2026 RTIH Innovation Awards CX Excellence finalists announced including Goddiva, Yours Clothing, and Poq
We’re pleased to announce the shortlist for the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Customer Experience Excellence category. We received a record number of entries this year and many fantastic examples of technology excellence driving transformative change across the global retail sector.
Check out a rundown of our 2026 shortlists and finalists here.
Congratulations to all those who made it through the initial submission process! It’s now over to our star studded judging panel who will decide the winners to be announced at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London.
The event will be held on Wednesday, 4th November and consist of a drinks reception, three course meal, awards ceremony presided over by award winning stand-up comedian, presenter, actor and broadcaster, Aurie Styla, and after party until 1am.
Click here to book your place at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, 4th November.
Our 2026 Customer Experience Excellence finalists as follows:
Dark’s Bar, Lord’s Cricket Ground
Dark's Bar at Lord’s has transformed hospitality at one of the world’s most iconic sporting venues, combining innovative retail technology with a design sympathetic to Marylebone Cricket Club’s unique heritage.
The solution removes friction from the customer journey while the technology sits quietly in the background, making the experience feel effortless rather than technology led. Faster service and a seamless purchasing journey have contributed to a 35% uplift in units sold. Crucially, innovation has not come at the expense of character: Dark Bar complements the architecture and traditions of Lord’s while meeting modern customer expectations for speed, simplicity and convenience.
Goddiva
Post-Covid, customer expectations have moved beyond simply being able to shop online. Customers increasingly expect digital retail to provide the personalisation, reassurance and individual attention traditionally associated with an in-store experience. Goddiva responded by reimagining occasionwear ecommerce around the individual customer.
AI curated collections adapt around her preferences; intelligent memory recognises her size and past favourites; AI Size Finder helps establish fit; Virtual Try-On lets her see dresses on herself; and personalised alteration recommendations help perfect the final choice. Together, these technologies turn a conventional e-commerce catalogue into an intelligent, evolving digital fitting-room experience designed around each customer.
Hockerty
A Hockerty customer can design a navy suit, a light blue shirt and a camel coat, then see all three on a photo of themselves before a single piece is cut.
That is virtual try-on. Generative AI renders every item in the basket together, from its actual configuration: fabric, cut, colour, lapel, pockets. The same look can be moved to a meeting room, a wedding or a street. It takes 20 to 30 seconds, runs in the browser, and covers the whole range from suits to sneakers, in five languages.
Lloyds Banking Group
Lloyds Rewards is transforming how customers engage with their bank by creating one of the UK's most innovative and rewarding digital experiences.
Available to over ten million eligible customers through Lloyds' digital channels, Rewards combines cashback, challenges, prize draws, retailer discounts and strategic partnerships to help customers save money, discover new brands and be rewarded for everyday activity.
Over the past year, Lloyds has evolved Rewards beyond a traditional cashback proposition into a broader customer engagement platform that delivers meaningful value, greater choice and more personalised experiences. The result is a customer centric innovation that rewards everyday banking in new and engaging ways.
Yours Clothing and Poq
Yours Clothing has worked with poq for seven years, since launching its first native mobile app in 2019.
Rather than treating that success as a one off, Yours Clothing used it as the model for a repeatable, multi-brand mobile commerce strategy: M&Co (2023), Evans (2024), Bad Rhino (2024), Long Tall Sally (2025), Pixie Girl (2025), Yours Clothing Germany (2025), and now the Yours Clothing app (2026) have launched globally on the same proven foundation.
The result is a genuinely scalable approach to omnichannel customer experience - one that delivers a consistently excellent app experience across a diverse portfolio of brands, rather than customer experience excellence being limited to a single flagship.
