The RetailEXPO 2019 is a wrap and we were thoroughly impressed with the event’s brand-new format this year. Combining the Retail Business Technology Expo (RBTE), Retail Design Expo (RDE) and Retail Digital Signage Expo (RDSE), made it an enormous event and a one-stop hub of Retail Technology and innovation. Not only were there hundreds of innovators and disruptors showcasing at the event, but several big retail brands also made appearances, Vodaphone, Moonpig, NatWest and Lego to name a few.
The diversity of solutions on display and topics being discussed in conferences was exciting, but we did notice some more common themes and technologies that were well represented. As you’d expect with a Retail Technology show, innovation was often a focus of presentations but more specifically consumer engagement, Omnichannel and, encouragingly, RFID seemed to be particularly hot topics.
The RetailEXPO featured over a hundred talks and presentations held across 6 stages. There was a huge selection of topics and categories but one thing they all seemed concerned with in one way or another was the ‘future of retail’. The conferences broadly all targeted innovating in order to thrive in the digital age. There was a focus on the potential that technology offers for retailers who are willing to embrace change and capitalise on new, often-disruptive, technologies.
Detego’s presentation: ‘Unlocking the potential of RFID’
Our Senior Marketing Executive, Luke Sinclair, led the presentation which, due to unforeseen circumstances, was altered from what was originally scheduled. The presentation broadly explored the previous limitations of RFID, and how the technology and price points have now reached a point of potential for retailers. It covered the multiple retail industries that can now look to utilise the tags as well as the different benefits that can be unlocked. The presentation also covered our ‘RFID in a box’ approach and how it is the most frictionless and efficient way of implementing the technology, using a three-phased approach that establishes key use cases first before scaling up and adding more advanced functionalities.
New technology trends in a changing retail landscape
A common theme in talks over the two days was new technological advancements, the speed that they are arriving, and the changing retail landscape as a direct result of this. In a presentation on ‘The new retail landscape’ and the ‘hyper-connected consumer’ Craig Crawford presented the multitude of technological innovations that are altering both the retail market and the typical retail customer. Some of the key insights were:
- Stores becoming digital & distribution hubs
- Digital innovation being a journey, not a project.
- The lack of, and therefore importance, of Instore data to the beauty industry, Crawford described it as ‘Gold dust’.
Similarly, Alex Sbardella discussed Technology Trends and what drives long term innovation. He set out an interesting best practice for modern retail: To be fun when you (the customer) want it to be, and fast when you don’t. Our key impressions were:
- The 3 steps to success utilising new technology being: Fragmentation, Innovation and Experience
- The conclusion that experiences move the needle, in other words, technology only becomes ingrained if it changes the experience for the retailer or, more importantly, the customer.
Disruption and innovation: Is it a choice anymore?
Innovation is obviously a common theme of the show (and perhaps of the industry in general). Several presentations at the event framed the concept in a fairly severe fashion. None more so than Martin Wild, whose conference on embracing digital transformation was titled ‘Innovate or Die’. Thankfully however, the tone was more of excitement and opportunity than impending doom, the key focuses being:
- Customer experience driving innovation
- Improving business operations using technology
- Creating an ‘innovation culture’
This idea of an innovation culture was one shared with Moonpig’s CPO, Ronan Tighe who presented a retailer’s perspective of the issue with his talk, ‘Disrupt or be disrupted’. He explained Moonpig’s company culture of attempting to disrupt their own business model before a competitor can do it for them.
If there was a single thing to take from the RetailEXPO 2019 it was that the future of Retail technology, and therefore of Retail in general, is exciting. We look forward to being a part of it, and we look forward to being a part of the RetailEXPO 2020, we hope to see you there.
16. August 2023
13. October 2022
13. September 2022
RetailEXPO is one of Europe’s leading events for retail technology and design, running from 1-2nd May 2019 at the Olympia, London. Come and learn about our latest innovations for inventory visibility and omnichannel retailing with live demonstrations. Additionally, our Executive Chairman, Kim Berknov, will be presenting a new innovative approach to RFID implementation and digital transformation for fashion retailers (details below).
Click here to view the RetailEXPO 2019 promo video
Come and experience the future of retail with our user-friendly platform for in-store inventory management alongside our intelligent chatbot which helps drive consumer engagement and sales uplift in-stores.
- A quick start into the digital store: Retailers now recognize the need for RFID-based inventory systems, however, the time and resource required to implement can be a huge roadblock. Detego has met the demands of the fashion retail industry for a quick-start solution into the digital store that is ready within hours, not months. Without complex implementation, the ‘Detego InStore Lean Edition’ instantly increases your inventory accuracy (>99%) & on-floor availability (>98%) even on a small budget. Experience our intuitive mobile app which helps guide sales personnel through all the relevant store processes – all in the palm of their hand.
- Meet your ‘digital sales assistant’: With digital sales assistants, fashion retailers no longer have to keep consumers waiting but offer them a convenient service. Our AI-powered chatbot serves consumers via smartphone by answering initial questions such as: Is the article still available in my size? Where can I find it? How expensive is it? What accessories go with it? If an article is out of stock, the chatbot also makes suggestions, e.g. to have the desired article shipped from another store to the customer´s preferred store or even directly to their home.
‘RFID in a Box’ – A three-phase journey to fast and scalable digital transformation of fashion retail
TrIED It Talks, 1st May 2019, 12:50pm – 13:15pm.
With RFID inventory management now reaching mass adoption among fashion retailers, there is a higher need than ever for their journey to be made as efficient, affordable and scalable as possible.
Our Executive Chairman, Kim Berknov, discusses the recent success of several major fashion retailers through what Detego has termed ‘RFID in a box’. A three-phase approach to ultra-fast and scalable RFID implementation in order to achieve immediate ROI. With a deep understanding of the challenges fashion retailers face along their supply chain and in stores, Mr Berknov will touch on how those challenges shaped this innovative approach to RFID in the fashion retail industry as well as the on-going results Detego continues to achieve with the likes of Adidas, Levi’s and Reiss.
Schedule a meeting
Schedule a meeting with one of our team members in advance to ensure you get the complete overview of our solutions.
To schedule a meeting at the Detego booth during RetailEXPO 2019 please email events@detego.com
Event details
When- May 1-2nd, 2019
Where- Olympia, London, UK
Booth – 2A58
Detego takes RFID-based stock management to the next level with advanced localization capabilities.
Introducing ‘Smart Shield’ – Detego defies the laws of physics with breakthrough in RFID tag localization
London, UK, 04.04.2019 — Detego, the leader in business intelligence for fashion retailers, has released the latest innovation for their RFID-based inventory management software with a feature they call ‘Smart Shield’. This new technological advancement utilizes machine learning to determine the relative location of individual RFID tags, a feature which will drastically improve costs and process efficiencies for retailers implementing RFID.
Over the course of recent years, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has been applied in many different business domains to solve, for example, the issue of monitoring stock. Retailers in particular use the knowledge of item locations to understand in which area of the store they can find articles, for example, the backroom or sales floor. By having this knowledge, retailers achieve optimal product availability for their customers through an efficient replenishment process. When applied correctly, RFID technology provides the benefit of up to 99% stock accuracy and on-floor availability. However, until now there have always been limitations with the ability to understand an item’s exact location, due to the long-distance read signal achieved by modern RFID systems. The most common “best-practice” methods that can ensure such high figures are currently known to involve a physical method of shielding between individual stock locations, whether this is using foil or metallic paint. However, this common and costly method of shielding has left retailers and Detego wondering what else could be done to lower the hurdles on the initial steps of the RFID journey.
Every individual RFID tag creates a specific time & signal stamp when it is read by an RFID reader – up to several times per second. By collecting this data and applying smart algorithms within their software, Detego takes RFID-based merchandise management to the next level by adding an additional location element. Within this tag localization initiative, Detego establishes their ‘Smart Shield’ feature which can be utilized with just a handheld reader. With this advancement, retailers will no longer need to spend additional time and resources to put up physical shielding. Instead, they can roll-out RFID projects at a fraction of the time and cost. A newly-published research paper exploring the potential of this ground-breaking technology will be presented at this year’s 2019 IEEE International Conference on RFID.
“When RFID was developed, the concept of individual tag localization was always considered as ‘the holy grail’. Our latest innovations around this topic with our ‘Smart Shield’ feature is on par with traditional methods like physical shielding. By removing this barrier, a much faster and affordable implementation into brick-and-mortar stores has been made possible. However, this is just one element within our far more general localization initiative that will bring a variety of exciting new features for our customers.” says Detego CTO, Dr Michael Goller.
Detego says the new capability to ‘localize’ specific RFID tags has benefits far beyond the ‘Smart Shield’ feature. Through the machine learning infrastructure in place that enables individual tag localization, Detego can improve store operations in the following ways:
- Replenishment advice and picking lists for e-com processes can be optimised through location-based sorting to make the process more efficient for the store associate when in the backroom.
- Staff will now additionally be supported in finding items to further enhance customer service.
“Utilizing the information about relative locations of items can drastically increase staff efficiency and business process efficiency across various functions relating to logistics, warehousing and retail. Together with features that will significantly lower the costs for a roll-out, retailers will experience an even faster time to market and will have the ability to enable franchise/wholesaler partners with full RFID capabilities at low costs.” says Detego CTO, Dr. Michael Goller.
Having pioneered and tested this exciting new technology, Detego’s ‘Smart Shield’ is now readily available as part of their global SaaS platform. The first retailers are already beginning to successfully utilise the new system, seeing an increase in process efficiency across both the backroom and the shop floor. But perhaps the biggest development enabled by the ‘Smart Shield’ is the greater ease with which retailers can now implement RFID systems in stores. As this relatively-young technology continues to improve, developments like the ‘Smart shield’ are further steps towards RFID becoming part of the status-quo in the fashion retail landscape, as advancements such as this discover new use cases for the technology whilst simultaneously reducing the cost and time required for implementation.
Europe’s leading trade fair for retail technology, EuroCIS, is taking place in Düsseldorf, Germany from 19-21st February 2019. Detego’s large exhibition space will have live demonstrations of our entire product suite including the Smart Fitting Room and our innovative SaaS-based RFID platform for Fashion Retail. Detego CTO, Dr. Michael Goller, will also be providing valuable insights and advice with two separate presentations taking place over the three days.
Be sure to schedule a meeting with our team to get a demonstration of our solutions – events@detego.com
Join us at Hall 9, Booth #C04 to discover the latest digital in-store solutions for retailers, including:
- Detego InStore Lean Edition – Try our mobile app-based RFID solution for yourself and see just how easy it is to implement in stores.
- Digital assistant/chatbot – Free up time for your sales assistants by utilising our chatbot for intelligent article checks and product recommendations.
- Smart Fitting Room – Experience the future of brick-and-mortar stores and try out our Smart Fitting Room experience.
Presentations
Stores are the new DCs?!
Omni-Channel Forum: Tuesday, February 19th, 3:20 pm – 3:40 pm
Customer’s expectations to shop everywhere at any time has put fashion retailers under a lot of pressure. The quick answer for that was to introduce new systems – since then a huge range of different order management systems was established. However, what is often missing is a holistic approach in which the role and task of the individual store is reconsidered. In order to be able to offer scalable services such as Click & Collect and Ship-from-Store, you need, in addition to exact inventory data, one thing above all: Logistic processes in the stores, which run like a clockwork. A point where stores can learn a lot from DCs to benefit from increased product availability and proximity to the consumer.
Blockcain vs. AI? And pigs might fly!
EuroCIS Forum: Wednesday, February 20th, 4:00 pm – 4:20 pm
It has almost become a recurring game with rising entertainment value: what will be the big topic of the industry this year? After Business Intelligence, Cloud, Analytics, Blockchain and AI – what’s next? No question: new technologies are the engine of progress, enabling new services and applications. But what matters most is to apply these new technologies to specific problems and issues. The more complex the technologies and the more abstract the keywords, the harder it is to relate to the “Daily Business” – the main reason why many things do not exceed the conceptual phase. Therefore: A few very solid examples about the use of AI in the store to solve real problems. Who’s happy in the end? The consumer.
Schedule a meeting
Schedule a meeting with one of our team members in advance to ensure you get the complete overview of our solutions.
To schedule a meeting at the Detego booth during EuroCIS 2019 please email events@detego.com
Event details:
When – February 19-21st, 2019
Where – Düsseldorf, Germany
Booth – #C04, Hall 9
Every year industry experts, innovative trends and insights from leading vendors descend on the Javits Centre in New York City to create the world’s greatest retail trade fair. While innovative concepts were discussed during previous years, 2019 is the time for real solutions to be implemented.
Detego was positioned front and centre as part of the SAP partner village in booth #3426. For Detego, it was all about communicating our expertise and best practice when it comes to the implementation of RFID-based inventory management and consumer engagement solutions. Detego’s software is customer driven and has been developed through collaboration and understanding of how fashion retailers’ operations work. This approach was critical in advising retailers on their inventory management needs.
Tangible customer experience improvements
If the customer is to come back to the store, the store must change fundamentally. A store needs to inspire: in the design and presentation of the product assortment, with digitally supported store personnel empowered to provide knowledgeable sales advice and service, as well as delivering on the brand promise. With the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI), consumers are able to really experience the entire assortment. Cameras can capture the gender of the customer in order to display specific articles on large screens – digital signage becomes a central element of the staging of a brand. The multi-sensory approach to address consumers using sound elements or visualised fittings on e.g. eyewear or garments, offers a quick product comparison but also supports the purchasing decision. Pictures taken directly in the store can be shared with friends via social media, thereby making it a memorable shopping experience.
Operational Excellence in the store: Single-Stock View
Operational Excellence refers to stores with high levels of article availability – comparable to mini-distribution centres. In the omni-channel business, retailers need a Single view of Stock across all of their stores, franchises as well as concession partners as consumers are not interested in channels, they await a frictionless shopping experience.
It is clear that exact inventories are a necessary basis for efficient omni-channel retailing and therefore, satisfied customers; the same applies to RFID technology for accurate stock takes and article management. Retailers demand solutions that can be implemented quickly for a reasonable budget. Ideally with the option to test it in a pilot store and the possibility to easily roll out over the entire store network and to expand across the entire supply chain.
The Detego booth had retailers getting a hands-on demonstration of the Detego InStore Lean Edition, a mobile app-based solution which provides a quick start into RFID-based inventory management of the store. The mantra of ‘keep it simple’ was often being communicated by vendors and retailers alike.
Artificial Intelligence comes in many forms
“Retail will adopt AI technology the fastest in the next three years,” Deborah Weinswig, CEO and founder of U.S. retail and tech consultancy Coresight Research. With numerous AI solutions on display, retailers will have to think long and hard about how they want to utilise AI for their business.
Some of the use cases we could see was in data-driven AI solutions to make accurate demand prediction, new product development, optimized inventory placement and transportation as well as more advanced technology being used in offline shopping. Detego, a leader in AI for fashion retailers was one of the vendors showcasing the use of AI in our Smart Fitting Room and Chatbot, to bridge the gap between online and offline shopping as well as providing retailers with new data such as ‘fitting room conversion rates’.
Beyond the horizon – New market development for RFID
NRF also previewed a look of what is to come, more specifically in RFID inventory management for retailers. Intelligent label provider, Avery Dennison, provided a first peek into sustainable use of RFID and fresh food management to reduce food wastage across the world’s food retailers. With continued developments in labelling technology and a strong business case, the opportunities within RFID and retail continue to make an impact on the industry.
To find out more about the event please contact events@detego.com
Image source: NRF
Did we spark your interest?
Retail software specialist, Detego, will showcase three of its software solutions at EuroCIS, taking place from 19 – 21st of February 2019 in Düsseldorf, Germany. Visitors to Europe’s leading trade fair for retail technology can experience Detego’s market-leading solutions for the fashion retail industry, including real-time inventory intelligence and pioneering IoT and artificial intelligence (AI) projects. The live demos being showcased will be part of an impressive booth setup (Hall 9, booth #C04) which showcases the future of physical retail stores.
For inventory management of the store, Detego offers the InStore Lean Edition which meets the demands of the fashion retail industry for a quick-start solution into the digital store. Offered as a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) solution with cloud hosting, retailers benefit from high inventory accuracy and consistent article availability at low cost. This is possible through fast and accurate stocktakes and automated replenishment processes, bringing long-term benefits to fashion retailers and most importantly, delivering quick results. The app-based solution can be active within hours and has a clear path of scaling to ensure rapid deployment and an easy functional extension to the Detego InStore Full Edition. “More and more fashion retailers are living by the mantra of ‘keep it simple’ for their RFID implementation which is exactly why we successfully implemented across the world the Detego InStore Lean as an ‘out-of-the-box’ SaaS-based RFID solution.” Says Kim Berknov, Executive Chairman of Detego.
The fitting room is the most important place in the entire store when it comes to purchasing decisions being made. This means that it’s crucial to provide support and additional services for customers. Detego’s Smart Fitting Room provides product recommendations, such as matching items available on the sales floor that can be brought directly to the fitting room by sales staff via a “call-to-assist” button. The customer can gain access to the benefits of e-commerce by looking up other products, checking for availability, reserving articles or having them delivered directly from the store to their home. Links to videos or social media feeds can also help. These value-adding services are what continue to drive consumers to shop in-store.
Answering as many questions as possible for shoppers through AI, Detego’s chatbot supports the sales personnel and bridges waiting times for customers until there’s a salesperson available for individual service. The virtual store assistant accompanies customers throughout their entire shopping experience and provides additional support in the vital decision-making process, such as making product recommendations and earmarking other popular items, bestsellers, discounted articles or product variants. The AI capabilities are not just limited to the chatbot itself, but also work continually in the background by communicating with other systems in the store. The chatbot checks the actual availability of articles and compiles data about customer types and their preferred article combinations and choices. As a result, recommendations become more meaningful and personal and only articles immediately available in the store are recommended.
“We want to introduce fashion retailers to solutions that support them in their daily challenges,” says Dr. Michael Goller, CTO at Detego. “We can show how fashion retailers can positively influence buying decisions and how a digital fitting room or a chatbot help in the sales process, as well as witness how several global fashion brands have successfully adopted the Detego InStore Lean Edition.”
NRF 2019 ‘Retail’s Big Show’ is home to the latest and greatest in the retail industry. The team here at Detego will be among the excitement looking to make our mark on this global audience and exhibitor base.
Join us at booth #3426 (SAP) to discover the latest digital in-store solutions for retailers, including:
Gain insights into how Detego´s software, which also runs on the SAP Cloud platform, provides intelligent article management and powers a positive in-store consumer experience. This will include Detego InStore Lean Edition, a new mobile solution for retailers, offering faster and cheaper access to the benefits of digital connectivity, as well as a digital assistant/chatbot that supports customers throughout their entire shopping experience.
Schedule a meeting with one of our team members in advance to ensure you get the complete overview of our solutions.
To schedule a meeting at NRF 2019 please email events@detego.com
Click here to view the NRF 2019 promo video
Event details:
When – January 13th-15th, 2019
Where – Javits Center, New York City
Booth – #3426 (SAP partner village)
Detego, a provider of innovative software solutions for the retail industry, will be showcasing the latest digital in-store solutions on January 13-15 at NRF 2019. Returning as a co-exhibitor on the SAP booth (#3426), Detego will display their RFID-based inventory management software and latest AI applications for retailers.
Detego has been complementing the SAP offering in fashion retail by utilizing IoT technology and providing SAP systems with real time data on item level. Exhibiting at NRF will be the Detego InStore Lean Edition, a new mobile solution for retailers, offering faster and cheaper access to the benefits of digital connectivity via an RFID based system. This solution allows fashion retailers to quickly adopt a “smart” replenishment process and carry out “intelligent” stocktakes, by starting small and scaling across the entire store network. Offered as a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) model with cloud hosting, retailers benefit from high inventory accuracy and consistent article availability at low cost. Detego’s software has already proven to be the most cost-effective and fastest to implement on the market with over 1500 stores running on Detego around the globe.
To complement their core product offering, Detego have also developed AI applications which benefit both retailers and consumers alike. Detego’s new digital assistant/chatbot can be used at any time on a customer’s smartphone to help provide more pertinent product information or recommendations, based on real-time data on actual availability and customer preferences. The built-in machine-learning and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities adapt to the ever-changing dynamics of retail, which means that results get better and better over time.
Detego has also found opportunity within AI to help revolutionize the planogram. Since the manual maintenance of the planogram per store can be enormously time-consuming, Detego’s self-learning system adapts to possibly changing conditions and continuously optimises the individual planogram per store. “By optimising the sizing profile of individual items for each store and greatly simplifying the in-store refilling process, we provide retailers with tools that make it easier for them to plan and implement optimum product presentation and thereby help them to boost their sales.” Says Michael Goller, Detego CTO.
Detailed analysis by retail tech specialists at Detego has confirmed that the average retailer’s data is only about seventy-five percent accurate when it comes to knowing exactly what inventory is actually in stock at any particular time. The problem is often compounded by retailers continually managing stock across multiple channels and increasingly having to stay on top of consumer demands for up-to-the-minute, reliable information. Detego, which has been monitoring its own chatbot service that allows consumers to engage with retailers via their smartphones, found the most common enquiries to be about stock availability. It found data inaccuracies around inventory to be most of an issue in fashion retail where ever shorter product lifecycles, fast turnarounds of stock and multiple style, size and colour combinations can play havoc with the supply chain and in-store operations.
“Customers, above all, want instant and accurate information on product availability,” says Dr. Michael Goller, CTO at Detego. “If you’re shopping for clothes, you want to be sure of getting the exact size and style you’re looking for. But many retailers fall by the wayside here – their systems might tell them that a particular size is available; yet, there’s a one in four chance that this isn’t the case.”
According to Goller, continually relying on manual processes for something as vital to the retail business as stock – usually by shutting up shop once or twice a year for store or warehouse staff to do a stock-take – is madness. And especially given that smart technologies abound, including RFID and mobile devices which ensure continual monitoring and lead to near hundred percent accuracy and operational excellence in the stores.
Research by the University of Parma in Italy has shown consistent sales increases in RFID-managed apparel stores and deduced that “RFID item-level tagging is a powerful tool for improving inventory accuracy, which is a prerequisite for both omni-channel strategies and store floor replenishment from the backroom.”1
Thanks to technology that helps increase the availability of products on the shopfloor – such as using wearable devices that rely on alerts and images to guide staff and speed up the replacement of missing articles and gaps on the shelves – the industry is starting to see a gradual shift towards more connected technologies in retail. IDC Retail Insights predicts that eighty percent of retailers are due to spend on visibility platforms powered by RFID and IoT2 over the next few years.
1 http://bit.ly/2s2e2Gf
2 http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS43775418
Detego, market leader in real-time business intelligence for the fashion retail industry, showcases its innovative retail products at Whitebox – a digital experience space for various innovative in-store applications – in Future City Langenfeld. Retailers are introduced to new in-store technologies, test them and exchange their experiences with retail experts. With its innovative and beneficial in-store products, Detego perfectly fits into the concept of the Whitebox where the Detego InStore Lean Edition as well as the Chatbot Detega are showcased.
The Detego InStore Lean Edition meets the demand of the fashion retail industry for a quick-start solution into the digital store. With brick-and-mortar retail being under increasing pressure, innovative technologies play a significant role in regaining its former strength: Customer service that makes the difference – based on extremely high on-shelf availability and data accuracy in terms of inventory. This is possible through fast and accurate stocktakes and automated replenishment processes, bringing long-term benefits to fashion retailers and most importantly, delivers quick results. At Whitebox, fashion retailers have the opportunity to assess the Detego InStore Lean Edition, which is already successfully in use in over a thousand fashion stores.
In addition, visitors can find out more about the Chatbot Detega, the consumer engagement tool that helps increase sales. On request, Detega starts a dialogue on the customers’ smartphone immediately after entering the store, thus elegantly bridging possible waiting times. Consumers are already used to these services thanks to online shopping. The virtual sales assistant gives product recommendations, triggers cross-selling potential and increases retention time in the store. These are all features retailers will need in the future to make sure to keep their customers.
Frank Rehme, initiator of the Whitebox, Future City Langenfeld, wants to present visitors with a selection of innovative in-store systems and to give, in particular smaller retailers, the chance to digitalise their stores easily: “We are delighted to have Detego as a partner as their solutions bring much needed value to retailers quickly without much implementation time. Next to a clear vision for the future of retail, practical as well as result-oriented application of digital technologies are very important to us.”
More information: http://futurecitylangenfeld.de/whitebox/