Retail tech companies to watch out for in 2019

With 2018 (hopefully) seeing the end of the so-called “retail apocalypse,” 2019 is set to be the year of retail reinvention.

Amazon is challenging the entire industry as it reportedly looks to open 3,000 Amazon Go stores in three years, meaning that physical retail will push ahead in technology integration and innovation with cashier-less stores, mobile payments, robotics and digital integration.

Here are five other tech companies that will be leading the retail reinvention charge in 2019.

Hero Digital
- Hero Digital is a customer experience agency with clients such as Salesforce, Nordstrom and Sephora. It was recently ranked number 242 on the 2018 Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies list, as well as one of the Top San Francisco Companies. The company has also seen significant growth, with its recent acquisition of Clock Four and new hire Nick Gerostathos as Hero Digital’s CFO.
PERCH Interactive
- PERCH is an in-store mixed reality marketing platform that automatically detects what products customers are picking up and delivers an immersive, interactive experience. Leading brands and retailers, including Sephora, Kate Spade New York, Neiman Marcus, and Johnson & Johnson, utilise PERCH’s platform to drive consumer engagement, entertainment and product education in-store.
Sentiance
- Sentiance is a data science company that collects smartphone sensor data to interpret situational context in real-time and understand consumers’ activities and whereabouts. E-commerce companies are tapping into Sentiance to map delivery options to a customer’s real-time or predicted context (whereabouts and activities) and plan the actual delivery to coincide with the optimal moment.
Simon Data
- Simon Data is a full-service marketing cloud with a customer data platform at its core, enabling retailers to effectively leverage all of their data to drive personalisation and value for their customers. It works with leading direct-to-consumer companies, like Casper and Bark, to utilise customer insights and data to increase ROI and generate hyper-personalised email campaigns.
Italic
- Italic is a members-only marketplace where people can shop for luxury goods directly from manufacturers. It has received more than 100,000 signups for its marketplace and raised $13 million in funding from Comcast Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Index Ventures, Ludlow Ventures, Kindred Ventures and others.