2022 RTIH Innovation Awards: Most Innovative Global Retailer shortlist announced

Amazon, Carrefour, Ikea, and Walmart are among the nominees in the Most Innovative Global Retailer category at the 2022 RTIH Innovation Awards.

Who has been the most innovative, customer focused retailer (based outside of the UK) this year?

Judges are asked to look at the tech deployments, pilots etc listed alongside each retailer and decide which one has been the most consistently forward thinking and customer centric in 2022.

2022 shortlist as follows:

Amazon

Amazon opened its first ever physical fashion store later this year, and it is tech centric.

"We wouldn't do anything in physical retail unless we felt we could significantly improve the customer experience," says Simoina Vasen, a Managing Director.

The 30,000 square feet Amazon Style store us situated at The Americana at Brand, a shopping destination in greater Los Angeles.

Using the Amazon Shopping app, customers can send items to a fitting room, where they can use a touchscreen to browse more options, rate items, and request more sizes or styles that are delivered to the room.

Machine learning algorithms, meanwhile, produce tailored, real-time recommendations for each customer as they shop.

Amazon unveiled a new Amazon Go convenience store format aimed at suburban shoppers and powered by the e-commerce giant’s Just Walk Out frictionless checkout technology.

The first of these locations, which will offer grab and go foods, beverages and everyday essentials, is in the Seattle suburb of Mill Creek, Washington.

Amazon will then target the Los Angeles region.

The new stores will line up alongside Amazon's existing fleet of smaller, urban focused Go outlets.

Tony Hoggett stepped down from the role of Tesco Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer to head up Amazon’s international stores arm.

A.S. Watson Group

Health and beauty retailer, A.S. Watson, is investing an additional $115 million in technology this year to accelerate digital transformation and delivery of its O+O (online and offline) platform strategy.

Key focus areas include its in-house eLab and TECHLab initiatives, and further building machine learning, artificial intelligence, Big Data and retail technology capabilities.

A.S. Watson has taken the wraps off Skinfie Lab, a tool that creates personalised skincare product recommendations based on customers’ selfies.

This is making its debut at Watsons Hong Kong and will be rolled out to Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia by early 2023.

It builds on the launch of an AI powered skincare advisor at Superdrug in the UK last year.

Carrefour

Carrefour has worked with Pricer to confront the problem of profitability by introducing technology in 500 stores that enables in-store staff to pick and pack online orders much more quickly, to boost efficiency and protect margins.

The solution is called Pick To Light and enables Carrefour to not only meet increased demand for online grocery orders fulfilled through its store network, but also to meet rising e-commerce demand more profitably. Pick to Light has been built on top of Carrefour’s current network of Pricer’s electronic shelf edge labels (ESLs).

Carrefour has bought land in The Sandbox, a virtual gaming world where players can build, own, and monetise their experiences.

Elodie Perthuisot, Chief E-Commerce, Digital Transformation and Data Officer and EXCOM member at Carrefour, said in a LinkedIn post: “This is our first move in the metaverse on The Sandbox. A virtual field and above all a field of innovation for Carrefour, in line with our digital transformation strategy.”

“The field will be at the heart of our metaverse activities, as we experiment, to understand the evolutions of retail and consumption that will come. Concrete projects will follow soon.”

Carrefour has made its hypermarkets and supermarkets available on the Everli same-day grocery delivery platform in 10 French cities: Lille, Lyon, Nice, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Nantes, Grenoble, Rennes, Paris and their surrounding suburbs.

This builds on a partnership in other markets.

Fanatics

One of the world’s leading providers of licensed sports merchandise for fans, Fanatics partners with more than 900 clubs, leagues and organisations including Manchester United, Chelsea, Everton, Aston Villa, The FA, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, UEFA, NFL, The IOC, NBA and Formula One.

It combines exclusive deals with sports teams and leagues with on-demand production and an agile supply chain to increase speed-to-market of high-quality fan merchandise, distributed globally across all retail channels.

As well as its e-commerce business, Fanatics operates hundreds of physical sites and event retail locations, with UEFA 2020, the NFL London Games and UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 just a selection of recent success stories powered by Fanatics here in the UK.

Fanatics’ mission is to transform the licensed sports industry through its end-to-end vertical commerce model, wherein the business designs, manufactures and distributes much of the merchandise it sells.

Ikea

Ingka Group, the largest Ikea retailer, is opening its first two planning studios in Los Angeles as it looks to get closer to customers in that part of the USA.

These will focus on providing inspiration and smart home solutions for city living.

Ingka Group, the largest Ikea retailer, has launched a new artificial intelligence driven digital home design experience, Ikea Kreativ.

This offers customers a “lifelike, fully integrated way” to design and visualise their own living spaces, via their computers and smartphones.

Ikea Kreativ taps the latest developments in spatial computing, machine learning and 3D mixed reality technologies.

Ingka Group says that it has reduced food waste by 54% in its Ikea stores.

That translates into more than 20 million saved meals and 36,000 tonnes of CO2e that have been avoided.

This results from more than 20,000 Ikea food co-workers who were trained to use Winnow’s AI technology in their daily routines.

Walmart

Walmart is set to expand its DroneUp delivery network to 34 sites by the end the year, providing the potential to reach four million US households across six states – Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Utah and Virginia.

The move provides the ability to deliver over one million packages by drone in a year.

Between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., customers will be able to order from tens of thousands of eligible items for delivery by air in as little as 30 minutes. The total weight of delivery is up to 10lbs and the fee is $3.99.

Walmart is also planning to scale its drone infrastructure, offering local businesses and municipalities aerial drone solutions in areas like insurance, emergency response and real estate.

Cruise, the self-driving car unit of General Motors, has expanded its autonomous delivery pilot with Walmart in Arizona. The company will now be doing limited deliveries for customers in Chandler, in addition to Scottsdale.

Walmart is expanding a service that delivers customers’ groceries directly to their refrigerators.

First launched in 2019, the InHome Delivery offering allows customers to place grocery orders online, then receive their deliveries by having a Walmart associate enter their home by way of a smart lock.

This is currently available to six million households across the US. Walmart now has the goal of reaching 30 million US homes by the end of the year.

To support the expansion, it plans to hire more than 3,000 associate delivery drivers this year as well as build out a fleet of 100% all electric delivery vans.

Walmart has announced the launch of a new platform designed around creators.

Walmart Creator is pitched as  a one stop portal that makes it easy for the latter to monetise shoppable products from the retailer.

In a press release, Walmart says that those who sign up will have “access to tens of thousands of products and are given the opportunity to earn revenue all while earning commissions on sales they refer with no cap”.

Users of the platform can share product links to any social platform or group of their choice, receive product recommendations based on interests and affinities, and collect performance data to help grow their community and following.   

And the winner is…

It’s now over to our judging panel to decide the winner, who will be revealed at an exclusive event in central London on Tuesday, 6th December.

If you’re interested in attending this networking/roundtable discussion/three course Christmas themed meal event, please fill out the form at the end of this article and we’ll get back to you asap.

RTIH Editor, Scott Thompson, 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.”

“Thanks to all those who have entered the 2022 event. We received a record number of submissions and many fantastic examples of the continued resilience and dynamism of the retail space during hugely challenging times.”

“I’m now looking forward to deciding the winners with our judging panel and announcing them at our central London event in December.”

2022 RTIH Innovation Awards judging panel as follows:

Warren Richmond, CEO and Founder, Situ Live and Revium Group

Mike Cadden, Technology and Business Transformation Director, Start-Rite Shoes

Peter Waugh, Digital & Data Director, Compass Group

Paula Bobbett, Chief Digital Officer, Boots

Dan Saunders, Retail E-commerce Manager, Stanley Black & Decker

Martin Newman, Founder, The Customer First Group

Toby Pickard, Global Insight Leader, IGD

Matt Taylor, Technology Transformation Leader at EY, Retail and Consumer Products

Amodini Chhabra, Investor, Compass Digital Ventures

Gary Newbury, Supply Chain Advisor and Delivery Executive

Sharon Peters, Head of Technology - Corporate Functions, Marks & Spencer

Nadine Neatrour, Marketing Director, Selfridges

Wizz Selvey, CEO, WIZZ&CO

Simon Curtis, Chief Commercial Officer, PMC Retail

David Polinchock, Co-Founder/President, Unified Brand Experience Lab

FOURTH TIME AROUND

Now into their fourth year, the RTIH Innovation Awards, sponsored by PMC, 3D Cloud by Marxent, CADS, FreedomPay, and Critzr, celebrate global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.