Last June 18, Collider hosted their second knowledge event of the year: Hyper Retail.
Three startups and retail expert René Repko shared some amazing innovative technologies, giving new insights in how digital innovation can help traditional retail future proof their business.
Below you will find the key take outs of the afternoon. If you are interested to receive one or more of the presentations, do drop a note at ellen@collider.io
Adapt or suffer
According to a recent publication of McKinsey*, “….retail industry, far from being moribund, is experiencing disruption— and reinvention—at unprecedented speed. It’s not a story about the malaise of an entire sector but rather a tale of two worlds. A confluence of trends has changed the playing field, forcing retailers either to adapt and innovate or to suffer painful losses or imminent demise.”
Key questions to ask
The same publication* suggests that, in order to adapt, some of the key questions traditional retailers should ask themselves:
- Are you meeting consumers where they are, both physically and digitally?
- Are technology and analytics working for you?
At-scale technology could help automate more than 55 percent of tasks in a classic grocery store. Retailers that are technology leaders can generate two to five percentage points greater EBIT than technology laggards.
Dynamic pricing reduces waste and increases margins
Kiran Gange talked about how RapidPricers’ dynamic pricing software gives the retailer the knowledge and power to optimise - with one mouse click - prices at any given moment, on any article in any store. Avoiding unnecessary waste, saving labour costs and generating sales at the right price. Those retailers who are the fastest to implement electronic shelf labels, will be the first to reap the benefits.
Cloud capacity is a huge barrier to leverage data – but there is a solution…
AI and computer vision can unlock the potential for innovation in many areas of physical retail. Think autonomous stores, fraud prevention, smart check out. However, challenges of infrastructure, high costs and AI accuracy are holding us back. Edgify’s unique technology deals with these challenges by avoiding the cloud, and thus avoiding high cost and time (years!) needed to get huge amounts of data into the cloud, train them there and deploy them. Ofri Ben Porat explained how Edgify can train data on the edge, i.e. inside the devices used in store, and subsequently share the models between devices. A technology that secures privacy by design, is scaleable by definition, is less time consuming, less costly and consumes less energy than cloud platforms.Increasing CX and sales by connecting on- and off line in store
It seems that e-commerce is overtaking retail, but, even according to Jeff Bezos, nearly 90% of retail remains in brick and mortar stores. Some of the reasons are the very high costs related to customer acquisition and return deliveries on-line. And shoppers are looking for experience. Combining best of both worlds seems a daunting task to many retailers, who believe that transformation to modern digital stores is complex and expensive. Richard Mason, Scoop Retail’s CTO, showed us that their platform packages in-store digital technologies, making them accessible to all retailers. That’s why UNIQLO is now rolling this out across Europe and the US.Next time, go East
René Repko gave us a visual illustration of why we shouldn’t go to Silicon Valley to find new retail technologies and innovation, but to China. Characteristics:
1. It’s a different economy, it’s governed by a different system
2. Capital and growth in abundance
3. Protected eco-systems
4. Leading eco-systems drive innovation
5. No walls, less silos: customer centric at its best
6. More experiments, less fear: delivery, unmanned, new retail
We’ll be back after summer with the launch event of our new cohort of startups, the Class of 2019!
* McKinsey & Company, Perspectives on retail and consumer goods, January 2019
