Including VoCoVo and Sitoo: 2025 RTIH Innovation Awards digital transformation finalists

We’re pleased to announce the shortlist for the 2025 RTIH Innovation Awards Digital Transformation Project of the Year UK and Rest of World categories.

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

Congratulations to all those who made it through the initial submission process!

It’s now over to our judging panel who will decide the winners to be announced at the 2025 RTIH Innovation Awards ceremony, taking place  at The HAC in Central London.

The event will be held on Thursday, 16th October and consist of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.

Book your place at the 2025 RTIH Innovation Awards ceremony on Thursday, 16th October here.

Our 2025 runners and riders as follows:

UK

Currys, Vestcom and SOLUM

Currys says it has set a new benchmark in UK retail by becoming the first major retailer to roll-out ESELs across its entire estate of 300+ stores.

This nationwide transformation, delivered in partnership with SOLUM and Vestcom, reflects a clear commitment to innovation, efficiency, and sustainability. The project demonstrates how strong collaboration between retailer and technology partners can modernise the store environment at scale, creating simpler, smarter shopping for customers and freeing colleagues to focus on service.

It stands as a landmark example of digital transformation, operational excellence, and partnership in action.

Osprey London and Sitoo

Osprey London has transformed its entire technology stack in just two years, moving from outdated legacy systems to a fully composable, customer first model.

By adopting Oracle NetSuite, Centra, and Sitoo POS, the retailer unified online and in-store operations, empowered store teams, and created seamless, omnichannel customer experiences. This digital transformation connected loyalty, order history, and preferences across channels, enabling personalised service and future growth.

With improved conversion, stronger physical retail performance, and the flexibility to launch showrooms and pop-ups, Osprey London is now positioned to thrive in a retail landscape where experience and agility are everything.

PMC and WHSmith

WHSmith faced the critical challenge of retiring its legacy PoS solution without disrupting operations across its global store estate. PMC delivered a unified managed services solution, consolidating support for over 4,600 store devices under a single, always on service desk.

This model blended legacy system expertise with future ready support, ensuring business continuity while laying the foundations for future transformation. The seamless transition, delivered without disruption, exceeded expectations and was hailed by WHSmith leadership as “the biggest non-event of the year” - a flawless transformation that reinforced operational resilience and trust.

Poq and Mamas & Papas

Mamas & Papas transformed its digital strategy by launching an innovative mobile app to serve as a "digital companion for parents."

Knowing the parenting journey intimately they wanted to move beyond traditional e-commerce, to create meaningful, integrated journeys combining community, content, and commerce to support customers throughout their pregnancy and parenting lifecycle.

The app delivered exceptional early results upon launch with conversion rates immediately 75% higher than mobile web,  and very engaged customers with eight-minute average session times. The app also offers seamless omnichannel integration across their 60 UK stores. This strategic transformation has helped positioned the brand as a trusted digital companion for Millennial and Gen Z parents.

Sellfware Technology and VJ Technology

Opus is an autonomous product management platform that creates 24/7, staffless Click and Collect environments, providing secure and convenient access to essential items for sale, hire, or distribution.

Scalable for any environment, Opus powers both transformed on-site stores and stand-alone mini warehouses, offering intelligent stock control, multi-point security, and a seamless web-based ordering system. By enabling flexible, engaging customer journeys, Opus helps businesses reduce costs, grow revenue, and operate more efficiently.

The result is a fully integrated fulfilment solution that delivers continuous availability, optimises operations, and redefines how products are accessed, managed, and distributed.

VoCoVo and Currys

Currys implemented VoCoVo’s Series 5 Pro Headset to every colleague in each of its UK&I stores, which has allowed teams to stay better connected, improve the experience being delivered to customers and enhance staff safety on the shop floor.

Since implementation as part of the store’s largest annual investment in store safety features, Currys has experienced a 58% reduction in reported aggressive thefts, compared to the year before. Additionally, in the final eight weeks of FY24/25, there were just eight incidents of aggressive theft, down from 19 the previous year.

Rest of World

Busy Beaver and Zipline

Busy Beaver, a 25-store home improvement chain, re-engineered its operations through a digital transformation project that replaced fragmented systems with Zipline as a unified platform.

Prior to the change, managers relied on a patchwork of portals, emails, and point solutions, duplicating work and draining productivity. With Zipline, tasks, messages, and resources now live in a single source of truth, paired with Insights dashboards for instant visibility and better coaching.

The shift has streamlined workflows, freed up leadership time, and improved training and engagement—turning a legacy, manual communication model into a modern, digital first operating system embraced across the business.

Habitium

In 2024, Habitium launched a company wide digital transformation integrating AI, automation, and advanced analytics to reinvent its e-commerce infrastructure.

The project combined generative AI (Amazon Bedrock), process automation (Make), data intelligence (Coupler.io), and native module development to accelerate catalogue creation, optimise logistics, and enhance personalisation across eight countries.

With over 40 proprietary Prestashop modules, 1,000+ supplier APIs, and multilingual content pipelines, this scalable, fully integrated system positions Habitium as a retail tech leader in the home and garden sector.

Harding+ and TPP Retail

Harding+ face unique challenges; what works for bricks and mortar stores is more complex at sea. Outdated processes made day-to-day tasks increasingly difficult, but they were ready to embrace new technology.

Harding needed tools that let colleagues get the job done even offline and enlisted the support of technology specialist, TPP Retail, to tackle their two biggest pain points – pricing and stock management – with the implementation of Label IQ and Stock IQ.

Harding’s operations were transformed, replacing slow, paper-based, error-prone processes with fast, accurate, and visible systems that empower colleagues to spend less time on admin and more delivering outstanding customer service.

ICA Gruppen, Cleveron and Ingrid

Cleveron and ICA built a first of its kind Retail-Driven Open Network (RDON): a carrier agnostic, store anchored parcel infrastructure that lets multiple logistics providers use ICA's nationwide footprint.

At the same time, ICA retains complete oversight and brand control. After a 2022 pilot, the partners automated over 100 in-store pickup points by now, with the 100th installation at ICA Maxi Visby in April 2025.

Using Cleveron's robotic systems, indoor parcel lockers and multi-carrier software alongside Ingrid’s service point software, ICA cut queues, freed staff from manual handover, and created a scalable, convenient last mile aligned with the needs of its Swedish customers.. It's a sustainable retail logistics model that is built inside the store which opens up the ecosystem.

Longchamp and Yocuda

Longchamp transformed its traditional paper receipts into a powerful post-purchase marketing channel using Yocuda’s highly personalised digital receipts. The project was implemented across 135 stores in 23 countries and delivered 590,000 digital receipts in 2024. 

Each mobile optimised receipt is branded, localised, and tailored with product recommendations, content, and store info. In 2024, 590,000 were sent with a 73% open rate and a 5.5% click-through rate. In total, the project has saved 1.4 tonnes of carbon by sending 2.3 million receipts.

Controlled via a central CMS, it has turned receipts into a scalable, high performing channel that enhances the customer journey and drives omnichannel behaviour.