Microsoft for Startups at Shoptalk

The Retail team at Microsoft for Startups is looking forward to our first in-person Retail event since NRF 2020. Yes, we will be at Shoptalk at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas from Mar 27-30. We will be available for meetings in Lagoon B with our curated portfolio of Startups: Pegasus.?In addition, we will also bring the Startup Showcase live to Shoptalk on Mar 28 and 29 between 1pm & 4pm at Lagoon A at the Mandalay Bay. You will have the opportunity to mingle and chat with Startup Founders from 12 of our Startups that will be showcasing their solutions.?

Here is the lineup for the Startup Showcase in Lagoon A at the Mandalay Bay:

The Startups attending represent trending areas of focus in retail:

The Power of Data & AI

Data plays a big part in determining where to setup a store based on competition, demographics, foot traffic and more. Uncrowd, helps retailers with data and Experience Analytics to become more attractive than competitors and thus tap the majority of the market retailers don't currently reach. Richard Hammond, CEO & Co-Founder of Uncrowd, and author of Friction/Reward: Be your customer’s first choice will be available for meetings and to discuss how Uncrowd can help.

Combining internal and external data unlocks powerful insights that can help retailers make better decisions around store locations with demographics and foot traffic data. In addition, enriching the internal data about customers with external data can drive hyper-personalization resulting in increased loyalty and reduced customer churn. Explorium offers a new breed of data science platform, fueled by Automated Data and Feature Discovery. By dynamically integrating retailers' internal data with thousands of external sources, the Explorium platform is able to extract the most relevant features and power superior machine learning models.

Also meet with the team from Stopwatch, a unified solution based on basic game theory principles covering everything from inventory management to real-time pricing, modality and assortment optimization, and online media signals. The Stopwatch unified commerce software, is rapidly changing how consumer goods companies understand and react to their customer's journey and helps close the gap between online and brick-and-mortar buying signals for CG companies.

Reducing Friction in Shopping

Frictionless checkout aims to eliminate “friction” or pain points during the checkout process in a store by increasing speed and convenience and removing barriers that might make the process more complicated or time consuming. Retailers have been experimenting with various technologies in this space including Scan-And-Go, SmartCarts/SmartBaskets, Grab-And-Go, BOPIS, Auto-Fulfillment/Subscription and more. The pandemic heavily influenced consumer preferences, including the need for quicker, more seamless shopping experiences. Joining us for Shoptalk will be two solutions that enable Frictionless Checkout: Aifi & Shopic.

AiFi, which works with top retailers worldwide such as ALDI South Group, Carrefour, Compass Group, and ?abka Group, currently has the highest number of computer vision powered autonomous stores across the globe. AiFi enables retailers to deploy and scale autonomous shopping cost-effectively. It does this in grocery stores, sport stadiums and convenience stores via a camera-only resource that does not require weighted shelves, significantly decreasing the cost and time it takes to get up-and-running.

Shopic helps grocers bring the advantages of online commerce to their physical stores. The company’s unique clip-on device turns any standard shopping cart into a smart cart for the duration of a visit. Using computer vision and AI, it delivers (1) a personalized grab-and-go store journey with instant on-cart checkout, (2) a powerful just-on-time promotions medium, and (3) analytical insights that optimize store management with real-time tracking of shopper carts and store shelves. Taken together, it’s a complete digitalization platform for the retail front end that is highly cost-effective and deployed with minimal operational disruptions.

?Digital Transformation in Apparel and Fashion

For the apparel & fashion industry, the pandemic has drastically changed how people shop. Targeting apparel and fashion brands, joining us at Shoptalk, will be EyeFitU, offering a SizeEngine? AI Platform and Advanced Analytics. EyeFitU is a Size-as-a-Service AI software company for apparel retailers that helps increase sales, reduce returns and personalize customer’s experience online and in-store. EyeFitU’s SizeFinder, allows customers to receive recommendations by answering a few basic questions about themselves. At the same time, customers can immediately see how the clothes and the different sizes will fit their body: wide, tight or normal. This way, the customer gets personalized advice around the size that suits their body best, and as a result helps them make the right decision.

Also at shoptalk, meet with Hexa, a startup that specializes in 3D visualizations. With Hexa’s solution, retailers can, with just a snippet of provided code, display their 3D products on the platform of their choosing, launch an AR experience, distribute content globally, set up virtual try-ons or create immersive marketing campaigns.

Transforming Customer Engagement

Managing customer engagement and improving the shopping experience helps consumers make better purchase decisions and build loyalty for the retailer's brands which ultimately leads to increased revenue. Vee24’s person-to-person digital customer experience platform combines the power of live human connections with the scalability of automation to deliver a digital customer experience that drives business growth. Built for video and powered by video and text chat; real-time collaboration with co-browsing and screen sharing; online appointment scheduling; AI-enabled chatbots, and more, businesses can connect throughout the customer journey. Partnering with Vee24’s Client Services team, Clarins has created a high-end beauty studio, trained its experienced beauty coaches in online best practices, and deployed sophisticated technology.

Also joining us for Shoptalk is Quiq, a conversational platform for commerce and customer service teams. Quiq combines Conversational AI with NLP and human agents to increase efficiency, reduce costs, drive revenue and improve customer satisfaction. AI-powered digital assistants deliver guided selling experiences that are context aware and proven to convert browsers into buyers, while Quiq’s asynchronous agent platform connects customers to agents when appropriate.

Retail Automation

We believe that 2022 will be the banner year for Automation in Retail. The conditions that enable the tipping point are all present: labor shortage, a need for contactless shopping, and new customer expectations accelerated by the pandemic. Two of the startups that will be joining us at Shoptalk automate tasks for the shopper and the retailer. Replenium delivers a turnkey auto-replenishment platform to drive product subscriptions, smart order/reorder recommendations and long term customer retention for both retailers and brands. Replenium’s Auto-Replenishment Platform brings the science and capabilities of next-generation shopping through seamless integration into a retailer’s or brand’s ecommerce system. With Replenium (Rp), shoppers discover products through a machine-learning engine and schedule product replenishments based on recommendations and historical usage. Rp’s intuitive customer-facing tools give shoppers full control, complete flexibility, and the assurance that they won’t run out of their essential household and personal items.

Simplista solves a fundamental problem at the top of any retailer’s supply chain: product listing, an antiquated and costly process, where operational friction means lost revenue for both retailers and their suppliers. Simplista is a cloud based platform that simplifies and automates product listing and item master management for retailers.

?Corporate Social Responsibility

Some 85% of consumers want to spend their money on brands that support causes they care about (Cone study, 2020). But every shopper has different concerns. How can a company tap into a market and retain it? How does a brand stand out as ethical to everyone? Sparo leverages corporate social responsibility (CSR) into higher online sales and customer loyalty by marrying ecommerce and charity at the checkout page. Sparo's Purchase with a Purpose democratizes charitable giving by empowering shoppers to select their favorite charity at the checkout page.?

Microsoft for Startups, along with the startups, I mention above will be available for meetings in Lagoon B at the Mandalay Bay from Mar 27-30. Feel free to reach out to me through the Shoptalk Mobile App, LinkedIn, or through this form: https://bit.ly/3CAj13V.?

Inviting Retailers to Join the Pegasus Program

At Shoptalk, I would love to chat with retailers about Intelligent Stores, Frictionless Checkout, Data & AI, IoT and more. The goal is to learn more about the challenges that you are trying to solve and potentially match you with Startups that could help in your journey. I would also like to invite retailers to join the Microsoft for Startups Pegasus program. Pegasus is an exclusive community of our most influential customers that are committed to innovation and want to :

• Gain access to Microsoft’s select portfolio of innovative startups that will unlock new opportunities and address pain points for your company?
• Be the first to know about emerging technologies
• Stay ahead of industry trends with customized resources

?Here's what some of retailers, who are part of Pegasus,?have to say:

?Kroger -?

“By partnering with Microsoft for Startups we were able to expedite the process of finding scalable innovation by tapping into their portfolio of top-tier retail startups. Our team was able to preview enterprise-ready startups with ease.”

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Marks & Spencer -?

“Working with Microsoft for Startups has been a slick process. The language we were talking was so similar. There was real passion within the Microsoft team to find quality startups. Our account manager gave us a top-ten list of must-sees, and we immediately said “These are amazing”. We had to get involved. We’re really excited to see how we can continue to unlock value together.”

?Given the success of Microsoft for Startups program and the value our startups have delivered to enterprise customers, we are looking forward to bringing startup innovation to your organization so connect with us by joining Pegasus Club. To Join, please submit your request here: https://aka.ms/pegasusprogram

I look forward to seeing you at Shoptalk 2022.