What: The digital loyalty technology company from Seattle has raised a USD 100 million Series B funding in order to build out their workforce and expand to new international markets over the coming months.

Why it is important: The start-up is working to help retailers drive foot traffic to brick-and-mortar stores by leveraging online relationships with shoppers.

Swiftly understands the needs of both consumers and retailers as they have centered their technology around the in-store purchase. Swiftly has found a common theme in the behaviour of consumers which is: shoppers tend to make substantially more trips to the grocery store if they receive online offers customized to their needs and timed to reach them when they are most likely to be ready to make a purchase.

Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel of grocery retail or switch to a complete online platform Swiftly understands that most grocery store purchases will still occur in-store. In order to increase the individuals coming in-store Swiftly is offering different services to suit different retailers' needs, some need assistance in the customized online offers while others need assistance in growing their online traction. They want to help retailers to closely tie their e-commerce and in-store experiences as they boost shopper loyalty and keep customers from venturing to competitors. In particular, the company recommends that grocers allow shoppers to use loyalty points they earn in-store for digital transactions, which can encourage them to direct their online purchases to the retailers whose stores they frequent.

Swiftly's Series B funding, which was led by Wormhole Capital, builds on USD 15.6 million seed funding the company raised in late 2019 and brings the total amount it has brought in from investors to USD 120 million. With this funding, they are looking to expand their employee base as well as considering expansion and want to open offices in potentially, Europe, Central America and South America.

Swiftly: helping brick-and-mortar stores cater to online customers 

What: Komet, an 18 square meter showroom space in Rennes, France, with no checkout or salesperson, offers the opportunity to try on clothes autonomously and to make an independent purchase.

Why is it important: Komet is a solo shopping pop-up that was inspired as a response to the change in consumer behavior induced by the pandemic, which has dissuaded many from going into crowded traditional stores.

Furnished with armchairs and rugs (which are also for sale), customers can leave directly with a product that they like, and even wear it immediately, or order to receive it at home. The space has a reserve that can accommodate 400 to 500 items. The first brand to test the Komet was Noliju a sportswear brand, then Champ Blanc; Pile ou Face and Cul & Chemises followed it for a month each.

To be able to benefit from a 15 to 45-minute session in the pop-up, interested consumers must reserve a slot via a dedicated application, which includes the payment stage. Once inside they can try on clothes listed on a "connected" clothes rack that signals if the article is placed back in its place or if it has been placed in the customer's virtual basket. During this test phase, the founders replenish the pop-up according to purchases made, which are notified through the store application.

A second version of the pop-up is in preparation. The structure will be a 20-foot shipping container, equipped with solar panels to ensure its independent energy. The founders are in contact with other shopping centers to install their pop-up solution and hopefully multiply these mini-shops all over France, before targeting other European countries.

Komet, a cashier-less mini shop

What: The company's automated kiosks hold pickup orders for multiple grocers and are initially targeting the same city centers where quick commerce has taken off.

Why it is important: Delipop is in many ways the opposite of the 15-minute delivery upstarts that have fanned out across the globe. It's a pickup service, for starters, and order fulfillment happens in a matter of hours, not minutes. It's also chosen to link up with grocers rather than vertically integrate, serving primarily as a logistics partner that brings a full range of groceries into its automated kiosks operating in busy city neighborhoods. Each location will store orders from multiple grocers.

To use the service, shoppers select a Delipop location for pickup when checking out from a grocer like Carrefour — its first announced partner — along with a pickup window that's at least four hours long. They'll receive an alert along with a QR code to access their order when it's ready at the location. When they walk in, a digital avatar greets them on the machine's screen as they approach. Moments later, their order bags appear in a sliding compartment at the base of the machine. Frozen items are available in a separate bank of lockers.

Delipop opened its first location last week in Paris's 16th arrondissement, filling orders from a selection of 15,000 SKUs through Carrefour. Over the next few years, the company plans to open 1,000 locations across France and 500 in the U.K., expanding from their initial urban locations into smaller towns and suburbs.

To gather groceries from its partner retailers, Delipop has trucks that make regular runs collecting pre-packed orders from retailers' stores or fulfillment centers and storing them in the automated system. At the Paris location, trucks make two runs per day, but the plan is to build to three daily runs next year as the service gains traction.

Delipop said the efficiency of aggregating orders, automating service and building out a network of multi-retailer locations results in lower fulfillment costs than traditional delivery and comparable pickup services. The company charges retailers a per-bag fee and retailers in France won't charge shoppers a fee but will require an order minimum.

Pickup depot Delipop launches an alternative to instant delivery

What: Leap, a company that operates physical stores for brands seeking to get into brick-and-mortar, has secured a USD 50 million financing that will be used to expand into other markets and work with additional brands.

Why it is important: Leap's operating model is that it works with digital brands seeking to open brick-and-mortar stores but lack the expertise and funding to do it alone. In 2021, the number of stores operated by Leap quadrupled to more than 50 in eight markets and the company now works with more than 30 brands.

The brands are including Naadam, Something Navy, Goodlife, ThirdLove, Lunya, Ring Concierge and Mack Weldon. The stores are located in NYC, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Arizona, Florida, and Texas, and its reach has expanded beyond apparel and footwear to accessories, jewelry, intimates and home goods.

Leap enables brands to activate retail locations with speed and data-driven decisions, which minimizes risk, upfront costs and lease liabilities. More than 500 brands are said to have registered with Leap.

Leap was created in 2018 by entrepreneurs Tolia and Jared Golden with USD 3 million in seed money. Right before the pandemic shutdown, it secured another USD 15 million in Series A funding that it used to develop its technology, beef up its team and add brands and stores to its footprint.

Leap company expands

What: An app that pairs wardrobe twins for swapping clothing, pushing shoppers away from shopping for new clothes.

Why it is important: The app connects shoppers that resemble each other in both taste and size, providing an alternative way to curate wardrobe sustainably.

The Bandi app connects users to their 'fashion twins', which are the people that they resemble the most in fashion taste and body shape in order to easily swap clothes.

Users create a profile to list all of the items they no longer wear and Bandi matches people with others of similar size, body shape, and style. Users propose a swap and ship items in a reusable Bandi bag. There are no subscriptions, swaps are free (other than paying for postage and paying for the reusable shipping bag).

Learn more about Bandi here 

What: The emerging AI and machine learning tech startup, Adeptmind, backed by Ulta Beauty, provides its technology to over 400 retailers, shopping malls and brand clients.

Why is it important: Adeptmind wants to become the industry's go-to for product search, online and offline inventory with AI-personalised recommendations as online product discovery is an ongoing battleground for retailers.

Using customers' history and data mining, they enhance personal product recommendations on brand's websites. It is also growing into shoppable websites, with personal recommendations at its core, for malls and shopping destinations, compiling all the brand's mall stock onto one site.

With annual sales between $4 and $7 millionit is still a fledging business, but they have 400 retail clients, including shopping developments such as Mall of America, Plaza Las Américas, and Hudson Yards in Manhattan. Innospark, Ulta Beauty, Pi Labs and A/O Proptech have all invested and its ability to bring AI product recommendation to physical stock is something to keep in mind.

Retail clients are looking for dynamic homepages to display products most relevant to customers, based on the behaviour of similar users. Applying AI recommendation tools to physical inventory is useful for malls to have a commercial presence online as another potential stream of revenue and a way to connect with customers.

Fashion AI startup Adeptmind stands out

What: European B2B platform developed a new data standard that aspires to support the delivery of e-commerce product data in line with new industry requirements.

Why is it important: Fashion Cloud partnered with Bte and Euretco developed a guide to aid the 17,000 plus retailers who use its platform, download product data provided by brands. An added 2,000 retailers use the site to integrate product data from other brands into their web shops.

The need for this model came as the platform noticed variations in the data provided, it felt necessary to optimize the process so that retailers could access more straightforward data.

The data standard allows both brands and retailers clearer views of what is required for e-commerce  product data. This includes mandatory attributes expected by retailers, such as season, material and care instructions.

Fashion Cloud launches model to aid e-commerce product data

What:  Cegid enters a new market by proposing a multi-device, multi-operating system omnichannel solution to its retail customers

Why it is important:  To what extent this solution is new and innovates when compared to already existing players, such as Shopify, remains to be looked at. Also, one might wonder about the late timing of such a strategic move.

Cegid is launching a cloud-based omnichannel and collaborative store solution, to help retailers accelerating in their digital transformation. Cegid is known for operating many systems at the POS level (including cash desks) which makes the integration easier. It also includes apps and software compatible with any device and operating systems, helping both staff and customers to make the most of the proposed solutions wherever they are. It is also mentioned to be coming as an interesting way to maximize Shopify features but one may wonder if Cegid is not trying to replicate their strategy, and also if they are not too late in doing so.

Learn more about the cegid retail live store 

Cegid launches Cegid Retail Live Store (Retail Bulletin)

*Overview: Loyalty is at the core of most retail businesses. It costs less to efficiently engage existing clients - especially top spenders - than it does to acquire them. Personal relationships with store employees remain a key asset for brands to power long-term and profitable loyalty with customers.*

Department stores are ideally positioned to drive loyalty with shoppers

While loyalty can be driven by engaging point systems and gamification strategies, the personal touch and empathy that well-trained and incentivized store employees can garner is hard to compete with. We all know of countless stories of satisfied customers who will make the extra step to return to a particular sales associate and location to buy new products.

Human connections drive a lot of a brand's recurring business because when it comes to decision making, a personal point of view is often worth gold. As technology-advanced as our societies may be, we still depend very much on the herd mentality. Aspiration and personal recommendation by individuals still drive a vast amount of business today.

Department stores are particularly well positioned to tap into that opportunity for 3 primary reasons:

1. Diversity of choice: department stores cover a far wider and deeper inventory than D2C brands do. Diversity of choice - no only in the product itself but also in terms of verticals and product category positively impacts conversion. The ability for department store employees to tap into that is key to create a wider range of personal recommendations for each customer. Unless a client is looking for a very specific item, an experienced associate usually makes the difference with their ability to cover a much wider range of product options and identify the right match for their customer.
2. Empathy: well-trained store employees are masters at listening to their customers. Catching all the personal details that make a person unique, not only allows the employee to more often convert a prospect into a sale but it also allows them to leverage those insights to drive loyalty. Loyalty is not driven only by personal incentives. The discounts / offers associated to a loyalty program are irrelevant if the customer doesn't know what they want to buy within a points redemption time frame. Department store associates play a crucial role in that process when they are able to access and leverage customer data to help shoppers learn about relevant products and make buying decisions.
3. Clarity: everyone of us has dealt with decision fatigue. The amount of options and variations in products out there is staggering and more often than not, a sale will not convert because the client is lost in a "decision loop". This is particularly true when it comes to high-ticket items or more generally in Fashion, Beauty and Personal Care. More than any other sales associate, Department store employees must bring the level of clarity needed to her customer to make the final decision.

Relational Shopping is the foundation of long-term engagement

Today's standard loyalty programs are ideally designed for self-service: a customer is incentivized to accumulate value and track their progress through a set of milestones that they are invited to reach. They can do all this on their own and often redeem their offers either in-store and online.

What these programs are often not doing is build a personal relationship with the customer. That is fine when they are applied to high-volume and relatively low-cost consumer goods (e.g. Starbucks' iconic "Stars" loyalty system) but it's a problem when the product sold is not subject to discounts / offers and when the purchase is high enough of an investment. In that case, the best "loyalty program" left for a brand is the relationship that can be created and nurtured between a client and department store employee.

Relational Shopping is a term that was coined by our company, Clientela Inc. It's a methodology and set of tools that are put in place by a retailer to look at online and in-store shopping beyond their purely transactional nature and leverage instead the personal relationship between store employees and customers as a key lever to drive business: converting a prospect online, driving an existing client to come back in-store, upselling loyal customers… Unless a client knows exactly which product they are looking for and that is precisely all they want from the interaction with the Department Store, the ability of store associates to nurture client relationships across channels (online, in-store, remote shopping via video, chat, etc.) and the tools made available to them become fundamental.

Coherence and user experience are key drivers for technology adoption

As Apple has been proving over and over, the ability to have a "vertical" offering covering software, hardware, supply chain and even the rails of innovation (the App Store) is a winning formula for digital innovation. By controlling the entire experience from start to finish, the brand has been able to build a "hook" with their customers. The experience is the same whether you are in Tokyo, Paris or in the middle of nowhere in Montana.

In contrast, many retailers and brands have been "plugging together" highly disparate solutions. The result is that each solution has addressed a particular issue but the lack of coherence between them and ability to seamlessly switch from one to the other has created new challenges for employees and managers.

Adding solutions to a tech stack is relatively easy, but the focus on integrating all of them into one tool - typically living on a mobile device - in order to create a coherent user experience is typically what makes or breaks a digital strategy. That is why Department Stores should fully commit to building a comprehensive experience not only for their customers but their employees as well.

In Sum

The Department Stores' nature as aggregators of products, services and experiences, combined with a comprehensive vision for digital innovation and the working tools used by a well-trained workforce places them in a clear position of strength to success. However, their ability to build a long-term strategy around loyalty and Relational Shopping solutions which place sales associates at the center of the conversation make for a magic formula in retail, one that only they are able to achieve, with the right approach.

Arnaud Barbelet – COO / Clientela - abarbelet@clientela.com

*Clientela is a RetailTech company based in New York and Paris.

For more than 10 years, Clientela has defined and developed applications dedicated to improving the performance of salespeople and employees of major brands, distributors and department stores.

Main services are Clienteling, Drive-to-Store and boutique's resource management.

www.clientela.com*

Learn more about Clientela here

What: Avery Dennison is the largest provider of RFID tags to the apparel industry.

Why it is important: RFID technology has seen a rise in retail use cases as the need for accurate supply chain visibility at all times is necessary as the omnichannel offer extends into new services.

Avery Dennison is a leader in RFID tags and connected garments. They offer many services as well as end-to-end solutions that offer transparency from sourcing to the end consumer. This technology enables retailers to have a full vision of their inventory in real time.

Recently Greta Moser, Supply Chain & Product Development Manager at Avery Dennison, presented their new circular platform that unleashes the power of connected clothes and shoes by assigning a digital identity to each item. This will allow customers of Avery Dennison to not only supply chain visibility, but also traceability and circularity, digital consumer engagement, and personalization and customization.  The platform provides an end-to-end solution of transparency in a circular economy approach.

Learn more about Avery Dennison here

What: Cart.com is an end-to-end e-commerce service delivering a fully integrated and owned suite of software, services, and infrastructure.

Why it is important: With the solution suite offered, retailers of any size can work with a single partner to attain the same capabilities as some of the world's largest companies.

Cart.com offers a wealth of business solutions including online store software, digital marketing services, fulfillment services, financial services, and customer service capabilities.

Retailers already working with Cart.com: Dollar General, GNC, Guess

Funding: USD 98 million in Series B funding

Check out their solution below.

Learn more about Cart.com here 

*Overview: Successful relational shopping requires a solid data collection practice. Information that tells a story about a potential customer's tastes, preferences, habits and history makes it possible to better understand potential buyers and existing clients. This in turn allows retailers to build more profitable and longer-term relationships with their global markets.*

Department stores are uniquely positioned for data capture

Department Stores' deeper and wider merchandising assortment generates higher-volume, and more importantly, higher quality data, giving them an edge over single-brand businesses.

This in turns not only allows the brand to better qualify its prospects and existing clients, but also its employees to build a deeper, more personal and unique experience with shoppers. In other words, Department stores are uniquely positioned to build a virtuous cycle around data, one that can drive business growth for years to come and support the brand when sales fall short (e.g. during a pandemic).

What is "data" anyway?

Data is a broad concept, so it is worth looking at what exactly we are referring to, namely:

1. Demographic data: information about a shopper's location, preferred language, gender, age and more. Those are naturally relevant for a successful buying journey where relevance is key.
2. Product / merchandising data: in this category especially, Department Stores have a key edge as they are able to capture a far wider range of prospects and client interactions. Merchandising data can range from browser products on the website to selected product categories during a booking journey and more. Naturally, the richer the product data, the more relevant the sales team's effort will be.
3. Contextual data: is the shopper buying for herself or someone else? Is she getting married? Is she in a rush or planning ahead? Contextual data offers invaluable insights for the sales team to create a personal touch when interacting with their customers.
4. Product lifecycle data: this one is particularly relevant from an operational standpoint for a Department Store's sales team, as it is defined around the natural follow up opportunities certain categories of products imply. This may include after-sale questions about how to use an appliance (e.g. an advanced vaccum), maintenance service on a watch, second visit for a wedding dress fitting… these are some example of product lifecycle data that further

Data is expensive. Online digital services allow to capture more, earlier.

The cost of obtaining, maintaining and consolidating customer data is high. As a result, the more and better data is capture early in the buying system, the more successful a retailer becomes over time.

Shopping is driven by experience. The ability for Department Stores to elevate this experience online with prospects and clients - even before they visit stores - has become fundamental. This means thinking well beyond "adding a chat" or "booking tool" on their website.

The quality of the experience are only partly a function of the tools used. What distinguishes a brand's experience is the people - employees - who drive that experience. This means the more trained but also and more importantly informed employees are about the market, the more successful they will be at forging long-term relationships.

The solution to this is actually simple: put sales associates front and center in the buying process. This means allowing a new prospect in Paris to quickly connect and book an appointment with a wedding specialist, or a an existing watch owner in New York to be contacted by a watch expert near him to discuss their needs and then plan a follow up appointment online or in-store.

Ultimately, Department Stores can't limit themselves to adding a feature - e.g. a Chat - on their website. They need to think about their digital services as a complete and globalized ecosystem centered around people.

When they do that correctly, the sky is the limit.

Lorenzo Benazzo – CEO Clientela - lbenazzo@clientela.com

*Clientela is a RetailTech company based in New York and Paris.

For more than 10 years, Clientela has defined and developed applications dedicated to improving the performance of salespeople and employees of major brands, distributors and department stores.

Main services are Clienteling, Drive-to-Store and boutique's resource management.

www.clientela.com*

Learn more about Clientela here

What: ByondXR is a virtual shopping startup that brings the in-person in-store shopping experience online.

Why it is important: The solution gives retailers the ability to let customers around the world experience, shop in, and view an identical virtual version of their flagship stores.

Customers can also use the tech to see how products would look in their own homes.

Retailers already using ByondXR: Target, Calvin Klein, L'Oréal, and Coca-Cola

Funding: USD 7million in seed funding

Learn more about ByondXR here

What: Trove creates and runs branded recommerce sites, where brands buy and sell used items to consumers.

Why it is important: By letting brands own their trade-in and resale channels, Trove enables them to stay closer to their customers, find new customers without sacrificing premium positioning, and control their brand while helping the environment and giving consumers a discount.

Circular shopping is becoming a big business. Instead of clothes going from - store, to consumer, to landfill, - items get a second (or third) life by circling back into use on the resale market, increasing sustainability and helping the environment, all while saving consumers money. Luxury consignment sites like The Real Real and Poshmark are a growing business, but brands have no control over what happens inside, make no money off those resales, gain no consumer data, and can't guarantee the articles offered are genuine. Trove gives brands back the power in the resale market.

Retailers already using Trove: lululemon, Patagonia, REI, Nordstrom, and Levi's

Funding: recently secured USD 77.5 million in Series D funding.

Learn more about Trove here

• A reverse approach to marketplaces in order to promote real stores to local customers and let them have access to the best deals, offline.
• Achille is a device-driven solution that applies the principle of marketplace (in terms of choice, offer and access to products) to real stores. The advantages for retailers are that Achille works exactly in the same way as a virtual marketplace, however is a great complement in terms of local business solution at a limited cost of operation. You can watch their demo video by clicking here.
• Why do we think this is important? A simple tool that comes as an extra software layer, thus not requiring heavy IT integration, which also provides a solution for our members who have a large regional network and want to make sure they cover all their types of customers, including the less connected ones.

To be noted:  The IADS already showed to its members a similar solution, UK-based, during the Store Operations meeting in 2017: Nearst, founded by Nick Brackenbury

Contact: Fabrice Moncault, founder, fabrice@achille.shop

https://www.achille.shop

Achile - Physical stores marketplace

Check out more startups from Vivatech here

• A seemingly simple tool, however with potential applications that go beyond the use cases displayed on stage.
• Pitchy is an AI-powered online video editor, that allows the making of high-quality videos quickly, simply and without any particular skills. They can be used online, on websites, but also on social media or in 1 to 1 communication. In terms of practicality, think "PowerPoint applied to video conception". See how it works by clicking here.
• Why do we think this is important?   A simple and versatile tool, that can be used at the HQ level on many topics (training, motivational or informational messages) but also on the sales floor when it comes to presenting efficiently a new product to inform customers, just with a phone, or by marketing departments to tease their next campaigns.

Contact: Jimmy Moe, International Sales Manager, jmoe@pitchy.io 

https://www.pitchy.io

Pitchy - Video creation made easy

Check out more startups from Vivatech here

• The WOW effect in windows and on the sales floor, with a wide variety of animations in 3D that either represent the products on display or complement them with additional information. In addition to this, a solution for live streaming IADS members that could contribute to animate stores from the network while having the live session in the flagship.
• A series of state-of-the art screens and display technologies allowing jaw-dropping interactions with products (click here to see the video of their Totem Holix solution, applied to Kenzo). But more importantly, a camera and screening system allowing streaming in real time a 3-D, life sized picture of the speaker, in a clear and natural manner (click here to see the video of they Crystalman solution) . With the appropriate system, the speaker, wherever he/she is based, can interact with the audience watching the screen.
• Why do we think this is important? Live streaming sessions are now crucial for our members' businesses, but can be expensive, all the more so if they involve a celebrity or an influencer. In addition, they tend to address only an online audience. We see this technological solution as a way to maximize the investment by being able to show the streaming in other stores, therefore creating occasions for drive-to-store events addressing the local clientele.

Contact: Cédric Besacier, cofounder, cedric@agence-fosfor.fr

https://www.agence-fosfor.fr

Fosfor - Visual Display solutions

Check out more startups from Vivatech here

• An interesting initiative, supported by LVMH, which provides to brands and retailers the possibility to guarantee a 100% sustainable delivery process thanks to circular packaging,
• Hipli has developed reusable packaging (envelopes, covers) that is shipped back free of charge by the customer upon receipt of the product. Hipli washes the packaging, prepares it again and reinjects it in the process. Packaging elements can be branded, and the solution is already 100% working in France, currently being expanded in Europe. The system works as a "Packaging as a service"
• Why do we think this is important? Hipli provides an easy to implement and non-industrially committing solution to members to move forward in their sustainability initiatives. For now, they have only inked deals with brands, but there is no reason why retailers should not be interested either. It is also a very visible step, that can provide significant PR coverage (contrary to other initiatives that, even though they are needed and useful, might be less visible and interesting for the general public).

Contact: Lysianne Coquin, cofounder, lysianne.coquin@hipli.Fr

<https://hipli.fr/en/>

Hipli - Brand presentation + pliant parcels

Hipli - Brand presentation + Rigid Parcel

Hipli - Branded example

Check out more startups from Vivatech here

Department stores are a gateway to experience local communities

There are plenty of stories about department stores being the place where people connect. Before shopping became more transactional, it was a truly all-encompassing experience.

This article about Harrods' little known secrets is an interesting reference about how the department store consistently aimed to offer a complete experience during its history.

What hasn't changed is a department store's ability to build a sense of community, where people still identify themselves and each other based on where they shop. This is especially true in a world where meeting in person is no longer as immediate and obvious as it used to be and offline experiences are in many ways experiencing a rebirth. Retailers and retail groups are more often than not seen doubling down on their investment in brick-and-mortar. The relaunch of La Samaritaine by DFS / LVMH is a good example of that, with a €750M and a 16-year overhaul to completely reinvent the iconic department store. Even with a massive investment in the project, one thing that hasn't changed is the sense of community and personal interaction that drives the experience at the department store.

Unsurprisingly, store associates are still very much there and remain a pillar of the local experience.

Localized digital services elevated by the human touch

The old paradigm of in-store VS online sales is quickly crumbling. Innovative retailers and especially department stores have long been looking at the user experience as the driver of their survival and growth. As a result, many of them pioneered the Omnichannel era with services that connect online with offline sales and vice versa. Those include the now-ubiquitous services offered by department stores to drive conversion from digital in-store: "Click & Collect", "Reserve In-store", "Try in-store, Buy Online".

To match and elevate these solutions built for convenience, department store employees play a key role as they help drive these omnichannel experiences, with an accent and focus on empathy and localization. This in tun helps drive conversion, long-term engagement and returning customers.

Here are some high-level examples of how department stores can further drive conversion and loyalty through personal engagement:

• 1:1 in-store shopping appointments: by matching prospects and clients to stores associates to book an in-store appointment, department stores are able to capture more information than ever about their customers and empower their employees with better solutions to sell. This is especially true when the offering covers the deep and wide inventory of brands and products that department stores are able to offer.
• 1:1 video personal shopping: similarly to in-store appointments, store employees can engage online shoppers through video to help drive conversion and upsell. In this case, there is an important caveat: Live Chat and Video can be very useful but the disruptive element of these solutions for employees can cause bottlenecks and frustration. As a result, it is highly recommended to either complement or even replace online queuing with an agile booking and "time-matching" solution that fits video consultation more seamlessly in the agenda of each store associate.
• Live Shopping and in-store shopping events: shopping events are nothing new, but the technology growth driven by the Pandemic has really helped consumers adopt video as a channel with Live Shopping. As a result, retailers are able to not only leverage online shopping but also drive in-store experiences with an audience that is more open than ever to look beyond standard eCommerce shopping.

Regardless of the tools used, in-store employees remain a pillar of the Retail ecosystem. Empathy, personal touch and the sense of belonging that they are able to spur with customers is hard to overstate. As a result, retailers and especially Department Stores should double down on leveraging their front-line employees, not only to welcome or educate clients but also and more importantly to build relationships and nurture Loyalty in the long term.

Department Stores: the neighborhood away from home

The local experience and personal link that department stores are able to provide is actually able to extend beyond the physical space. More than even, undecided shoppers relate to and count on their preferred department store associates to make decisions even when they are traveling abroad. They then leverage video, chat and emails to keep the conversation going, before "returning to the base" following their travel.

The ability for DS brands to create this immutable link build on empathy and personal relationships with their customers is invaluable and shows once again how successful department stores can remain in driving business and long-term growth in retail.

Ryan Miller - Head of CSM / Clientela - rmiller@clientela.com

*Clientela is a RetailTech company based in New York and Paris.

For more than 10 years, Clientela has defined and developed applications dedicated to improving the performance of salespeople and employees of major brands, distributors and department stores.

Main services are Clienteling, Drive-to-Store and boutique's resource management.

www.clientela.com*

Learn more about Clientela here

Among today's significant environmental problems is the fallout from the "fast fashion" industry. Each year, millions of garments are bought and disposed of by consumers, leaving behind a wake of water pollution and carbon emissions. Also surprising is the amount of apparel that is manufactured and then disposed of before it even gets sold.

In addition to the byproducts of fast fashion, retailers are generally challenged with inventory management issues, and recent trends have made it worse. Most notably, pandemic-related supply chain issues meant that retailers over-ordered on merchandise. And today, now that the ships and shipping containers have disgorged their merchandise, retailers are faced with a glut of product – often product that's about to go out of style or is otherwise "perishable" – as the economy slides towards recession and consumers hesitate on purchases.

Many retailers aren't accepting returns, and shoppers have come to expect deep markdowns because shelves and warehouses must be cleared out. The industry is unprepared for the increasing costs (and environmental footprint) associated with the increased demands on warehousing and transportation of this dead stock.

As a result, well before Black Friday and Cyber Monday, consumers have found that great deals are available, with many stumbling across non-promoted specials that illustrate retailers' willingness to discount and lose margin or even sell at a steep loss just to clear out existing inventory.

This uneven supply and demand scenario needs correction, and merchants must find ways to solve current problems and also to better manage future retail seasons. Many are looking to improved inventory management techniques and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as leveraging areas that previously had been overlooked as levers to boost sustainability, such as marketing technology for improved results.

The Overlap of Supply Issues and Sustainability

There is significant overlap between supply chain issues – including the current inventory glut – and sustainability. Sustainability goes beyond the waste associated with product production and spills over into the environmental footprint of shipping, warehousing and logistics/fulfillment.

When product remains unsold, it sits in warehouses, taking up space and awaiting liquidation. Energy and materials are wasted, as this inventory must be tracked, packed, loaded, boxed, and potentially moved around to make space for other products. When and if liquidated, there is significant carbon impact when these goods must be transported and significant amounts of paper and plastic waste in the form of boxes and packing materials. Many brands still incinerate or otherwise destroy unsold inventory despite public outcry and pending or recently enacted legislation. At every point in the process of liquidating unsold products there are significant environmental impacts and cost implications.

Turning Challenges Into Opportunities

However, opportunities exist at the intersection of supply chain issues and sustainability. Brands and retailers must develop ways to be more responsive to customer desires in order to move product and ensure they have the right product in the first place so they don't end up in this situation.

Previously, marketing was one of the last departments one would think of when cooking up groups within the organization to help improve sustainability outcomes. However, the ability to increase visibility of product in a way that inspires customers is where marketing can drive significant change in inventory optimization and positively impact sustainability. In many organizations, the marketing production cycle is very lengthy, and there is no realistic way to change the products featured in editorial campaigns and inspirational photoshoots because production happens so far in advance. Typically, marketers will decide on and produce the campaigns for a given retail season far ahead of its arrival – sometimes measured in years.

The creative production process to make a simple ad campaign is so time-consuming that it is impossible for marketing to create a beautiful and compelling campaign featuring every single product. This means that they have to select which products receive this level of treatment and create a self-fulfilling prophecy: the ones that get the 'white glove marketing love" sell better, while the rest of the "long tail" doesn't sell as well.

Unfortunately, most retailers and brands are incapable of creating compelling marketing assets featuring every single product, let alone updating marketing assets dynamically based on what is happening with supply, such as removing and replacing product from assets when they've gone out of stock and featuring heavily those that need extra visibility. Those products that need the boost are the first items to be discounted and put on sale, and marketing cannot be used as a lever to spur sales.

There may be nothing inherently bad about these products; the old axiom "a dog is a dog" is only true about 15% of the time. In most cases, increasing the visibility of the product and providing curated inspiration in the form of a marketing asset will improve the sell-through of the item, long before it has to be discounted or liquidated. Therefore, marketing technology that allows for these quick, inventory-aware updates without the need for a lengthy production or re-work cycle are the key to marketing's ability to improve sustainability outcomes.

Companies can also leverage technology in the area of inventory management to sell more goods while reducing the environmental impact of fulfillment. Again, most marketers who produce editorial content do so so far in advance they have no way of knowing which warehouse each product will live in. If the brand or retailer is so lucky to drive a multi-item purchase, the marketing campaign may inadvertently increase a "split shipment" where two products purchased by the consumer at the same time are coming from two different warehouses, in two different boxes, on two different carbon-spewing trucks.

Real-time composable marketing content makes it possible that products from the same location are featured in these high-value editorial campaigns and are dynamically updated as stock changes. Similarly, this dynamic approach to marketing with inventory-awareness allows brands to take advantage of localized purchasing trends, which may include stronger demand in one region versus another.

Leveraging Technology

Marketing technology tied to inventory can also help make better decisions on what to sell in the first place. If the campaign assets are composable dynamically, then the technology knows what is in the asset at any given time, by definition. That intelligence allows for rich analytics that showcases to merchants and buyers what is selling well with what.

And it allows for a variety of campaigns, which can help the brand ascertain what kinds of styles are resonating with customers, even before producing a single new product. While there is no physical way to have all products made to market or to achieve a perfect fit all of the time, technology – including visibility into supply chain data – enables merchants to be much more on target, more often. Being more on target means that sales can and will increase and that companies are more likely to achieve optimized inventory levels.

In an idealized scenario, technology works in concert with marketing to support inventory optimization and more environmentally conscious stock levels. To achieve this, brands should continue to do what they're doing on the marketing front, with human-powered creative teams that establish a creative vision, while outsourcing the large-scale production of marketing assets to automated technology solutions that can help drive sales via real-time composable content. Merchandising teams are thus empowered to use marketing assets as a lever, instead of turning to discounts right away or having the wrong products pile up in warehouses. This is where the intersection of marketing and AI can really make a difference – not only for retailers and brands but also for the environment.

Michelle Bacharach - CEO and Founder / FindMine

FindMine is an AI powered solution that helps brands & retailers create curated on-brand shoppable content, at scale from day one.

FindMine is an LVMH Maison des Startups company, and its technology has received multiple awards including Best Saas Solution at NRF's VIP Awards and Gartner's Cool Vendor award.

<https://findmine.com/>

Learn more about FindMine here

Both the NRF/FIRA conferences and the NRF fair itself were great ways to review a number of start-ups that we believe could be interesting to our members. This selection also follows our own axes of research, which is the reason why we do not aim at covering the totality of our members' needs and expectations, but the selection below is, in essence, a subjective curation.

We wanted to know more about Retail Media, as we sense that this is one of the main topics for 2023. Interestingly, while the (few) conferences on the topic were very well attended in terms of numbers (and leading to very technical conversations), there were not many related exhibitors. Some people with whom we discussed suggested that this dichotomy was due to the fact that the topic was relatively new, and for that reason, still mainly developed in-house by retailers. However, many observers believe that the fragmentation of this market, and the burgeoning of new operators, will take place in the forthcoming year

Shopreme

What do they do: A scan-and-go solution offering a new option for customers looking at avoiding cash desks, with low hassle for the Retailer's IT department (no need for deep coding or integration).

Why this is important: Even though their main pitch point could be the rapidity of check-out, they prefer to insist on 2 elements:

-    Easiness of integration with even complex systems (the solution comes as a tech layer and not a new system per se)

-    Ability to see in real-time customers' actual behaviour and the possibility to influence it, either by pushing special promotions or discounts based on the customer profile, granting access to non-store stock (online stock, third-party stock) for new product options or complementary purchases and of course selling this information to brands

While this solution is not directly related to Retail Media, it was extremely interesting that they were among the only 3 start-ups (out of 1,150 exhibitors this year at NRF) advertising themselves as a retail media enhancer and not emphasizing the check-out solution which is embedded at the core of their model. This suggests a capability of adaptation and understanding of the business which could help generate synergies.

Check out the Shopreme website

Swiftly

What do they do: A full retail media solution from scratch proposed to small-sized retailers.

Why this is important: They are following the same approach as what Farfetch did in fashion, by promoting scale and reach to smaller operators and encouraging them to join a platform to reach a critical mass.

Switfly is literally building a platform allowing retailers to advertise their capabilities to brands, and convince them to use their assets for promotional efforts. Although it is very much grocery and US-oriented, it would be worth for any member interested in Retail Media to look at what they do. They propose a keys-in-hand solution.

check out the swiftly website

RelevanC

What do they do: RelevanC positions itself as the true large-scale independent retail media operator on the market.

Why it is important: RelevanC belongs to the French supermarket group Casino and has already implemented the Casino retail media solution, as well as the Intermarché and Franprix ones (other French supermarket groups). They have partnerships with Google Cloud and Accenture, and sell a keys-in-hand solution under a white label, which seemed interesting to us.

Another reason why we believe the timing is right is that they are currently looking to expand beyond French borders, which suggests that a first-entrant premium negotiation might be available to the first international player making a deal with them.

check out the relevanc website

Shoptalk Europe is returning to Barcelona this June, following a hugely successful relaunch in 2023, with a purpose of facilitating the digital transformation of the European retail market.

It's Shoptalk's aim to create the most dynamic and progressive community in European retail, focused on digital transformation and retail innovation. We bring together the whole ecosystem; retailers, brands, technology innovators and investors, at a senior level, and over 3,000 leaders joined in 2023. At the heart of the event is Shoptalk's agenda-setting content programme, and in 2024 it will tackle the industry's biggest questions to unpick how tomorrow's consumers will discover, shop and buy, and how retailers and brands will meet their expectations.

Introducing Shoptalk Europe 2024

At the heart of the event is Shoptalk's agenda-setting content programme, and in 2024 it will tackle the industry's biggest questions to unpick how tomorrow's consumers will discover, shop and buy, and how retailers and brands will meet their expectations.

Here's a few of the questions we'll be answering at Shoptalk Europe 2024, and examples of the great speakers who will be addressing them.

• Getting beyond the AI hype to share real world case studies of which applications of artificial intelligence will be most transformational to the industry. Tian Su is VP Personalisation & Recommendation at Zalando, heading Zalando's market-leading work on utilising AI to deliver personalised shopping experiences, and is just one of 11 fantastic retailer and brand leaders sharing their experiences on a content track dedicated to Groundbreaking AI Applications in Retail.
• What is Unified Commerce, what sectors is it relevant for, and what technologies and capabilities are needed to deliver it? One of the most exciting conversations in retail is how to break down organisational silos to put the customer at the heart of any retail proposition, finally moving on from historical channel thinking. Hear a Track Keynote from Maria Jose Barrera Rojas, Global Chief Digital Officer & E-Commerce Director, Massimo Dutti, Inditex at Shoptalk Europe talking about how she is leading the delivery of consistent cross-channel experiences to their customers.
• How are industry relationships changing across Europe amid new B2B partnerships, especially driven by the growth of Retail Media Networks. Elodie Perthuisot is CEO of Carrefour Spain, and Carrefour group Chief Digital Officer, so perfectly placed to address this in her Keynote.
• How are brands driving differentiation, loyalty and demand and how are they using the ecosystem of retail, wholesale, marketplace, DTC, and aggregators to fulfil that demand? One of the most compelling brand stories of 2023 was Mattel's repositioning of Barbie. Hear from Sanjay Luthra, EVP Managing Director Mattel EMEA & Global Head Direct to Consumer International, Mattel, on what they are learning from their direct-to-consumer platform, Mattel Creations, as a powerful catalyst for digital transformation and greater consumer connection.
• What are next-generation customer journeys? Hear from Stanley 1913, the team behind the viral social media sensation, the Stanley Quencher, about how TikTok has helped transform their 110-year-old company by introducing their products to a whole new consumer. Andréa Martins, President, EMEA & LATAM, Stanley1913 will be sharing her perspective on how to succeed with social media and its creators.

Content at Shoptalk is different from other events. Our agenda is entirely editorially led. We curate our programme based on industry feedback, including from our Advisory Board of leading retailers and brands, and we accept no payment from any speakers. All are chosen on merit!

We're currently handpicking 175+ great speakers for 2024, two-thirds of which will be Founders, CEOs or other C-level executives and the rest at least Vice Presidents in their organisations. Hearing from them provides a unique opportunity to hear fresh insights and actionable takeaways from the very leaders who are pioneering the industry's transformation.

Shoptalk Europe takes place from 3-5 June in Barcelona. Members and companies associated with IADS can get a 20% discount off current pricing with discount Code: IADS20here.

Learn more about Shoptalk

For the past 10 years, retailers have transitioned from being pure sellers of goods to technology companies that sell products. Now, they're adding another feather to their hat: solution provider.

The most prominent example of this shift is the rise of Retail Media Networks. According to research from the Walton Business School, there are over 600 Retail Media Networks, with Insider Intelligence forecasting spend on these digital advertising platforms to reach $60 billion in the U.S. alone in 2024.

Sitting at the intersection of advertising and commerce, Retail Media Networks provide the chance to see a consumer's path to purchase and influence shoppers throughout the funnel. They use first-party data with closed-loop reporting, and promise to unlock personalised communication at scale. They also allow retailers to capitalise on the blurring lines between digital and physical shopping, driving the incremental opportunity of seamless experiences where every touchpoint is shoppable.

Perhaps most importantly in an inflationary environment that's squeezing consumer spending and pressuring the industry's profitability, Retail Media Networks promise adjacent revenue streams to boost companies' income and margin.

Yet despite their myriad opportunities, these nascent offerings present retailers with a number of challenges, including how to provide unique value to brands in a crowded market; how to deliver highly sought after data within today's infrastructure constraints; and which capabilities to develop to lead in the future.

The Retail Opportunity

Anyone who has sold products through Amazon is familiar with the range of services offered by Amazon Ads. What's made this service so valuable for Amazon and its vendors is the ability to more directly attribute ad spend.

"This value proposition, with such clear return on advertising spend [ROAS], has led retail media to become one of the fastest growing segments of digital marketing spend," said Andrew Lipsman, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence. "Retail media ad spend follows search and social as the three big waves of digital advertising – and I'm increasingly convinced it's destined to be the biggest of the three."

Amazon captures around 75% of all spend on Retail Media Networks in the U.S. However, their potential to boost retailers' ecommerce profitability has caused hundreds of others to launch their own offerings.

Some are now firmly established, like Walmart Connect–the origin for which can be traced to Walmart bringing its digital marketing functions in-house back in 2019. Yet others are more nascent. At Groceryshop this past September, Ahold Delhaize announced its intention to build a €1 billion Retail Media Network; the following day, Morrisons in the UK announced it too is creating a new Network.

This abundance of offerings will create a long-term challenge for retailers looking to grow their business and brands deciding with which retailers to partner. In a low-growth, margin-pressured environment, retailers that can prove incremental sales to brands will be best positioned to succeed, though all networks may benefit from tailwinds as social and other forms of digital marketing are perceived to be less cost effective.

Building Value for Brands

For brands, unlocking the value of Retail Media Networks along the full path to purchase will be covered in detail during a dedicated session at Shoptalk Europe in 2023. The European session will feature insights from Simon Miles, vice president of global omnichannel commercial strategy at The Coca-Cola Company.

Miles said he views the first steps for brands as being aligned internally across departments and ensuring activity is linked to the organisation's strategic goals.

"We believe that brand, rather than trade marketing teams, should own the retail media relationship," he said. "We're mindful, though, that there's a real chance our commercial team can be unsighted, which is increasingly problematic if the engagements form part of the joint business plan."

The dynamics between brand and retail organisations are changing as a result of this new business model, too. While the retailer has long been the brand's customer, within the context of Retail Media Networks, the brand is now the customer. Miles said he's optimistic that this dynamic can redefine brands' relationships with retailers and lead to mutual collaboration.

There is, however, a gap between the potential of Retail Media Networks and the current reality, Miles said. He attributed this gap to inconsistencies around technology platforms, the quality of data provided, and levels of trust across networks. The Coca-Cola Company is developing a consistent segmentation of networks to determine investment levels based on their ability to deliver, as well as developing its own capability to use the data provided and create consistency of measurement.

Ricardo Belmar, director, and partner marketing advisor for retail and consumer goods at Microsoft, said he expects more networks to be able to deliver the desired data by next year.

"For the retailers, it's all about ensuring their underlying technology platform can provide the required data, and working with their technology partners to ensure this," he said. "For FCMGs, though, it's all about audience reach and audience targeting, and here the level of duplicity is a problem. Retailers only have the data on their own shoppers, yet people shop around. How, as an industry, this gets aggregated is an as yet unsolved challenge."

For both retailers and brands, grasping incremental opportunities may require analysis beyond an organisation's current capabilities, requiring upfront investment in data scientists and infrastructure. Talent is in high demand, though, and the later this is left, the more expensive building these teams will be.

Where We're Headed

Shoptalk firmly believes that Retail Media Networks will be an important part of future digital marketing and retail ecosystems. The opportunities to deliver genuine value to both retailers and brands are clear, though work is still required by all parties to unlock this value.

They expect to see more networks launch, as additional retailers seek the adjacent revenue and margin opportunities. This fragmentation with overlapping audiences, very few of whom are loyal to just one retailer in each category, could create the environment for disruption.

While brands will invest in trade spend with all priority retailers, consolidation or even third-party aggregation could impact the individual walled gardens. This trend is already being brought to life through offerings by the likes of Instacart and Doordash. A highly fragmented market could also open the door to industry standards being created, for example in measurement or nomenclature.

One particular element of Retail Media Networks that is exciting is their potential to be creative, collaborative spaces that foster innovation. Two opportunities that already exist for early adopters are livestreaming with Walmart Connect and Firework, and connected TV with Amazon Ads.

Finally, as Retail Media Networks mature, they will evolve from online-only offerings to omnichannel propositions. Analysis from Insider Intelligence highlights the opportunity for in-store assets including screens and end caps to surpass the audience reach of retailers' digital properties.

Shoptalk Europe takes place from 9-11 May in Barcelona. Members and companies associated with IADS can get a 10% discount off current pricing here.

Learn more about Shoptalk