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How will automation fare post-Covid 19?
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The view of all vendors is that automation will become more important as a result of Covid-19. While this is not unexpected, should vendors be more cautious? Economic activity has ground to a halt in much of the world. Grocers, medical device suppliers and pharmaceutical manufacturers appears to be the only winners in our Covid-19 pandemic world. More specifically, eGrocery has been one of the main beneficiaries of Covid. However, these companies have been so successful that they have had to limit access to their sites. Source: FT.com, March 28, 2020 The outsized demand for online grocer's services has led...
Retailers! Adopt Alibaba's innovation processes to drive high street traffic.
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How do you explain to your customers that their elbows look like Cheerios?
Artificial Intelligence NRF retail technology Stores
At a recent visit to #NRF2019 we noticed a less than perfect working AI which apparently mistook a man's elbows for two packets of Cheerios. We presume there is a potential for these types of 'AI mistakes' once these stores are rolled out on mass scale. Not all stores will have the very latest technology and may come with flaws such as this. How do you explain to your customers that their elbows look like Cheerios? Image source: STIQ Ltd, 2019 The real thing
Retailers IT estate the next battle ground for suppliers & partners?
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On our recent visit to NRF2018 we saw the new piece of EPOS hardware Square payments had just recently released and at TDC18 we noticed Hermes new hardware for its partner stores. In addition to this we also read about Just-Eat's development of a hardware platform for its partner restaurants. All this is pointing to increased competition for retailer's and hospitality businesses IT estate - but what does it really mean? Will EPOS and ERP-light suppliers experience a declining market? To what extent is hardware and EPOS used as a way to 'tie in' customers and partners? Our take on...
Europe's busiest shopping street to become a 'people only' place; London's Oxford Street to transform from 2018
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Oxford Street is being transformed to a people-only place in 2018, starting with closing the stretch from Oxford Circus to Selfridges/Orchard Street (aka 'the posh bit of Oxford Street') to vehicles. Crossrail will open in Bond Street station and Tottenham Court Road station in December 2018 pushing up total visitor numbers to Oxford Street by a forecast 20%, or 120,000 visitors per day. With 200 million visitors already passing through Oxford Street every year, this will push visitor numbers closer to 240 million per year. Artists impression of a pedestrianised Oxford Street The 300+ retailers in the area will no...