The retail technology space during the Covid pandemic
Retail Technology Innovation Hub rounds up the key retail systems related Covid-19 developments from last week, including the 2021 RTIH Innovation Awards, Christmas and Black Friday.
Burger King, Qvalon, Red Ant and Scantranx are among the nominees in the Best Coronavirus Innovation category at the 2021 RTIH Innovation Awards.
The pandemic has had a major impact on the way that we shop and the way that retailers operate.
This award, sponsored by Critizr, will go to the company who has best turned to technology to solve the challenges presented by the Covid-19 era, improving in-store and/or online experiences for both staff and customers.
2021 shortlist as follows:
Qvalon worked with Burger King Russia to put into a mobile application all the business processes that regulate and monitor the quality of cleaning and janitorial services, and deployed special digital checklists to ensure compliance to all Covid related hygiene and safety standards and protocols.
When Covid-19 forced consumers to stay home for much of 2020, they logged online in droves to order their groceries. But, while online grocery shopping enjoyed 300% growth, consumers complained about the disappointing and frustrating experience of online grocery shopping. Enter Halla.
Developed as an extension of its clienteling app during the pandemic, Red Ant’s shoppable virtual consultations solution was the first of its kind to launch to market.
Since the pandemic began, Scantranx has helped lots of SMB to quickly adopt online sales to weather the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The cloud native Sitoo platform, with its retail PoS, makes omnichannel a given and turns unified commerce into reality.
ÏDKIDS Group and its children’s fashion brand Okaïdi saw the shifting retail environment caused by Covid-19 as an opportunity to accelerate digital transformation plans.
What’s next?
We will now ask our judging panel to cast their votes and provide their feedback. The winner will be revealed on 8th December at an exclusive roundtable discussion/networking event in central London.
Tappit, a cashless specialist focusing on sports, events, stadiums and venues, has announced a partnership with the Rose Bowl Stadium in the US.
This involves the implementation of Tappit’s white label web wallet, a solution enabling organisations to implement cashless payment solutions without having a mobile app.
Tappit’s technology will allow Rose Bowl Stadium visitors to make purchases using only their mobile phone. Using a QR code, they can pay for their food, drinks and merchandise, without the need for wallets or cards.
Brits are more likely to shop online than in-store for Black Friday and Christmas, despite the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, according to research from parcel locker specialist Quadient.
The company surveyed 1,000 people. Half will do most of their Black Friday and Christmas shopping online for delivery or Click and Collect in-store, compared to just over one-fifth expecting to mostly shop in-store.
At the same time, however, 34% of Brits expect to miss a delivery to home or work that will require re-delivery attempts or a depot collection.
New research from Attest looks at British sentiment towards Black Friday shopping amid supply chain disruptions and the ongoing Covid pandemic.
The company surveyed 1,000 people and found that a slender majority of (43%) will buy something on Black Friday 2021 closely followed by 39% who are undecided on taking part. 18% have already decided they will not buy any products on the day.
Paradies Lagardère, a retailer and restaurateur in North America, has expanded its deployment of MishiPay’s Scan, Pay & Go mobile self-checkout technology to 20 additional airports across the US and Canada.
During a pilot in the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and the Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Paradies Lagardère says that, by enabling shoppers to scan and pay for their desired products using their own devices, store associates were able to repurpose a portion of their shift from manning a cash register to other tasks such as restocking, sanitising high traffic sections, and assisting customers.
Additionally, the Scan, Pay & Go programme provides another payment option for customers, complementing existing choices such as self-checkout stations and Fast Pay apps, and has also generated a higher items-per-transaction ratio when compared to transactions performed through standard registers.
New research from Scandit, based on interviews with 118 senior decision makers at postal and logistics providers, identifies how the impact of Covid-19 is pushing European-based last mile companies to innovate.
In the face of unprecedented hurdles and shifting consumer demands, European operations are more likely to invest in new services (14.3%) such as Pick Up Drop Off (PUDO) and new innovations (20.6%) including real-time delivery changes.
This is in contrast to their North American counterparts of which just 5.9% prioritise new offerings with a heavier focus on meeting today’s demands. European firms are also more likely to invest in augmented reality today or in the future (69.2%) than those in North America (58.8%).
Online retailers across Europe face a new era of malicious attacks spurred by a Covid-19 inspired transformation in e-commerce and a 350% increase in fraudulent orders, according to research by Signifyd.
This is thanks in part to the growing sophistication and diversification of organised fraud rings.
The research also flags a doubling of consumer abuse in the first half of 2021, including false claims that an online order never arrived or that an order that did arrive was in unsatisfactory condition.
Canadian e-commerce platform giant Shopify has announced a record setting Black Friday with sales of nearly $2.9 billion from the start of Black Friday in New Zealand through the end of the event in California.
Starship Technologies and Co-op have boosted their partnership in Northampton, with an additional 31,000 households in the town now able to access grocery delivery via a fleet of the former’s robots.
A year to the day since the launch of the service in Northampton, residents in Boothville, Great Billing, Hopping Hill and Spinney Hill will now be able to benefit from on demand delivery from a further three Co-op stores. The online orders are picked from the retailer’s stores.
Co-op was the first UK supermarket to use autonomous robot deliveries.
The latest development means that deliveries are now made from six of its stores in Northampton, with communities in Wootton, Upton, Duston, Abington and Weston Favell already able to use the service.
Black Friday UK high street shopper traffic saw a +35% uplift week-on-week, but early festive footfall failed to drive numbers to pre-pandemic levels, which were down -23% compared to 2019, according to Sensormatic Solutions.
