Hot topics from Smart Retail Tech Expo

Key talking points for technologists

eCommerce experts, XR gurus and customer experience innovators descended on London’s docklands recently – and Flooid was there to see what was driving the conversation.

The Smart Retail Tech Expo took place at London’s ExCel centre on February 28^th through March 1^st. Exhibitors swapped anecdotes with big brand retail representatives and heard from leaders from High Street store operators, cloud providers, social media commerce disruptors, and start-up technologists in the retail engagement and data space.

Hot topics included:

• In-store enablement
  Several innovators demonstrated new ways to amplify in-store associate productivity and improve customer service. Wildix demonstrated its x-hopper retail headset, which immediately alerts staff if a customer scans a QR code on a store shelf, so they can assist with a product query fast. QR code scanning can also be tracked for common theme analysis, and live chat options aid speed of responsiveness, improving service and enhancing sales conversion. Flooid’s own innovations in this area include our real-time mobile Empower app, which allows retail associates to monitor checkout scanning, authorize age-restricted sales, understand who needs help and to catch non-payment activities.
• Feedback loops
  eCommerce growth levels have slowed following the initial Covid-related online shopping explosion. This has given retailers more breathing space and time to invest in better understanding, joining-up and personalizing their multichannel commerce processes. At Smart Retail Tech Expo, there was much talk of customer data platforms, and developing sharper customer profiles through more joined up management of customer queries and online actions. As we’ve shown with Flooid Insights, the ability to seamlessly amalgamate, process, sort and surface transaction data can unlock huge margin potential for any ambitious multichannel retailer, while personalized offers based on past behavior can aid profitability through increased sales and new revenue streams.

• In-store behavior analysis
  Computer vision, cloud and AI promise much for developing a better picture of how customers interact in store. Smart Retail Tech Expo included demonstrations of CCTV-led gesture recognition, which could automatically detect and alert likely thefts, plus a host of video analytics and online engagement tracking solutions. Flooid is also innovating in this area, and has demonstrated how a collaboration with our unified commerce platform can reduce shrink, while fast, flexible insights can create a platform for increased sales and offer redemption.
• New realities
  An impressive selection of 3D, VR, AR, AI and metaverse technology companies exhibited at the event. Exarta showcased Zeniva, its purpose-built lifelike AI-assistant for eCommerce sites. This human-like online assistant moves beyond the realms of animated chatbot to deliver curated product options, browsing-history based recommendations and the facilitation of data-backed decision-making. Elsewhere, NeXR showcased its digital avatar technology, which allows customers to create a scanned, pixel-based 3D version of themselves, and then see how clothes will fit them with a ‘virtual try-on’ on their mobile phone. We’re hugely excited by developments like these, and how, when coupled with unified, cloud-driven commerce platforms, they’ll drive increased engagement for customers and heightened profitability for retailers.

What did you think of Smart Retail Tech Expo? Engage with our team on social media — we’d love to hear your thoughts.