Latest / The Retail Podcast / Five Things Friday EU: Carrefour AI Accelerator, Pinterest Commerce, RFID Expansion, and Amazon’s Beauty Push

Transcript

Five Things Friday EU: Carrefour AI Accelerator, Pinterest Commerce, RFID Expansion, and Amazon’s Beauty Push · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to another fabulous edition of Five Things
• 0:03
  Friday. Most of you know will know I'm
• 0:18
  Alex, the founder of the Retail Podcast.
• 0:21
  I spend my time helping retailers or brands that sell to
• 0:25
  retailers remain relevant and stay as thought leaders in the
• 0:30
  retail industry. And I'm joined by my wonderful
• 0:33
  and amazing Co host. Hi, I'm Alex.
• 0:37
  I work for Business France, the French Trade Commission in
• 0:40
  London and I spend my time helping French retail tech
• 0:44
  companies expanding in the UK and British retailers helping
• 0:49
  innovative retail tech solutions.
• 0:52
  That's fantastic. So we've got 5 things already
• 0:54
  lined up for you. We're not going to waste your
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  time. We're going to jump straight in
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  and talk about. Careful has just launched Store
• 1:03
  Me Up, so it's a new brand accelerator focused on install
• 1:08
  AI. So what this is about, it's
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  about looking for, they are looking for five startups that
• 1:15
  have a concrete and high impact solutions for the shop floor.
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  Not just concepts, but tech that can actually be tested and
• 1:26
  integrated right away. So what type of innovations they
• 1:30
  are looking at, They want augmented store staff, computer
• 1:34
  vision, robotics and next Gen. Check out what's in it for the
• 1:40
  selected startup. So they the the selected steps
• 1:44
  UPS will have access to a live pilot install, access to careful
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  data, tailored mentoring from retail experts and a direct link
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  to their VC found desktop Deltops can apply until the 15th
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  of December on their website that directly.
• 2:01
  And you can if you go on this LinkedIn post and Alex, if you
• 2:04
  just want to play the video, this is where you will find all
• 2:10
  the information and they have the link directly on their
• 2:15
  LinkedIn post where you can test the the application form.
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  And the reason why I wanted to discuss this today is what I
• 2:24
  found really interesting is, is the bigger shift it reflects
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  more and more retailers are now building their own innovation
• 2:32
  teams or Latins. And it's they are not just
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  relying on third parties to scout for startups, but they are
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  investing on their own internal capabilities to run open
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  innovation from within. So it's a real sign that
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  innovation is no longer just a side project, but a core part of
• 2:51
  how they appropriate and, say, competed.
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  I remember seeing the World Retail Congress and we went to
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  carry because it was in Paris. We went to the Store of the
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  Future. It was just before the Olympics.
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  So they had all of those. And last year's focus was
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  accessibility and they had all of the accessibility startup
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  partners. And the only reason I mentioned
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  that is they don't just talk about trying to integrate these
• 3:19
  start-ups into their Carrefour stores.
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  They actually do. And, and I was there and I
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  witnessed it. So I was like, that's fantastic.
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  Cause a lot of time these innovation teams, they do so
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  much, they take the start up through so much.
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  And you know, they don't, it doesn't end up in a store.
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  But whereas I, I physically saw with my own eyes the start-ups
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  in, in the and I forget the store, but it's by the Olympic
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  Village near, near in Paris, wherever the Olympics were.
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  Yeah. OK, so the second topic for
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  today is La Rodot. So La Rodot is turning
• 3:53
  inspiration into action, literally.
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  They have done a partnership with the agency Marcel and
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  Pinterest and they have launched a new digital campaign called
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  Switch to LA Rodot. So it uses AI to analyse users
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  Pinterest balls, mood balls, wish lists or favourites and it
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  recommends matching Loudout interior products to shop, all
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  without leaving the Pinterest platform.
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  So I find this is a clever use of data and AI to personalise
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  the shopping experience in visual space.
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  So for the numbers, over 4 million products were added to
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  Loudout wish List and Pinterest has seen an 85% increase in
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  clicks on product bins in France.
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  So it's showing a real appetite for this type of integration and
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  it's more than just a campaign. What is really interesting here
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  is how brands are embedding commerce directly into discovery
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  platforms. So Loudot is capitalising on
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  visual search and AI to meet consumers at the moment of
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  inspiration and convert it instantly.
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  It reflects a growing trend and for retailers it that means
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  rethinking not just where they sell, but how they guide people
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  from an idea to check out all in one place.
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  I love it. I mean, I love them Pinterest, I
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  love their annual, they do their annual trends just tells me how
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  untrendy I am. But anyway, moving on.
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  So I have a it's not a doom and gloom, but it's something that
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  is rife across the whole of Europe.
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  And there's this article in Euro News talking about the latest
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  statistics from the institute, the retail institute in Germany
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  about how retailers are still, how theft is still a big thing.
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  But when Euro News article when they went into retail inventory
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  losses in how when retailers were going through this, they
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  they sort of looked at the key areas.
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  I think people sometimes always think it's organised crime that
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  is part of the problem. But as you can see here, yes,
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  that there is organisational that it falls into lots of
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  different areas. The other sort of key
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  interesting data point that they had was obviously food retail is
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  is the highest and in German in Germany, there was 5 billion in
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  lost across all categories. But food still being the higher,
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  which from a societal perspective, it's really sad
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  because that's the cost of moving crisis and some of the
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  other elements, but also reporting fail, which isn't
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  because crime is fault. It's because sometimes
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  reporting. So the numbers could be a lot
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  higher, but people have sort of felt, is it worth reporting the
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  theft or what what has happened? Which again, having heard some
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  of the retailers stories and retail worker stories in the UK
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  and some of the horror that they have to face.
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  Sometimes they just aren't reporting it.
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  And in Germany, in this specific case, the reported cases were
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  lower, but there is an increase in security budgets and people
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  are still investing in technology to solve the problem.
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  If you're interested in and want to read the report itself, it's
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  on the EHI Retail Institute main page.
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  It's it's really good because this is real live data from
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  retailers in Germany. But I think this nicely leads
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  into what you were going to talk about, Alex, in RFID.
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  Yes, definitely. Many, many technologies can help
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  with theft and we see a lot of companies working with computer
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  vision, which is I think the main one.
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  But RFID, we can also help with that.
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  The news I wanted to share today is about the brand Kiabi.
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  So they have announced that they are rolling out RFID technology
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  across more than 450 of its stores in Europe.
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  So Kiabi, for those who who don't know this brand, it's a
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  French family favourite fashion brand that has been founded back
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  in 1978. And despite being a long
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  established name, it's not standing still.
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  So this late move really a major phase in its digital
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  transformation. So they are modernising their
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  stores, Every ID is going to help them with the stock
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  accuracy to optimise the online order fulfilment, reduce staff,
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  faster checkouts, better inventory visibility and a
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  stronger Omni channel performance in general.
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  The most important, I think here is to stay competitive because
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  while other legacy French retailers, French fashion
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  retailers like Camaro, Andre have struggled or even closed
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  their shops in recently, Kiabi here is showing how an historic
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  brand can stay relevant by investing in technology and
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  embracing Omni channel strategies.
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  So it's a good here, it's a good reminder that heritage alone
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  isn't enough. We can say that with M&S as
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  well, for example. It's about the willingness,
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  willingness to modernise, test and scale innovation that
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  separates, you know, the historic brands and and the ones
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  that are innovating. RFID for those of us who've been
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  in the industry a while, we've we've seen the, the complete
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  cycle of it's too expensive, it doesn't work, work, it's too
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  complicated. Our stores are too big, we have
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  to deploy too many antennas. And I have to give full credit
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  to Decathlon for this because I think they were the first major
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  retailer across Europe to have the RFID bins, which now you,
• 9:44
  you go into Zara, you can, you can see them And people are
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  just, you know, there's this better experience through having
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  RFID that I think all of the old world arguments of, no, we can't
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  do. I mean, it's, it's, it's gone.
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  And I think a heritage brand like this moving along with the
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  times is, is the right thing to see.
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  And it's quite a significant roll out with 450 stores.
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  So that's yeah. And that's what nicely leads us
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  into our final element. For those that may have watched
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  one of my early videos in God knows, so about 20 something
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  2022 just before lockdown, I thought was that 29/20/20?
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  Anyway, I, I, I went into an Amazon store.
• 10:34
  So in Spittlefields, you may know Alex, you may have had your
• 10:37
  hair done. There is the Amazon beauty
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  salon. I had my hair cut there and
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  they, interestingly enough, had a digital display with products
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  that you could lift. Then the product information
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  will be broadcast the exact same unit that I'm looking at here,
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  which is a really interesting commentary on Amazon's approach
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  to innovation. They are using Europe as a
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  playground, as a as a playground for innovation to learn from
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  different countries. Like in Spain, they launched
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  with their grocery and home delivery and all of the Amazon
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  fresh stuff in under an hour to under our deliveries was all
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  launched in Spain. In the UK, they obviously have
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  so many different innovations around recycle, reuse and having
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  the Amazon recycle reuse store. And now here we have, this was
• 11:29
  actually in February this year, they launched their Amazon
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  Perfume and beauty. I want to try and save the
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  Italian version in Reliance City Centre.
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  But I think it's this is testament to Amazon's continual
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  foothold in retail in the physical world.
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  In the UK, we had them launch their fresh stores, then they
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  sort of withdrew and closed some.
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  And people like, oh, Amazon are leaving.
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  They're not leaving anywhere. They are just getting started
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  and they are constantly experimenting with innovation.
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  And this in my mind is another way in one of the biggest growth
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  categories across the globe, beauty, how Amazon is coming
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  into physical and obviously, if you're in Milan, you get a
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  chance. Please let us know what the
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  store is like. I'd love to know.
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  OK, well, that brings us nicely to the end of the show, Alex.
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  Until next week, I look forward to speaking to you and the the
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  rest of the Five Things Friday community then.
• 12:29
  Thank you for having me. It's always a pleasure.