Thinking differently as agentic AI adoption advances: presenting the retail technology week in numbers
Do you like numbers? Do you like retail tech news? Then this is the article for you. Including Loop, Mastercard, Hotel Chocolat, Deliveroo, Keep Converting, ARC, Popeyes UK, VoCoVo, The Range, MINISO, and the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.
55%...New research finds that 55% of British shoppers have either stopped shopping with a retailer or abandoned a purchase because of its returns policy.
A survey, conducted among over 1,000 UK consumers and 200 UK retail decision-makers by e-commerce operations platform, Loop, is released as several major fashion retailers, including Asos, find themselves under increasing scrutiny over changes to their returns policies, reflecting the growing challenge brands face in balancing rising operational costs with consumers' expectations.
The research also suggests returns fraud is becoming increasingly normalised among shoppers. One in every three UK consumers surveyed admit they have sometimes or often provided an inaccurate reason for making a return and 26% admit to returning a different item than the one originally purchased.
Retailers are feeling the impact. 58% say false claims relating to damaged or missing items are among the most common forms of returns fraud they encounter, while 41% regularly deal with shoppers returning different or damaged items. Yet despite growing concern, 56% still rely on manual reviews to identify suspicious returns, with fewer than one in five using AI or machine learning to detect fraud.
The study also highlights how returns have become embedded and are delivering a shift in modern shopping behaviour. 32% of consumers state that they are deliberately ordering multiple sizes or colours intending to return some of the items. The findings suggest that for many people, returning items is just simply part of the online shopping journey and no longer an exception.
3...The 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards is now up and running with the deadline for entries being Friday, 2nd October. That’s just three weeks away, so don’t delay, start working on your submissions today!
The awards, sponsored by 3D Cloud, Business France, and Retail Technology Show 2027, celebrate global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world. Our latest winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC (Prince Consort Rooms) in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.
Click here for FAQs, categories, and information on our judging panel.
Sign up for an account and submit your entry or entries here.
5...Hotel Chocolat has announced an exclusive partnership with Deliveroo, launching initially with five of its locations - Manchester Cross Street, Chiswick, Staines, St James's and Wimbledon. Customers will be able to shop the Velvetiser, Hotel Chocolat's new boxed selections, its signature selectors, and Velvetised Creams.
Carrie Martin, UK General Manager at Hotel Chocolat, says: “Thoughtful gifting has always been at the heart of what we do, and we're constantly looking at how we can make it easier for customers to mark the moments that matter.”
“Partnering with Deliveroo gives customers a completely new way to access and send Hotel Chocolat gifts: combining the quality and originality they expect from us with greater choice and flexibility. It’s an exciting next step in how we’re growing the brand and meeting customers where they want to shop.”
Suzy McClintock, VP Consumer at Deliveroo, says: “We are building a new destination for gifting at Deliveroo. Customers are no longer using our platform just to shop for themselves but to send something special to a loved one, whether for Valentine’s Day, Christmas, a birthday and more. As a true gifting specialist, Hotel Chocolat brings real brand authority and category expertise to our retail offer, and we are excited to help them reach more consumers who are on a mission to find a meaningful last minute gift.”
$2 million...Keep Converting, an AI powered e-commerce platform that personalises product pages for shoppers in real-time, has emerged from stealth with $2 million in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Nuwa Capital and COTU Ventures.
Keep Converting is pre-integrated with Shopify, WooCommerce, Adobe Commerce, Zid, Salla, and various other commerce platforms. It says that client setup takes approximately ten minutes, and most brands see measurable conversion lift within two weeks of going live.
“Everyone says AI will kill the merchant website. We bet the opposite. Shoppers still want to visit the site, see the real product, and connect with it before they buy. So Keep Converting transforms every product page into the form that speaks to each shopper, and lets the site win the AI shift instead of just surviving it. We've now proven it works, and the next chapter is bringing it to every merchant,” says Mohammad El Mougi, Founder and CEO at Keep Converting.
Mougi previously served as Chief Product Officer at Vezeeta, a health tech platform in the Middle East, and earlier led marketing at Vodafone. Co-founder Manuel Prinz previously served as Head of Product at TikTok Shop US and on the product management team at Walmart.
“At TikTok Shop and Walmart, I watched the world's best commerce teams ship one personalisation framework after another and still hit the same wall - a recommendation engine here, a banner test there, none of it touching the page itself,” says Prinz. “Keep Converting is the first platform that rebuilds the actual experience per shopper. That's the unlock.”
The $2 million pre-seed will fund onboarding merchants and growing the engineering team behind the platform's cross-client intelligence.
£370 billion...One in ten consumers will routinely use artificial intelligence to shop and pay by 2030, according to a report published by Mastercard that surveyed 26,000 people across Europe and canvassed the opinions of four futurologists. This was unveiled in London earlier this week and forecasts AI driven consumer spending will hit £370 billion a year globally by the end of the decade.
Carried out in June and July this year in conjunction with Opinium who questioned 13,000 teens and 13,00 parents in pairs across 13 European nations from France and Germany to Italy, Spain, and the UK, the research showed 18% of teens already use an AI assistant, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, once a week to help them compare products before purchasing. This compares to 9% for the parental adults surveyed.
A third of the surveyed teens said they would happily hand over control to a fully AI run shopping assistant that chooses and pays for products. Speaking at a press event to launch the research, Agnes Woolrich, SVP MasterCard UK, commented: "AI has transformational potential."
"Businesses will have to think differently," she argued, in an exclusive chat with RTIH, who were in attendance at the event prior to the research’s wider general release on 8th September. Woolrich added: "Investments in retailers’ brand, loyalty programmes, and in machine readable digital estates will all be essential in the future, as agentic AI adoption advances."
“I expect the technology to follow the classic adoption curve with early adopters right through to laggards evident. This goes for consumers and merchants," she said, while also unveiling a new artwork commissioned to accompany the report that apes the famous Bayreux Tapestry.
The tie up comes with a new retail work experience programme to help tackle Britain’s growing youth unemployment crisis, announced at the Retail Jobs Summit in Parliament, alongside DWP Secretary of State, Pat McFadden, Chair of the Young People and Work Review, Alan Milburn, and over 30 retail leaders.
The announcement comes after Milburn’s recent interim Young People and Work Report laid bare the scale of the challenge facing the country. Almost one million, or one in seven young people, are considered NEET. It warns that this could rise to more than 1.25 million over the next five years. Too many are stuck in the vicious cycle of “no experience, no job”, leaving them shut out of employment opportunities, it is argued.
A new work experience programme, Opening Shift, has been developed by retailers through the British Retail Consortium (BRC), and the Department for Work and Pensions with Marc Bolland. Retailers will offer two to four week work experience placements to NEETs aged 18-24, helping them gain the skills and confidence needed to take their first step into work. Participants will continue to receive Universal Credit throughout their placement. Over 40 retailers are involved in the development and roll-out of the new programme with 11,305 placements already pledged.
$60 million...ARC, an enterprise device management platform helping retailers and supply chain organisations manage the technology powering their frontline workforce, has announced a $60 million growth investment from Acadia Investment Partners. This takes the total raised to date to $100 million.
“We built ARC because we saw a decades old operational problem hiding in plain sight,” says Douglas Baldasare, CEO at ARC. “Having learned from our experience in solving complex consumer device challenges in live field environments, we appreciated the complexity and technological know-how that are needed to truly solve the problem space for the frontline workforce.”
“Enterprises invest billions in devices designed to amplify worker output. But, when those devices aren’t working, aren’t charged, or aren’t readily available, the investment is wasted and worker output goes down. ARC provides the infrastructure and intelligence to solve those challenges upstream, holistically solving the problems with advanced logic, seamless and adaptive user experiences, thoughtful rule-based logic, and full accountability and visibility. With Acadia’s partnership, we can accelerate our vision to become the technology platform that powers the frontline workforce.”
$108 billion...Total revenue from omnichannel payment platforms will grow 57% over the next five years, rising from $56 billion in 2026 to $108 billion in 2031, according to a report released by Juniper Research. This is being driven by increased adoption from merchants seeking to streamline their operational processes.
By combining different channels into a single solution, merchants can reduce the operational burden of payments. The leading omnichannel payment platforms also integrate with third-party services, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions.
Omnichannel payment platforms must prioritise integration with third-party systems that add value for merchants in a tailored way, focusing on popular platforms in their target markets, says Juniper Research.
283...VoCoVo has announced a partnership with home, leisure and garden retailer The Range, that will see Series 5 (S5) Pro Headsets and Call Points rolled out across all 283 of its stores. This follows a one-store trial over the course of a year.
The Range colleagues will get instant, hands free communication through the headsets, replacing disruptive loudspeaker calls and reducing the need for them to search the shop floor for one another. The technology will help deliver faster, more responsive customer service by reducing waiting times at tills, service desks and across the shop floor.
Colleagues can contact managers and team members immediately for price and stock checks, quickly coordinate requests and assign tasks in real-time, while two-way Call Points will allow customers to request assistance at the touch of a button and connect with available colleagues.
A Store Manager at The Range says: “The headsets have made a hugely positive impact in-store for both colleagues and customers. Customer service has noticeably improved as queries are answered faster, stock checks are smoother and warehouse to shop floor communication is instant. This has already streamlined Deliveroo and Click & Collect, and I can see the headsets becoming invaluable during patio season. They’ve become essential to daily operations."
“The very impressive results already achieved in our store have laid the groundwork for much bigger savings across the store network. I can’t wait to see colleagues benefitting from the same technology.”
Beth Worrall, CEO at VoCoVo, says: “The initial trial with The Range has shown how they can achieve significant time and cost savings while maintaining outstanding service levels and the optimum in-store experience at the same time. We’re looking forward to working alongside the team to implement the technology across all its stores.”
1...Popeyes UK has announced the launch of Popeyes Rewards, its first ever loyalty programme. Built in-house by its technology team, this allows customers to earn points whether they order through the app, online, at the counter or via our self-service kiosks. Members earn points on every purchase, unlock exclusive rewards, and gain access to experiences inspired by the company's New Orleans heritage.
"For the first time, Popeyes Rewards gives back to our customers through Popeyes Points, and to kick things off, 2,000 points are waiting for you in the app, on us (only for the first six weeks, so hurry if you haven't claimed them yet!)," says James Clark, Head of Digital Marketing at Popeyes UK.
‘‘We wanted this programme to feel unmistakably Popeyes, rather than just points and vouchers. To do that, we're bringing our New Orleans heritage to life, giving customers their very own Mardi Gras Moments throughout the year. First up: we're crowning one customer Popeyes' first ever "Lord of Mardi Gras" and sending them home with £10,000 and the ultimate Popeyes bragging rights. There's a lot more coming, and I'm excited to keep building it with this team. For now, go claim your points."
6...MINISO, a lifestyle brand with over 8,200 stores across 112 countries and regions, offering the likes of IP collectibles and blind boxes, has launched a six market pop-up tour with K-pop star Lisa, kicking off in Thailand on 1st September before travelling to Japan and China in September, Indonesia in October, and United States in November, with Mexico set to join at a later date.
Lalisa Manobal, aka Lisa, rose to prominence as a member of the South Korean girl group Blackpink, which debuted in 2016 and went on to become one of the best selling girl groups of all time.
Her collection with MINISO features more than 70 items across categories including bags, apparel, blind boxes and lifestyle accessories. It also includes the Yoyo × Lisa Collection Vinyl Plush Suprise Box series, featuring MINISO’s own artist IP, YOYO. In addition to a global product lineup, exclusive regional items and limited edition releases will be introduced.
The aforementioned tour kicked off with the opening of an official pop-up store at retail and lifestyle destination ICONSIAM in Bangkok from 1st-24th September. This includes immersive experiences and large scale visual takeovers across more than 250 screens throughout the mall, alongside four multi-story banners suspended in the central atrium.
