Including Cleveron and Zipline: 2025 RTIH Innovation Awards automation finalists

We’re pleased to announce the shortlist for the 2025 RTIH Innovation Awards Best Use of Automation in the Retail Sector category.

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:

Corvus Robotics

GNC transformed inventory management across its global distribution network by deploying Corvus One autonomous drones. Manual cycle counts tied up people and lift trucks, limiting full audits to a few times per year and creating data lags that impacted fulfillment.

Corvus One now scans pallets during normal business hours without added infrastructure, running multiple flights per day and capturing real time inventory data. GNC raised audit frequency from two to four per year to 10–12, redeployed labour from 20 to 13 in inventory control, and improved accuracy and responsiveness across replenishment, picking, planning, and management of expiration sensitive nutritional products.

Flipkart Commerce Cloud

Flipkart Commerce Cloud (FCC) partnered with Massmart to launch a marketplace solution that modernised and scaled third-party seller operations.

This replaced manual seller onboarding with a self-serve portal, integrated real-time inventory sync, and deployed a unified order management system. As a result, seller onboarding was reduced from five days to under four hours, third-party GMV surged by 57% in six months, and seller churn dropped.

This end-to-end transformation enabled Massmart to unlock exponential growth, improve customer experience, and create a scalable, sustainable foundation for its digital commerce strategy.

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, the retailer 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.

Nextail

Inter-store transfers move from analysis to action with Nextail Store Rebalancing. Hyper-local demand signals pinpoint where each product and size will sell best, and a mathematical optimiser converts them into ready to execute proposals with explanations, guardrails, thresholds, and role-based approvals.

Weekly proactive runs surface the highest-ROI moves across complex networks (multi-price lists, packs/pre-packs with break logic, visual rules, lead times, routing costs), while the scenario workspace allows planners to adjust proposals on screen and push decisions live.

The impact is clear: +3% sell-through among participating retailers,~80% less operational time, a 67.5% sales rate on moved items, and €1.3 million in additional sales (Nov ’24–Mar ’25) at SportStreet. Earlier consolidation routes 86.5% of leftovers for resale rather than late markdowns - boosting margin, reducing waste, and embedding a predictable, exception driven operating rhythm.

Retail247

Origin, the product platform from R247, redefines how retailers manage product data by automating the entire lifecycle – from product creation and enrichment through to syndication, pricing and critical path management.

Origin replaces manual spreadsheets and siloed systems with a single configurable engine that manages the product journey from design to sale. For clients, including Crew Clothing, Piglet in Bed and AllSaints, Origin helped eliminate legacy inefficiencies, reduced manual admin and enabled rapid, accurate multi-channel publishing.

It is not just a PIM - it’s a complete automation layer for retail product data, delivering agility, governance and consistency at scale.

Sinch and Clarins

Sinch worked in partnership with Clarins for its highly anticipated Mother’s Day campaign in France, offering customers the chance to indulge in best loved products at exclusive prices.  

Clarins wanted to transform the 2025 event into a premium, emotionally resonant and hyper-personalised experience. Sinch created a conversational and automated RCS-based journey, delivering the right product to the right customer at the right moment. 

The team created two distinct experiences; one generic and one opt-in personalised version based on purchase history, preferences, product availability and behaviour. The personalised journey drove 4x higher engagement and 3x higher revenue compared to the generic journey.

Staxel

Diageo selected Staxel as a winner of the Secure Retail track of its Partnership Innovation Programme. Its challenge was high theft in physical stores for premium alcohol categories.

Solutions like “Buzz for Booze”, where customers need to push a button and wait for assistance in front of the shelf, not only boosted alcohol sales, but also drove customers away from retailers like Morrisons.

Zipline and Pacsun

PacSun scaled an automation led operating model across 315 stores by introducing Chaddy, a branded AI assistant powered by Zipline’s conversational AI, and automating quality loops in visual execution through photo task approval flows.

Chaddy lives in PacSun’s Zipline library and answers store questions about policies and procedures on demand, reducing repetitive HQ inquiries and speeding issue resolution. Automated approval flows let district leaders review, approve, or reject visual submissions inside the task, turning feedback into action without extra channels.

Combined with Zipline Learning, PacSun now connects directive, training, and verification in one automated system that keeps stores informed and execution on track.