2022 RTIH Innovation Awards: Most Innovative Pureplay shortlist announced

boohoo, Farfetch, Secret Sales, and Vinted are among the nominees in the Most Innovative Pureplay category at the 2022 RTIH Innovation Awards.

Who has been the most innovative, customer focused pureplay 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:

boohoo

Fast fashion giant boohoo group adopted the Aiimi Insight Engine platform, with an initial focus on data subject access requests (DSAR) and deletion of data for customers and employees.

The pureplay says that it will be able to proactively monitor and manage high risk data stored in unstructured repositories, such as SharePoint and OneDrive, and interconnect all information across the organisation.

Streamlining processes with the platform will, it adds, save the business substantial manual hours when dealing with DSAR and deletion tasks and remove more than 10 systems from involvement in their completion.

boohoo group said it had improved operational efficiency and speed to market, with a product information management solution from Akeneo.

boohoo announced the launch of its first NFT collection.

boohoo teamed up with entrepreneur and reality TV star Paris Hilton for her virtual Fashion Week, in Paris World (an island built in Roblox).

FarFetch

Luxury fashion e-commerce platform, Farfetch, and Outlier Ventures, a Web3 accelerator and investor, announced the first cohort of startups for their Dream Assembly Base Camp accelerator programme.

The eight companies were selected from over 200 applications from around the world. They are as follows: altr, Curie, iiNDYVERSE, METAV.RS, Mintouge, Reblium, SKNUPS and WEAR.

Farfetch said it would invest up to $200 million in Neiman Marcus Group (NMG).

PrettyLittleThing

Fashion retailer, PrettyLittleThing, entered the metaverse with the introduction of its first ever digital model.

‘’As a reactive brand we have always listened to our customers’ requests to provide them with innovative and progressive content,” said a PrettyLittleThing spokesperson.

“Virtual Girl bridges the gap between the metaverse and real life, where for the first time, our customers can discover products showcased by the latest addition to our model/influencer family.”

PrettyLittleThing announced the launch of PrettyLittleThing Marketplace, an app which allows people to sell on clothes they no longer wear, or shop for something new to them.

Secret Sales

Secret Sales, a non-full-price marketplace for fashion, sportswear and beauty brands, announced a new rewards offering - The Secret Rewards Club - in partnership with tastecard and Coffee Club.

Secret Sales launched a fulfilment service for brands requiring a UK distribution centre.

A fully managed solution, Fulfilment by Secret Sales allows brands and retailers to ship goods in bulk to Secret Sales’ UK warehouse. It handles picking, packing and direct-to-consumer shipping via 24 or 48 hour tracked services, as well as returns.

Nick Beighton, the former Asos Chief Executive, returned to the online fashion sector and took on the role of Chairman at Secret Sales.

Secret Sales launched in the Netherlands and Belgium, as the first phase of its European roll-out began.

Vinted

Parcel delivery firm Evri entered into a partnership with Vinted, a consumer-to-consumer marketplace in Europe dedicated to second hand fashion.

Evri has been a key delivery partner for Vinted since 2018.

As part of the aforementioned collaboration, a social media influencer programme will highlight the benefits of using Vinted and the convenience of sending parcels via Evri’s ParcelShops, with several content creators across TikTok and Instagram working to create fun and engaging videos.

This includes Ana and Bryon who have teamed up to complete a “Sell Out Challenge” to see who can sell the most from their wardrobes via Vinted. In addition, over 50 of Evri’s flagship ParcelShops will be co-branded with Vinted.

Vinted Go, the shipping brand of Vinted, unveiled a new B2B centric platform.

This brings together third-party carrier infrastructure for Vinted’s marketplace and for future business customers.

The offering is a combination of Vinted Go’s technology, IT and operations infrastructure, which enables businesses to ‘plug in’ to Vinted’s multi-carrier network through a single integration process.

It removes the need to sign multiple individual agreements with carriers.

InPost signed a five-year partnership agreement with Vinted.

As a result, it will become one of Vinted’s shipping partners across Europe.

The service will be provided under the InPost brand in the UK, Poland and Italy, and Mondial Relay in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain.

The agreement will leverage InPost’s network of 35,000 out-of-home delivery sites across Europe.

In the UK, the partnership means that Vinted sellers can drop off parcels at one of over 3,000 lockers units across the country for onward delivery to buyers’ homes.

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.