2023 RTIH Innovation Awards: Best Global Retailer/Technology Supplier Relationship shortlist announced

We’re pleased to announce the shortlist for the 2023 RTIH Innovation Awards Best Retailer/Technology Supplier Relationship (Rest of World) category.

We received a record number of submissions this year and many fantastic examples of the continued resilience and dynamism of the retail space during hugely challenging times.

Our winners will be revealed at the 2023 RTIH Innovation Awards ceremony, which will take place at the Barbican Centre in central London.

The event will be held on Wednesday, 29th November, maintaining its popular evening format, with a drinks reception in the stunning Conservatory, followed by a Christmas themed three course meal, and awards presentations in the Garden Room.

Congratulations to all those who made the shortlist.

To book your place at the 2023 RTIH Innovation Awards ceremony on Wednesday, 29th November, click here.

Best Retailer/Technology Supplier Relationship (Rest of World) shortlist as follows:

This award recognises a successful partnership between a non-UK retailer and a technology supplier, with an emphasis on the last 12/18 months and how said partnership has gone from strength to strength during that period.

AiFi

AiFi is an AI powered solution provider that enables businesses to optimise their physical spaces at scale with autonomous shopping technology, and has orchestrated a successful partnership with Verizon, one of its key strategic allies.

Leveraging computer vision that requires cameras only, AiFi’s platform adapts to a wide range of new or existing store formats using advanced tracking algorithms that can scale up to 10,000 square feet across a multitude of verticals ranging, from grocery and convenience stores to travel, education, and workplace buildings. 

Attensi and Kao Salon Division

Kao Salon Division has partnered with Attensi to create a bespoke, game-based simulation training solution for 500 employees across EMEA to successfully launch the new luxury haircare brand, Kerasilk, and land organisational behaviour change.

Attensi aimed to really get under the skin of the business – understanding Kao’s processes, challenges, culture and business objectives/KPIs.

The impact for Kao Salon Division was significant, with a 1.5% increase in sales revenue generated (for learners who trained the most vs those who didn’t). Players were highly engaged, motivated to repeat the training and able to practice in realistic scenarios.

Canto and Sony Europe

Sony’s digital imaging division works closely with over 100 brand ambassadors across Europe to showcase Sony’s wide range of cameras, lenses, and accessories.

These photographers review new products, share images they’ve taken, and provide insights about their techniques and equipment choices for a broad audience of hobbyists and fellow professionals.

Working with digital asset management (DAM) provider Canto, Sony can now consolidate thousands of images and videos submitted by Alpha Universe ambassadors into a centralised, easily searchable library that leverages metadata and AI. This fuels inspiring content that makes a strong contribution to site traffic and increased attributable sales.

Grupo Éxito and Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions

Grupo Éxito, a retailer in Colombia with a presence in Uruguay and Argentina, strategically prioritised a shopper experience transformation and adoption self-checkout.

It partnered with Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions to deliver innovative solutions to meet its business goals around self-checkout and payment solutions. The Self Checkout System 7 solution from Toshiba provides shoppers with a fast, simple, and modern experience while delivering reliability and efficiency for the retailer.

Nextail and Flying Tiger Copenhagen

By partnering with Nextail, Flying Tiger Copenhagen has boosted its core merchandising processes through hyper-local demand forecasting, global inventory optimisation and AI driven decision automation.

As a result, the Danish variety retailer has transformed its wholesale business into one that is fully integrated and omnichannel. 

Flying Tiger Copenhagen selected Nextail due to its proven track record of delivering tangible results to major retailers facing similar challenges.

What began as a roll-out in the UK and Ireland quickly expanded into a partnership encompassing the entire European owned and operated store network of more than 800 stores.

refive and Puma

Puma encountered challenges in engaging a younger, digital native customer base and understanding in-store customer behaviour.

With refive's innovative digital receipts, it has successfully bridged these gaps. Now, at the checkout, it engages customers digitally, understanding anonymous customer behaviour in detail, collecting feedback and thousands of marketing opt-ins.

Thanks to this, Puma is now able to interact with in-store customers post-purchase as easily as with online customers. The overall customer experience has been enhanced with the gathered insights into customer behaviour.

The refive-Puma partnership aptly aligns with Puma’s sustainability and customer-centricity goals, solidifying the foundation of a thriving retailer-technology supplier relationship.

Sparkfly and Chipotle

In response to a critical challenge, Sparkfly and Chipotle forged a transformative partnership aimed at centralising and innovating cross-channel offers and loyalty campaigns while enhancing the customer experience.

By implementing Sparkfly's Offer Management Platform, Chipotle achieved impressive results, including $4.5 billion in digital sales, the activation of 33 million new loyalty accounts, and the redemption of 111 million offers.

This technology empowered Chipotle to capture and validate loyalty rewards in real-time, measure campaign ROI across channels, and provide customers with a single wallet for all offers and rewards. The enduring partnership, which began in 2017, has significantly reshaped its digital customer engagement landscape.

Wunderkind and Elvie

FemTech brand Elvie wanted to accelerate its Direct To Consumer (DTC) channel, while adjusting its marketing strategy to reduce reliance on increasingly competitive and expensive paid media channels.

Elvie partnered with Wunderkind, a performance marketing solution that scales one-to-one messages for retailers, to grow its owned channel revenue, improve customer engagement, and increase ROI on marketing spend.

Wunderkind delivered a 10x improvement in email performance, 23% growth in marketing list (audience) and an 8.35x return on ad spend, making it Elvie’s #3 paid channel in Google analytics.