Latest / The Retail Podcast / AI Audio at Auchan, EU Customs Reform, Carrefour’s Autonomous Stores, Europe’s Ecommerce Habits & Inditex’s Lefties Gamble | Five Things Friday EU

Transcript

AI Audio at Auchan, EU Customs Reform, Carrefour’s Autonomous Stores, Europe’s Ecommerce Habits & Inditex’s Lefties Gamble | Five Things Friday EU · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to Five Things Friday, EU edition.
• 0:14
  Hello, Alexandra's back. We missed the last week.
• 0:18
  Alexandra, how are you doing? Hi, Alex.
• 0:21
  Thanks. For those for those who don't
• 0:24
  know, my name's Alex. I'm the founder of the Retail
• 0:26
  Podcast. I help retailers, people who
• 0:28
  sell to retail, maintain their thought leadership and to do
• 0:32
  their global conference planning and how they stay relevant in
• 0:35
  the wonderful world of retail. And I'm joined by my wonderful
• 0:39
  host, Alexandra. Alexandra.
• 0:41
  Thank you, Alex. So I work for Business Forms
• 0:44
  French Trade Commission in London and I specialise in
• 0:49
  retail tech and e-commerce and I have French retail tech
• 0:51
  companies expanding in the UK but also British retailers to
• 0:55
  find innovative solutions for their business.
• 0:58
  Fantastic. So listen, everyone should know
• 1:01
  the format. We're going to talk about 5
• 1:03
  things across Europe that we feel are interesting and share
• 1:07
  worthy. So why don't we start with you,
• 1:11
  Alexander? We'll go to.
• 1:12
  Sure. So the first the topic today is
• 1:16
  Anta Marche that has started using an AI powered tool to
• 1:21
  generate install audio messages. So this is a technology called
• 1:25
  Alex been developed by media meeting company, which lets
• 1:29
  teams, store teams to create announcements in just a few
• 1:33
  clicks. So all the the staff in store
• 1:36
  have to do all they have to do is to select the products, the
• 1:41
  iron and the price and then the AI over and they take care of
• 1:46
  the rest. So it generates generates a
• 1:48
  clear natural sounding message that is played directly in the
• 1:53
  store. So they have been testing this
• 1:56
  in 18 stores for a year prior to to the roll out and they have
• 2:00
  noticed that some products sales increased by over 60%, which is
• 2:04
  huge and even outside promotional periods.
• 2:07
  So this is a a really good advantage.
• 2:11
  But another one is that the staff adoption is also really
• 2:14
  strong because it's so easy to do and they don't have to make
• 2:18
  any more of the mic announcements.
• 2:21
  OK, got you. What does the AI do that for
• 2:23
  them? Yes, exactly.
• 2:25
  Yeah, the AI do it. So This is why the this tool is
• 2:29
  being rolled out widely across the network now.
• 2:31
  And I think this is a really good example of how retailers
• 2:35
  like Anton Marche are using AI in a practical way, and not just
• 2:40
  for show, but to make store operations more responsive and
• 2:44
  and local. And, you know, it also gives the
• 2:46
  teams more control over what they are promoting and when
• 2:50
  without relying on centralised marketing.
• 2:52
  So yeah, I think this is a good example of how AI is being
• 2:56
  integrated down into the day-to-day of retail.
• 3:00
  Yeah, I, I, I think it's, it's incredible how quickly AI is
• 3:03
  proliferating through because I, the way I look at it from a tech
• 3:06
  perspective, my God, you're having your tech team, The, the,
• 3:10
  the, the, the people who have the know how how to do this has
• 3:13
  always been the challenge within retail.
• 3:15
  So you're really reliant on your, on your partner ecosystem.
• 3:18
  But we've always talked about, you know, how, how the world
• 3:21
  would be so much better if you had an app that could do this
• 3:24
  for you. And, and there's wonderful
• 3:26
  example. Are they, they're in terms of
• 3:29
  people who don't know the retailer.
• 3:31
  They, they're cross because I can see they've got grocery, but
• 3:33
  is it like a department store? What is it?
• 3:35
  Are they're groceries? Yeah, it's a, it's a grocery,
• 3:38
  Yeah. Got you.
• 3:39
  Got you. OK.
• 3:40
  All right, fantastic. OK, so my 1 is about the
• 3:43
  wonderful European Union. And this is something I, I, I
• 3:47
  think it's probably the most significant shift that's
• 3:50
  happening in European retail regulations right now and it
• 3:53
  affects every single brown marketplace and supplier selling
• 3:57
  into the EU. On the 9th of July, the European
• 4:00
  Union officially called for a triple reform.
• 4:03
  So not one reform, but a triple reform that's going to reshape
• 4:06
  how products enter and move across borders first.
• 4:10
  And I'm hoping people are familiar and I won't go into it
• 4:13
  because it will take a lot of time.
• 4:15
  The digital product passports, which I think it's a great
• 4:18
  initiative where we understand where things come from and then
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  the life cycle of the product. They're mandatory identifies
• 4:24
  that follow each product's environment, safety and
• 4:26
  compliance data from manufacturer to end consumer.
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  You can think of it as a digital twin that proves a product's
• 4:32
  integrity at every stage. The second, they're demanding a
• 4:36
  full overhaul of the union customs code, which basically
• 4:40
  means it gives stronger tools and data visibility and
• 4:44
  platforms more importantly could be held liable as deemed
• 4:48
  importers. And the E US new customs data
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  hub will link everything. So customs Product Safety and
• 4:55
  market surveillance, which again is quite significant.
• 4:59
  And then the third one, which I think for a lot of maybe UK
• 5:02
  companies that export is that they want to abolish the €150
• 5:08
  customs duty exemption for low value imports.
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  That threshold has been sort of a back door for non compliant
• 5:15
  goods, especially from places such in Asia or China.
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  And in fact, in 2020, four 4.6 billion packages entered the EU
• 5:27
  underneath that exception. So it's, it's not, it's not a
• 5:30
  small loophole that one or two people know about.
• 5:32
  It's a it's a big loophole that's exploited.
• 5:35
  And you know, again, most of all of those goods came from one
• 5:38
  specific region. And now the EU is sort of saying
• 5:40
  enough is enough. We need to get this open.
• 5:42
  It's about creating a level playing field, protecting the
• 5:45
  customers, restoring trust in in cross-border sales.
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  So if you're a retailer in logistics, the enforcement is
• 5:54
  coming and it's coming fast. Yeah.
• 5:56
  And also to add on this trust is what is really important here.
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  And we, This is why the digital product passport is, is very
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  important because it gives transparency on where, where
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  the, the, the origin of the products, the materials used,
• 6:16
  all the, the logistics behind it.
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  And this is something that retailers want to know from the
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  brands, but also consumers also want to have access to this
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  data. So I think by 2027 this is going
• 6:29
  to be interesting to to see what is put in place around that.
• 6:33
  There's a fantastic case of I think it's actually called Trust
• 6:36
  Place, right? They're a French start up.
• 6:39
  I had them as a guest and they're part of your French
• 6:41
  pavilion. A little plug.
• 6:44
  There are lots in the podcast. Yeah, we see a lot of more and
• 6:48
  more companies in that space, not just in France, but also.
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  In. The UK, yeah, yeah, there's many
• 6:54
  of them, yeah. So over to you.
• 6:56
  Yeah, So the second topic is about careful Belgium that has
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  opened fully autonomous AI powered micro store inside an
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  Ibis style hotel near Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.
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  So this is called Bye Bye and this is only 6 square metres
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  which gives hotel guests 24/7 access to breakfast, lunch and
• 7:18
  snacks with no stuff needed. So it works via smart fridges
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  and all you have to do is unlock the fridge with a bank card and
• 7:26
  or an app. You can grab what you want and
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  then the system automatically recognises, waits and charges
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  the items. So this was already in place in
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  Carefuls headquarters and in a NATO base in Belgium.
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  But this is the first time that we are seeing this type of
• 7:43
  format tested in the hotel. So I think it's a really to the
• 7:46
  another good example of how retailers are using AI to
• 7:50
  diversify their offer and try new, new formats.
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  And it makes sense in places where timing is unpredictable,
• 7:57
  like hotels, airports, train stations.
• 8:01
  And it goes beyond the usual vending machine.
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  So these are micro stores where you can have a smoother, more
• 8:09
  intuitive experience like up with a broader range of products
• 8:15
  available around the clock with no stuff needed.
• 8:17
  Back to me, so this is from Nexi.
• 8:20
  They ran a they produced their report earlier this month called
• 8:24
  the e-commerce report 2024 Europe.
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  What's really interesting quarter of shoppers said that
• 8:31
  they shop online because it's simpler.
• 8:34
  But the big thing that I think retailers across the world
• 8:38
  struggle with is how in Europe there are so many varying
• 8:42
  different shopping behaviours specifically online.
• 8:46
  When you look at the delivery habits split in the map between
• 8:49
  67 of Polish consumers and only half of Nordic consumers prefer,
• 8:56
  for example, picking up at lockers.
• 8:58
  I don't like to pick up at Locker, but in some regions they
• 9:01
  absolutely do. And in Germany, Austria and
• 9:03
  Italy, home delivery still dominate where the money is
• 9:07
  going and where the money is being spent.
• 9:09
  Again, looking at places like Poland and Denmark, they lead in
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  buying physical goods, so around 59% is spent.
• 9:18
  Germany spends big on travel and in Switzerland 23% of online
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  spend goes to services. I don't know what that says
• 9:26
  about the Swiss, but maybe they're more trusting in getting
• 9:29
  services online. The one thing that I think is no
• 9:32
  surprise is the category degrees.
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  Obviously 47% are still clothes, 28% shoes and 27% beauty.
• 9:41
  If we zoom out here, you need to think about your packaging in
• 9:46
  terms of making it the right package for the right delivery
• 9:50
  experience. Offer different ways to pay
• 9:53
  because different different consumers and different
• 9:56
  geographies want different payment options.
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  That is the research by Nixie. Back over to you for our final
• 10:04
  one. Yes, a nitrous nice transition
• 10:07
  because you you were, you know, saying that more shoppers are
• 10:12
  shopping online, but this one is about going back physical for
• 10:18
  low cost for a low cost brand called lefties.
• 10:21
  So the Inditex Group, the parent company of Zara is bringing back
• 10:27
  its low cost brand lefties back to France with the first store
• 10:31
  planned by 2026. So they have already tried to
• 10:35
  enter France before over a decade ago.
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  But this this comeback arrives as the demand for ultra low cost
• 10:44
  fashion surges in France, but everywhere else in Europe,
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  especially among the younger shoppers and the growing
• 10:53
  competition from Chin or Primark.
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  So the goal is to compete with these fast fashion giants and
• 11:02
  lefties. Is was originally the Zara
• 11:06
  outlet, but since it has evolved into a standard oven brand with
• 11:11
  its own collections and low prices.
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  And it is already present in 18 countries and has a really
• 11:18
  strong presence in Spain and Portugal.
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  So what is interesting here is it's not just about the return
• 11:26
  of lefties in in France, it's the timing because she in
• 11:30
  Primark, for example, Sheen is dominating online and Primark
• 11:35
  more offline. I mean in France at this and
• 11:39
  lefties is now betting on physical retail too to offer low
• 11:44
  prices and in person experience. So it's a clear signal that even
• 11:48
  in fast fashion, physical retail that still has a strategic role
• 11:52
  to play. However, I believe that from a
• 11:55
  sustainable perspective, it encourages impulsive buying
• 11:59
  habits. At a time where we know the
• 12:02
  environmental cost of fast fashion and it is well known, I
• 12:05
  find it a bit disappointing to see that instead of shifting
• 12:09
  toward more sustainable models, big players like in the text
• 12:13
  still continue to double down on volume and and speed encourage
• 12:18
  and they just encourage fast fashion.
• 12:21
  Yeah, I think it's really hard. I don't want, I am completely
• 12:24
  with you and I think Intertex as a whole right now is not on the
• 12:28
  right side of consumer behaviour.
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  What they're on the side of is making as much possible money
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  and displacing their competition because Primark is doing a
• 12:39
  phenomenal job of, you know, in certain markets and categories
• 12:43
  such as fashion, such as bringing, you know, taking a
• 12:45
  little bit of market share. And this is, you know, in the
• 12:48
  Texas way of trying to, because I went to the pop up that they
• 12:51
  had in Madrid. It was cross category.
• 12:54
  They have children's wear, they had homeware.
• 12:57
  And so they're obviously trying to claw back market share from
• 13:02
  the likes of Prima. But as you said, I think it's
• 13:05
  it's on the wrong side of consumer consciousness.
• 13:08
  We don't need more fast fashion. We need more conscious fashion
• 13:11
  right now. And I.
• 13:13
  Yeah, this is this is commercial capitalism at its best, trying
• 13:19
  to outdo your partners and then taking your offering to them.
• 13:23
  Because as you said, right at the beginning, Lefties was an
• 13:27
  outlet for Zara goods, right? That that made so much sense.
• 13:30
  Instead of sending it to landfills, send it to to
• 13:33
  discount and and discount that. But they seem to be coming away
• 13:36
  from that and creating this brand on itself, which is.
• 13:40
  Yeah, because price is more interesting for consumers now.
• 13:44
  Yeah, I, I look the, the, the latest statistics for the UK is
• 13:48
  that inflation or costs of goods are going to go up still which
• 13:52
  people are going to go hang on a minute.
• 13:53
  Inflation has gone down. Why are cost of goods coming up?
• 13:56
  And people will look to brands like lefties and, and, but
• 14:00
  Primark's got such a stronghold in, in the UK, specifically UK
• 14:04
  and, and Ireland. It's it's going to be a tough
• 14:06
  one for them. But I do see a lot of retailers
• 14:09
  also who had expansion plans such as CAR 4IN Italy
• 14:14
  retrenching out of Italy and going back to their core
• 14:17
  markets. So I don't know if this is an
• 14:19
  experimentation to see if they can make it work.
• 14:21
  They have they've had a great track record of making things
• 14:23
  work. But maybe this is an experiment
• 14:25
  that they're going to see how how they can do.
• 14:27
  And let's see what the consumer says.
• 14:29
  The consumer always, well, let's say the customer is always
• 14:31
  right. So anyway, on that bombshell to
• 14:33
  thank you Alexander. It's lovely, lovely, lovely to
• 14:36
  have you back. I had to say it three times, not
• 14:38
  once. Forward to filming with you next
• 14:42
  week. Thank you, Alex.
• 14:44
  That's an absolute pleasure.