The Gifting Hour sees John Lewis pull Christmas cracker: our most read retail technology articles from last week
Check out the articles on this here website that caught your fancy last week, including sweeping changes to Etsy's C-suite, the real story of Sheertex, a major hire at Autonomo Technologies, self-checkout failures, 2024 in review, and this year's Christmas ad winners.
2024: the year of AI, reality checks, and physical stores claiming a new place in shoppers’ lives
As the Christmas and New Year break fast approaches, RTIH Founder and Editor, Scott Thompson, runs through his key retail tech related takeaways from a hugely eventful and fascinating 2024.
Includes AI, stores, omnichannel strategies, and grocery retail.
UK retailer Marks and Spencer expands First Insight tie up to include entire clothing and home business
First Insight is expanding its partnership with M&S.
Initially launched in 2015 with a focus on the lingerie category, the tie up now encompasses the retailer's entire Clothing & Home business, allowing it to boost customer engagement and brand perception across all categories.
"Our partnership with First Insight has supported our strategy to reshape for growth, as we maintain and extend our lead on quality and value and continue to drive style perceptions.” says Richard Price, Managing Director of Clothing & Home at M&S.
Etsy Chief Technology Officer Rachana Kumar departs as online marketplace makes sweeping C-suite changes
Etsy is making big changes to its C-suite, which it says are unrelated to its disappointing financial performance. The shakeup closely follows the release of mixed third-quarter results during October.
Kruti Patel Goyal, currently Chief Executive Officer at Etsy's Depop subsidiary, has been appointed President and Chief Growth Officer.
In this newly created role, Goyal will report to Etsy's CEO, Josh Silverman, and be responsible for bringing together all customer touchpoints with the aim of delivering a more compelling and inspiring experience for Etsy's buyers and sellers.
Elsweher, Chief Technology Officer Rachana Kumar will depart to pursue new opportunities. Kumar has agreed to remain in an advisory capacity over the coming months. The company will initiate a search for her successor, with interim leadership provided by two current Vice Presidents of Engineering.
2024 RTIH Innovation Awards winners announced, including Currys, Ikea, Clarks, Tesco, and Super-Pharm
Last month, we announced the winners from the 2024 RTIH Innovation Awards, sponsored by Vista Technology Support, CADS, 3D Cloud, SCALA, Brightpearl by Sage’s Lightning 50, Retail Technology Show 2025, and Business France.
Our 2024 hall of fame entrants were revealed during an event which took place at RIBA’s 66 Portland Place HQ in Central London, and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by comedian Lucy Porter.
In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “The event is now into its sixth year and what a journey it has been. The awards started life as an online only affair during the Covid outbreak, before launching as a small scale in real life event and growing year on year to the point where we’re now selling out this fine, historic venue.”
He added: “Congratulations to all of our finalists. Many submissions did not make it through to the final stage, and getting to this point is no mean feat. Checkout-free stores, automated supply chains, immersive experiences, on-demand delivery, next generation loyalty offerings, inclusive retail, green technology. We’ve got all the cool stuff covered this evening.”
“But just importantly we’ve got lots of great examples of companies taking innovative tech and making it usable in everyday operations - resulting in more efficiency and profitability in all areas.”
Congratulations to our 2024 winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Lucy Porter, and all those who attended our 21st November gathering.
UK retailer Harvey Nichols teams up with OSF Digital to boost customer engagement with centralised platform
OSF Digital has unveiled a centralised platform for UK luxury fashion retailer Harvey Nichols. The initiative aims to equip Harvey Nichols' marketing team with advanced tools and insights, driving increased return on investment (ROI) and customer engagement.
"We are thrilled to strengthen our partnership with Harvey Nichols and Salesforce, delivering a transformative centralised platform that redefines customer engagement,” says Gerard Szatvanyi, CEO at OSF Digital.
“This collaboration underscores our commitment to leveraging Salesforce's robust capabilities to empower Harvey Nichols with a unified customer view, driving innovation and growth in the luxury retail sector. Together, we are setting a new standard for personalised customer experiences that align with Harvey Nichols' esteemed brand heritage.”
OSF Digital has previously implemented a Salesforce Loyalty Management system for Harvey Nichols. Building on this, it is now enhancing the retailer's capabilities with Salesforce Data Cloud and MuleSoft integrations.
Goals include engaging existing customers, boosting retention, and attracting new leads through a centralised platform that enables marketers to elevate segmentation and targeting. By unifying customer data across all channels, Harvey Nichols aims to enhance engagement, personalisation, and conversion while enabling its CRM team to increase efficiency without IT dependency.
Recursive delivers interactive Puma Arcade experience for sports brand’s new Las Vegas 25,000 sq ft store
Recursive has wrapped the second instalment of Puma Arcade, the immersive experience it has been refining over the past 18 months; this time in Puma’s new Las Vegas flagship store.
The 25,000 square foot space, which spans three stories, aims to “redefine what it means to be a bricks and mortar location in today's rapidly evolving digital world”.
“I am thrilled that we are opening a state-of-the-art flagship store in Las Vegas as part of our brand elevation strategy.
Located along the iconic Las Vegas Strip, this flagship allows us to expand our presence in North America to connect with US consumers and international visitors alike,” says Arne Freundt, Chief Executive Officer at Puma.
“I believe that our new Las Vegas Flagship is essential for conveying the true character of our brand and for creating an immersive, interactive shopping experience as it will redefine in-person shopping by seamlessly merging sports performance, latest fashion trends, and technology.”
The store features a variety of immersive and interactive features powered by technology. It offers customers attractions such as a professional F1 racing simulator, the aforementioned interactive arcade, and a customisation studio where customers can personalise apparel and footwear.
Self-checkout failures: Vista Technology Support boss James Pepper talks poor Pull&Bear physical retail experience
2024 has seen a backlash against self-checkouts, with the likes of the BBC laying into the technology.
But self-checkout isn't the problem; poor technology design and lack of user experience testing are. So says James Pepper, CEO at Vista Technology Support.
Autonomo Technologies hires Rehman Mohammed as Global Vice President to support existing and new global agreements
Autonomo Technologies has announced the appointment of Rehman Mohammed as Global Vice President.
He joins from AiFi where he was the GM for UKI, Nordics, Baltics and Middle East. Rehman is highly experienced in the frictionless technology space having helped grow AiFi from its first UKI customer in 2020 to pan European contracts today.
His achievements include launching the largest ever computer vision only store with Aldi, the first frictionless store in the UK Premier League at Leicester City FC, followed quickly by Aston Villa FC, Brighton & Hove Albion FC and FC Copenhagen. He launched the first frictionless store in Ireland as well as a number of new locations in the Nordics and Middle East.
Autonomo Technologies aims to simplify shopping for customers and retailers using AI. It is used by retailers where there is a lack of staff, to eliminate queues and to grow bricks and mortar retail profitably into smaller footprint locations. Autonomo works with Edeka, Migros, NHS, petrol stations, convenience stores, stadiums and grab and go stores.
John Lewis sleighs the competition with its Christmas 2024 advert, Asda and Marks and Spencer also performing well
Research from AdTech firm, Quantcast, shows John Lewis' latest Christmas ad, The Gifting Hour, helped increase the retailer's UK addressable audience by 32% in November 2024, compared to the benchmark taken in September this year.
Asda’s The Gnomes of Christmas ad came in a close second, with an increase of 27%, while the M&S offering, which sees a young girl bring her family together using a magic snow globe, resulted in a 26% increase.
With Advertising Association and WARC data estimating ad spend will reach £10.5 billion this holiday season, UK supermarkets will be pleased to see their campaigns have already caused a significant increase in brand exposure across the open internet.
John Lewis, The Gifting Hour - 32% increase
Asda, The Gnomes of Christmas - 27% increase
M&S, Christmas Starts Here - 26% increase
Morrisons, The Greatest Show at Home - 23% increase
Iceland, That’s Why Santa Goes to Iceland - 21% increase
Tesco, Helping Feed Your Christmas Spirit - 19% increase
Waitrose, Sweet Suspicion: A Waitrose Mystery - 19% increase
Aldi, Get Into The Christmas Spirit with Kevin The Carrot - 18% increase
Sainsbury’s, The Big Friendly Christmas - 17% increase
Lidl, A Magical Christmas - 15% increase
Starring Primark, Auger, eBay, and RTS 2025: RTIH rolls out the biggest retail technology news stories of the week
Here's your briefing on the most important stories from the past week, including M&S, Coca-Cola, Ocean Outdoors, eBay, Klarna, Harvey Nichols, OSF Digital, Chemist Warehouse, and Augmodo.
Continue reading…