2, Teaming up: Retail Technology Show and the BRC announce innovation partnership
Retail Technology Show and British Retail Consortium have announced a strategic partnership which will showcase the role of innovation in driving the future of retail.
This will see the latter lead a keynote session at Retail Technology Show, taking place at London’s Olympia on 26th-27th April, as part of a conference programme that also includes Farfetch, Alibaba, Deliveroo and Currys.
Andrew Opie, Director of Food and Sustainability at the BRC, will be discussing the key sustainability questions retailers should be asking themselves in 2023 on day one of the show.
Dr Kris Hamer, Director of Insight at the BRC, meanwhile, will join the closing keynote panel discussion, also on day one, which explores the key innovations impacting retail today and how this will evolve as we look ahead to 2028.
3. Amazon UK opens Just Walk Out tech powered Amazon Fresh store in Croydon after Dalston closure
Amazon has opened an Amazon Fresh checkout-free convenience store in Croydon.
This can be found at Unit 1, Ruskin Square, Croydon, London, CR0 2WF, and is open from 7:00 am to 11:00 pm, seven days a week.
In addition to a convenience grocery store offering, customers can also pick up items purchased on Amazon.co.uk at an Amazon Hub, and return items without needing to package the product or print a shipping label.
On Saturday, RTIH exclusively reported that Amazon Fresh had closed its Dalston, London location, less than 18 months after opening it in a blaze of autonomous retail glory.
4. Mercaux Pulse of Retail report showcases retailers’ digital transformation strategies in 2023
The latest edition of the annual Pulse of Retail report, exploring the strategies of leading retailers for the upcoming year, was officially released at last week’s NRF 2023 event in New York.
The Mercaux offering, which surveyed more than 500 retailers, has for the first time been jointly commissioned by fellow MACH Alliance members, Fluent Commerce, commercetools and Orium.
According to the research, the top technologies in “launch phase” are centred around customer experiences, with 87% of retailers focusing on this area during 2023.
Additionally, the survey found that composable architectures are important for 91% of respondents, suggesting that retailers are recognising the need for flexibility and scalability in their technology systems, in order to quickly adapt to changing customer needs and market trends.
Meanwhile, transitioning from legacy to next generation Point of Sale (PoS) systems is important for 79% of retailers.
However, the survey revealed that just 11% of retailers currently offer a frictionless omnichannel experience, where customers can seamlessly transition from shopping online to in-store, and vice versa.
