The importance of the human touch in stores: RTIH presents the retail technology week in numbers
Do you like numbers? Do you like retail systems news? Then this is the article for you. Including Adyen, Asda, Eagle Eye, Sainsbury’s, The John Lewis Partnership, Faire, and Retail Technology Show 2023.
100…The latest edition of the RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List has arrived!
Here are the people who made a splash in 2022 and are set for a barnstorming 2023.
RTIH has scoured the retail technology world to find the most influential figures for this comprehensive list of people and trends that shape the industry and help drive it forward.
We’re living in unprecedented times.
The Covid-19 outbreak has driven a seismic change in shopping habits, with checkout free stores, automation in the supply chain, rapid delivery services, and the metaverse making waves.
Such disruption requires new ways of problem solving and thought leaders who can both evangelise and execute on the likes of digital transformation and omnichannel success.
Which is where the RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List comes in, presented, we should stress, in no particular order.
We hope you enjoy reading through it and, as always, if you would like to give feedback or believe that there are some glaring omissions, please feel free to get in touch here.
Download the list in pdf format here.
Or read via Issuu.
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150 and 200…Asda opened its 150th Asda On the Move store this week, in partnership with EG Group, as it looks to roll-out 200 of the roadside convenience store formats by the end of 2023.
The new store is located at Baynards Green Services in Bicester, Oxfordshire and will be the third Asda On the Move in the local area.
It stocks over 1,300 branded and own label products, with the aim of providing a more extensive offering of fresh produce and chilled lines than is traditionally found on fuel forecourts.
Operating on a 24-hour basis, the 2,723 sq ft store will also include a Greggs and Leon kiosk.
20%…New research commissioned by online wholesale marketplace, Faire, has found that, despite wanting to support the sector, 20% of British consumers have cut back on shopping at independent retailers as a result of the cost-of-living crisis. But there are significant opportunities if independent retailers adopt digital innovation.
53%…The human touch delivered by staff is playing an increasingly important role in crafting superior customer experiences in-store, according to new research from Retail Technology Show, which took place this week at London’s Olympia.
A survey of over 1,000 UK consumers revealed that 53% felt store staff either ‘make or break’ the shopping experience, rising by +13 percentage points year-on-year. 37% now more respectful of retail staff since before the start of the pandemic, rising +3 percentage points since 2022.
34% of those shoppers polled thought retailers could do more to look after their workforces in the current economic climate, while a further 25% said retail staff should be paid more by their employers to help them with the rising cost-of-living.
5…Eagle Eye has secured a five-year contract with The John Lewis Partnership for its new pan-partnership loyalty project launching in 2024 alongside dunnhumby.
This brings together Eagle Eye’s existing relationships with John Lewis, as first announced in 2017 to improve the retailer’s digital marketing capabilities, and with Waitrose, as subsequently announced in 2019.
The project aims to integrate the group’s high street business, online and app touchpoints, building on the My John Lewis and My Waitrose loyalty programmes.
The Eagle Eye AIR platform will provide The John Lewis Partnership with loyalty management capabilities, enabling dunnhumby’s data science to be executed at scale to deliver more personalised rewards, offers and experiences to customers.
$500 million…Cosmose AI, which has developed a platform that uses AI analytics to track in-store foot traffic and engage with shoppers online, has announced an undisclosed investment from NEAR Foundation, the non-profit arm of blockchain protocol NEAR, valuing the company at $500 million.
Founded in 2014, Cosmose AI works with the likes of LVMH, Richemont, L’Oréal and Estée Lauder.
With the new investment, it will focus on the Web3 ecosystem with the aim of creating seamless experiences for shoppers and increasing sales for retailers.
The pair are building a payment system that allows users to shop with crypto at low transaction fees.
Four in five…Adyen has published research which shows that subscription services are proving promisingly resilient despite recent economic uncertainty.
The subscription model is by no means new, but it has gained widespread popularity in recent years.
According to Adyen’s survey of 2,000 UK consumers, four in five Brits are signed up to at least one such service.
Despite concerns on tightening household budgets, it found that subscriptions to TV and film prove most popular (68%), followed by priority services such as Amazon (40%), and then music (27%).
This also reveals that UK companies scored strongly globally, with AO Retail (3.70) appearing in the top five of the global ranking.
The retailer was also ranked as the UK’s digital leader and retail was the top performing industry in the study, with non-food retail scoring highest (3.43), followed by food (3.32), and then fashion (3.28). Telco was the next best performing industry with a score of 3.11.
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