Five key takeaways from Retail Technology Show
Retail Technology Show took place this week at London’s Olympia. And it was an epic affair. Here are our five key takeaways from a fantastic two days of networking and conference sessions.
1. In-person events still rule the roost
Virtual events received a huge boost during the Covid-19 outbreak, as restrictions and lockdowns meant that people couldn’t attend their physical counterparts.
There was even talk in some quarters of a brave new world in which all exhibitions and conferences moved online.
Retail Technology Show, however, proved that there is a huge appetite for in-person events, as it welcomed thousands of attendees over two days.
They were joined by 200+ technology vendors, exhibiting the latest innovations, and over 90 speakers, who took the biggest debates and hottest topics to the conference stage.
Matt Bradley, Event Director at Retail Technology Show, comments: “We knew the appetite for the Retail Technology Show would make the event an unmissable one – after the turbulence and radical change of the past two years, the time was right for retail to reunite.”
“And Retail Technology Show proved to be the platform for reuniting the industry, setting a course for the transformational evolution needed for retail businesses to succeed in the new landscape.”
“With the outstanding innovation on display on the show floor, the brightest minds in retail on the conference stages and unlimited networking opportunities that you can only get from large format trade events, we were thrilled to have brought retail home to Olympia.”
2. The metaverse is not something retailers can afford to ignore
So said the rapper and angel investor Tinie Tempah, calling it an “incredible opportunity” for businesses to find new customers and revenue.
The British musician said retailers and brands who do not get involved or invest in the metaverse now will look like those who missed out on the beginning of the dot.com wave or the rise of Facebook.
Tempah said: “There are going to be several metaverses in the same way there are several solar systems. There are going to be lots different brands, retailers and individuals who create their own metaverses.”
3. Checkout-free stores help physical retailers emulate a frictionless online experience
Retailers are starting to redesign their entire store format now they do not need to include checkout tills due to Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology.
Max Gill, who leads Amazon’s checkout-free offshoot in the EMEA, said the company’s tech is allowing retailers to “play with space and formats” within their shops.
“We are trying to reinvent the physical store”, Gill commented, adding that Amazon's own research has shown that queues are often the biggest source of friction and annoyance for customers at shops.
“We have been trying to bring the mentality and ease of online checkouts at Amazon into the physical store”.
4. Keep it simple, stupid
Retailers often lose sight of the basics around shopping and tend to “overcomplicate things”, according to Mike Coupe, the former Sainsbury’s Chief Executive.
The industry veteran, who stepped down as boss of the supermarket chain in 2020, stated it was important to remember that retail is “very, very simple” as he discussed the future of the sector.
“We tend to overcomplicate it,” Coupe commented. “In the end, what retailers do is they buy or make things, they move them, and they sell them.”
“We have seen, particularly in the last couple of years as a result of the impact of the Covid outbreak, and the supply chain disruptions, that people have quite often lost sight of those retail basics.”
5. Retailers shouldn’t use social media to constantly flog customers stuff
Businesses have to think how they can be genuinely useful to their customers following them on social media on a day to day basis, as opposed to “just kind of taking that number of people and just trying to flog them stuff every day.”
Speaking at Retail Technology Show, Ella Mills, founder of plant-based food and wellness platform Deliciously Ella, said: “It can’t just be a platform to sell a product, that has absolutely no benefit to the consumer. Why would they want to be part of that community if it’s just ads all day long?”
