News English — retail technology

  Yet another concept store open and we are still as keen as ever to check out the new awesome technology this global company must have installed and utilised to its maximum potential. We are quickly disappointed by the mirrors on display and the large number of Zara staff on display. Our immediate thought "did we waste our time coming here?". Technology - what technology? The Zara concept store use a bit of technology, but nothing revolutionary, or even inspirational. It appears to be more of a testing ground to determine how consumers will interact with a guide shop, order...

  Final day at the NRF 2018 show. (images to come - upload speed is particularly bad at JFK airport) Disappointed by the number of businesses that cannot explain what they do in a few sentences. Ok, some businesses are a bit more complex than say "we help retailers to become omni channel retailers"... However, for the companies who think this is a good explanation of what you do, perhaps you ought to think through your trade show strategy a bit more and losen up on the sales schpiel and get down to the nitty gritty. Sometimes the simplest explanation...

  It was our first visit and a bit overwhelming initially. But as we found our footing it was quite a well arranged and impressive show, two more days to go though. However, the queue to Starbucks might well be the longest we have ever seen... Some noteworthy exhibitors: 42Technologies - These guys seems like a business with traction. Their UK clients include AllSaints and they are close to signing up a major sports chain in the UK (which will be a big scalp indeed!). 42 is a business intelligence suite and must have something going for them, be it...

Self-service stores is a big thing in China. At what point will Chinese companies lead and businesses like Amazon follow?

The AI Europe conference, organised by Events Corp, was located on the third floor of the Queen Elizabeth II conference halls (just off Houses of Parliament) in central London on Nov 21-22, 2017. Score: 3/5, worth a visit if you are local (1/5 = go if you need to get out of the office; 5/5 you’re missing out by not going) Note: We did not listen to any of the presentations. Our primary goal was to see the exhibiting companies and have conversations. It is also worth noting that our main interest is to talk to retail related technology companies,...