if it were only 10% of the time, you don’t know which bits are idiotic accidental lies and so your entire data set is factually junk.

Retail Technology Innovation Hub · April- June 2022

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Comment

Because ‘better’ is ALWAYS a comparative state that cannot be ‘better than we did it before’ but that must be ‘better than the alternatives within my competitive set.’

There must be a movement towards instead measuring relative attractiveness. Can our experience be ugly as all heck and still be relatively more attractive than those of the leaders in our sector?

Or must I make something kind of beautiful? And what does beauty mean anyway? I must also understand what my customers think of as beautiful.

Even more, what do they think as beautiful given the job they are trying to do?

Which parts of my experience

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should be beautiful? Can some parts be ugly and others beautiful if only I can work out which? Yes. Yes that can be like this across a customer journey.

How? You can do this only if you have first gathered equal and identical data on both your experience and everyone else’s with whom you compete.

Not the current status quo in which we gather deep data on ourselves, but only shallow data on others, or even no data on others at all.

Only with identically captured and analysed data sets on all the competing experiences can you determine which is relatively more attractive and why, and then do something to change it.

April- June 2022 · Retail Technology Innovation Hub

In the current status quo we gather deep data on ourselves, but only shallow data on others, or even no data on others at all.

If you want to be relatively more attractive, it helps to stick the botox in the right part of your face, rather than randomly jab at yourself all over at many times the cost and in hope that you will avoid severing a nerve.

About the author: Richard Hammond is CEO and Co-Founder of Uncrowd. He is also the originator of Relative Attractiveness theory (RA), and author of both Friction/Reward and Smart Retail.

We have to move from belly button gazing compulsion if we are truly to lead our businesses to provide better customer experiences.

Comment

Is the war between online and offline over?

And now, is the distinction between transactional retailers and experiential?

Situ Live is almost experiential overload, a sensory and emotional extravaganza designed to appeal directly to the core of the hedonic shopper.

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O

ver the last few years, there has been a tendency to see retail in terms of two distinct camps, online and offline.

With the prevalence now of rapid delivery solutions for convenience retailers, the simplicity and availability of e-commerce solutions and the

April- June 2022 · Retail Technology Innovation Hub

growth of the contactless store, the reality is that the separation of online and offline is over.

There is simply hybrid retail, the ability to choose, as a consumer whether I want to order any product in any way I wish. All retailers can be online, or mobile, or social – we have reached the stage where retailers can be truly channel agnostic.

The last mile options are vast, and headless commerce combined with microservice based architectures mean that the same options, the same ranges can be available instantly on whatever channel you choose.

The key differentiator in retail now is how you view the interaction with your customer,

Comment regardless of channel, are you a transactional or an experiential retailer?

Fundamentally there are two types of customer: the utilitarian or mission orientated customer and the hedonic.

The utilitarian customer is task focused, looking for a retail experience that elevates simplicity, convenience and generally value. They are transactional. They have a need and want to take care of that need quickly and efficiently, and with as little effort as possible.

As in everything there are degrees of utilitarianism. For some convenience trumps all – look at the price differentials between the large superstore’s convenience offering and their full superstore offering – whilst for others they have a price focus as well, but ultimately for such customers “efficiency can be

understood as the optimal ratio between the output, i.e. purchase the right product or service at the right price, and input, i.e. shopping efforts or use of resources (e.g. time, means of transport)”.

For this consumer, and to this type of retailer, great customer service is to deliver the product in as efficient and seamless a manner as possible. At the right price point.

Hedonic customers on the other hand are far more intrinsically focused. Where the utilitarian consumer is focused on the outcome of the retail experience and getting there as quickly as possible, the hedonic customer is more interested in the retail experience itself.

They are looking for pleasure, for fun from the experience of shopping. They are looking to explore, they want an emotional connection to the shopping

Primark are a great example of a transactional retailer. You may not know exactly what kind of tee shirt you want, but you’re pretty sure you’ll get what you want there, with as little fuss as possible.

experience. This is not only a human connection, although in offline retail a human connection will enhance the emotional connection.

In their 2003 paper, Hedonic shopping motivations, Mark Arnold and Kristy Reynolds argue that there are six categories of hedonic shopping:

• • • • • •

Adventure shopping for stimulation and excitement Gratification shopping to enhance mood Social shopping to experience pleasure from interacting with others Idea shopping to stay current with trends Role shopping to gain pleasure from buying for others Value shopping to gain pleasure from finding deals (though not necessarily acting on them)

Retail Technology Innovation Hub · April- June 2022

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Comment

Primark are a great example of a transactional retailer. You may not know exactly what kind of tee shirt you want, but you’re pretty sure you’ll get what you want there, with as little fuss as possible.

Of course, people do want an uplifting experience, to have some fun browsing whilst there, hence why Primark stores themselves are beautiful places, but the focus is on efficient, convenient shopping. Online, Amazon are the epitome of a transactional retailer.

Similarly with the launch of Amazon Shop and Go, as well as any other number of such stores, convenience stores are becoming far more frictionless with more options for either Click and Collect, in-store purchase or delivery.

Again, there is an element of experientiality in the Amazon model. Online there is the instant thrill of “fantasy browsing” but the focus is on making the ability to buy your car oil or ball pump as quick as possible. This also goes some way to explaining the launch and instant demise of the 4-star store.

On the other side, for the hedonic consumer, less focused on a single transactional outcome but more looking for inspiration, for an experience, to be shown, to be wowed.

The experiential shopper will still want an experience as frictionless as possible, but that doesn’t mean it has to be fast. Indeed, if you get the experience right, the

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experiential shopper will linger, will relish interacting with product, with the in-store team.

An example of this is the Situ Live brand. This is a location where you can browse, handle and experience a wide range of products, including cars.

The whole premise is almost experiential overload, a sensory and emotional extravaganza designed to appeal directly to the core of the hedonic shopper.

Similarly, the likes of Nike, JD Sport etc are creating play areas within store, where products can be used as they are meant to be. Book stores have always been welcoming, but as part of the fight back against Amazon and e-readers they are becoming places not just to browse books, but to enjoy and explore.

Online the hype of the metaverse maybe overblown today, but AR/VR and videobased retail offer a way of emulating the human interaction and satisfy the emotional impulses of the hedonic shopper.

What may this mean for your IT strategy?

For a start deciding on where, as a retailer, you fit in the transactional/experiential range will indicate where you need to focus.

More transactional? Look to implement a fast, seamless customer experience, contactless checkout, mobile browsing and purchasing.

Limited interaction in-store.

Store staff are there to facilitate the efficient delivery of the transaction.

April- June 2022 · Retail Technology Innovation Hub

You still need to know and understand the customer, to be able to provide personalised offerings, but these should be at the Point of Sale or as they add products to their app. Again, the key word is seamless.

If you are more experiential, your strategy across all elements of retail needs to be to focus on the customer’s emotional and mood enhancing needs.

Where possible still look to make appropriate elements seamless (contactless checkout etc) but empower the in-store teams with instant clientelling capabilities to allow them to engage in a truly personal manner with the customer(s).

In-store VR can allow the customer to access a much larger range of product and experience them almost live. Magic mirrors can allow fashion customers to accessorise as much as they want, allowing them to pick a core outfit or item and then add as many additional, matching products as required.

AI driven live merchandising can suggest items that would suit the selected products. For the retailer there is an inbuild upsell and cross sell capability.

For the consumer there is the joy in discovery and gratification from exploring many of the hedonic motivations.

About the author: Mike Cadden is an experienced retail IT director and CIO with 25 years’ experience running technology teams and strategic delivery for many leading UK and international retailers.

Fundamentally there are two types of customer: the utilitarian or mission orientated customer and the hedonic.

Comment

Did Metaverse Fashion Week

give us a glimpse of retail’s future? Potentially You may have heard that a fashion week took place recently. But not in one of Europe’s major cities. And instead of a backdrop of the Louvre, it was a canvas of pixels and futuristic architecture.

F

or Decentraland was hosting the inaugural Metaverse Fashion Week which meant that many retailers and brands were dipping their toes into the meta water for the first time.

Not everything was perfect by any means, but there were

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some cool sights on display, and this could be the start of something really exciting for the retail industry.

Digital retail theatre One of the best received events was the Dolce & Gabbana x UNXD Catwalk Show. Despite

other shows feeling “dead”, there was a buzz around this one and the brand took the opportunity to put on a real show.

They also understood that the metaverse isn’t about recreating real life but about pushing boundaries and being creative. For them, this meant

Comment The question for those retailers who participated will be what value they derived from the event.

Headliners Selfridges and recent tenant of Decentraland created an interactive experience featuring the Paco Rabanne + Victor Vasarely collection as NFTs.

It is clear that we are on the cusp of something that is potentially very exciting.

digital models as cat avatars, leaving the catwalk and flying above our heads.

We also had an exclusive look at 20 digital wearables exclusivity being a theme that ran throughout the week.

Meanwhile, headliners Selfridges and recent tenant of Decentraland, created an interactive experience featuring the Paco Rabanne+Victor Vasarely collection as nonfungible tokens (NFTs).

The retailer offered a digital recreation of its Birmingham store that served as a gallery and introduction to NFTs. Familiar surroundings for those who have visited it in the real world to ease them in perhaps?

It felt quieter than the real thing. Perhaps a lasting investment is needed from the retailer to really make an impact in the metaverse.

Tommy Hilfiger, on the other hand, went for a ‘phygital’ approach. The brand showcased its Spring 2022 collection

virtually, followed by opening up its digital store so that shoppers could buy NFTs connected to the label.

They could then redeem these NFTs for their physical counterparts. While the metaverse is still in its infancy, retailers should consider this cross-over with the physical in order to attract their more “traditional” customers into this new, digital world.

What this means for retailers If retailers are to attract their existing customers to a new space, then perhaps Dentraland won’t be the platform to do it.

Feedback on the experience has been mixed.

We saw instances of people asking if shows had started (in fact they had finished!) and avatars wandering aimlessly or running into ‘solid’ digital walls.

We even saw one run off into a forest to never be seen again. A reporter for a British

tabloid described how her avatar effectively drowned in her first adventure into the metaverse.

Not a great welcome.

However, while the graphics feel outdated, the very fact that you can access such platforms through your desktop is a great leveller. And the space will improve as more people get involved.

The question for those retailers who participated will be what value they derived from the event. Is it a case of drawing in new customers and if so, how will they measure success?

Attendees, post-event sales, social media discussions?

And what about data collection? Visitors have to link their digital wallets to the Decentraland platform in order to enter. Those wallets register activity such as purchases and attendance at specific events and therefore point to a rich seam of customer data to be mined in the future.

It is clear that we are on the cusp of something that is potentially very exciting. ‘Web3’ fashion and retail may still be in their infancy, but knowing how fast digital trends can catch on, it wouldn’t be surprising to see some of this metaverse experimentation cross over into the real world.

This is a huge new creative outlet for retailers and it’s up to them to create the next groundbreaking experience.

About the author: Max Vedel is Co-founder and Creative Director at Swipe Back.

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Comment

Retail ubiquity How to approach marketplace selling

“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is a saying we’ve all heard at one point or another in our lives.

I

t’s one that rings true particularly for businesses that have tried to weather the various lockdown measures of the last two years.

The dramatic shift in shopping habits has led consumers increasingly to shop online, and highlighted the importance of engaging multiple channels to be successful in retail in this era.

It’s simple to reason that by expanding the channels retailers sell across, the greater opportunities there are to generate sales and boost overall revenue.

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Channel diversity will allow retailers to constantly assess customer needs and how they can address them.

There are countless ways to target customers and though marketplace selling is arguably the most efficient and effective way to increase online sales, retailers need to consider how it sits within a wider omnichannel growth strategy and, most importantly, compliments other channels to ensure an experience that is truly customer-centric.

How to choose the right marketplace By this I don’t mean a wild west approach but building broader reach into your GTM strategy is a must. Consumers now seek out online channels to buy through, and marketplaces have undoubtedly become the focal point in their quest for shopping convenience.

The retail landscape is evolving at a rate of knots and whilst technology provides greater opportunity and convenience for sellers to establish an online presence, it can be daunting and complicated to decide on which of the various platforms and channels to prioritise.

Choosing the best marketplace involves weighing up each platform’s requirements, product categories, and audiences all at once.

The first step for any merchant is to conduct a little research to compare and contrast existing product lines across each marketplace and identify the platforms that would be a natural fit.

A seller needs to be aware of a marketplace’s core values and ethos towards the sector to get a true picture of how they operate.

Retailers should watch out for the big industry players like Amazon that

Comment Ultimately, omnichannel selling provides retailers with the opportunity to connect with more consumers and drive sales. The challenge for retailers is achieving the ideal balance. are known for monitoring how vendors are performing and using this insight to release their own product lines to compete with them. They have also been found to utilise their ownership of the platform to promote these products ahead of the rest.

Another important deciding factor should be fee structure. Retailers can often feel the squeeze on margins when they sell online, so it’s important to choose a marketplace that provides an opportunity to sell to a wide range of consumers without eating too far into profit margins.

Lastly, as consumers are becoming increasingly purpose-driven, retailers should seek partners whose values reflect those of their target audience. As businesses come under greater scrutiny over things like malpractice and their impact on the wider world, consumers are looking to engage with companies that fulfil their purchase needs but also have a positive impact on society.

Therefore, selling products through

platforms that have a good reputation will go a long way to increasing brand visibility.

Leverage data to inform online and offline selling For any retailer, it’s vital to learn as much as possible about their customer base.

Selling products through online channels can not only help retailers reach a larger audience but can also provide a wealth of data insights on customer shopping habits that can be employed across all channels, including in-store.

Finding the answers to questions like, ‘where do customers prefer to shop?’ and ‘how do they want to be interacted with?’ can give sellers the edge over competitors by allowing them to create tailored omnichannel shopping experiences.

It goes both ways as important insights can be gleaned from the way consumers behave in-store. The key takeaway here is that retailers that operate both in-store and online need to gather insights and act on them to join up channels so the consumer enjoys

the same experience of the whole brand whether they shop online or head to the high street.

Price wars With the rising cost of living, consumers are becoming ever more price sensitive and will be researching various channels to compare prices before making the final purchase.

According to a survey commissioned

by ZonBase, nine out of ten shoppers go to marketplaces to compare prices and platforms like Google Shopping make it very easy for consumers to find what they’re looking for at the best possible price.

Establishing a presence across multiple online channels can help safeguard against lost sales by making you more discoverable in consumer searches.

Key takeaways Ultimately, omnichannel selling provides retailers with the opportunity to connect with more consumers and drive sales.

The challenge for retailers is achieving the ideal balance.

Physical stores can always add gravitas to a brand’s voice and provide an environment for unique experiences in a way that online selling can’t but in the post-Covid retail landscape, it is vital that any bricks and mortar retailer complements their stores with a range of digital touchpoints.

Channel diversity will allow retailers to constantly assess customer needs and how they can address them. An innovative, omnichannel approach could be just the answer they’re looking for to provide true customer-centricity and create sustainable long-term growth.

About the author: Mark Lister is CCO at UK online marketplace OnBuy. Retailers should watch out for big industry players like Amazon that are known for monitoring how vendors are performing and using this insight to release their own product lines to compete with them.

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Checkout-free stores are the embodiment of putting the customer first

5

QUESTIONS FOR

Christine Russo RTIH asks major players in the retail technology space for their thoughts on the sector, and throws in a random question to keep them on their toes. This time around, our five questions go to leading industry analyst and RTIH Innovation Awards judge Christine Russo.

RTIH: Looking at the hottest retail technologies right now, check-out free stores, rapid delivery services, the metaverse and NFTs, automation and robotics, blockchain and cryptocurrencies, which ones stand out to you, and for what reason?

RTIH: What are the top five retail tech Twitter/LinkedIn accounts you can’t do without, and why?

CR: Those that put the customer at the centre are the hottest. Check-out free stores and the metaverse.

I like a mix of innovation updates, opinion and concise news updates.

Checkout-free stores are the embodiment of putting the customer first. It’s important for bricks and mortar retailers to emulate a frictionless online experience.

You can’t have a true omnichannel strategy when the customer pulls out their wallet at checkout, searches for a payment card and so on.

Customers like being put at the centre of the shopping experience.

The metaverse is creator owned. It sits on top of billions of gamers and has huge potential. It is gaming 2.0.

RTIH: Which retail technology trend is overrated in your opinion?

CR: Artificial intelligence - just kidding! AI is just getting started and woven into nearly all major tech solutions.

Overrated, hmmm, hard to answer because that might send the wrong message and one that is a big contributor to risk aversion.

Some retailers think technology solutions can a fad and will go out of trend. We do not want to encourage sitting on the sidelines and avoiding technology adoption.

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CR: Retail Technology Innovation Hub, Retail Wire, EU Startups, Rethink Retail, and ChainStore Age.

RTIH: If you could have a dinner party with any five retail pioneers, dead or alive, who would they be and why?

CR: Michelle Gass (CEO Kohl’s), Rosalind Brewer (CEO Walgreens Boots Alliance), Karen Lynch (CEO, CVS), Mary Dillon (former CEO Ulta Beauty), and Corie Barry (CEO Best Buy).

Women who are holding C-suite positions. It would be great to talk with them about their journeys and successes and what they can share with the next generation.

The ultimate aim would be more women becoming CEOs.

RTIH: Which movie character would you want to be and why?

CR: Anyone who follows me knows my go to is Lord of the Rings, so I’m going with Galadriel who said, “even the smallest person can change the course of the future”.

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November 2012 · CORP. Magazine