Retail Transformation Briefing: 8th August 2024

Back in 2011, following the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan by the police, the racial circumstances sparked major riots across the UK. But it seemed that the initial cause was forgotten, and uncalled-for aggression and lawlessness took over.

Unfortunately, those memories have once again been reignited as new riots spill across the country - a new issue but the same effect. But political and cultural discussion aside, these represent a major disruption for retailers. There are significant safety risks for colleagues, which should always be a retailer's first thought. Of course, there is the inevitable impact of vandalism and theft. Plus it deters genuine customers from shopping in the short and long term.

This week, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) led an emergency multi-retail collaboration session to decide on the best course of action. This type of pan-industry collaboration is excellent and, I hope, will act as a catalyst for positive change by those impacted.

Retail transformation news headlines

??? 亚马逊 have upgraded their Just Walk Out technology with multi-modal technology. The revamp is a significant shift and looks to analyse multiple data sources concurrently, rather than basing the vision system on a more linear one-at-a-time data feed. This "multi-modal" approach should significantly accelerate the time it takes to analyse a customer's shopping journey. Previously, Amazon has come under fire for their checkout-free technology, relying on human observers to correct and adjust the footage. This obviously adds a time delay and a sizeable labour cost too. This new approach sounds like it may overcome these challenges - but as with all AI, there has to be an aspect of learning. But what's fascinating is that we're now transforming how we're approaching these advanced technologies.

?? ThredUp announced a series of new AI-powered features to assist shoppers. The three main features are (1) improved search, based on natural language so customers can enter a search result and the AI will interpret what they are trying to search for; (2) image search, so customers can search based on photos or Instagram content and receive relevant recommendations; and (3) style chat, where you can design an outfit in collaboration with a chatbot.

?? TikTok and Temu have scaled massively recently, but they are now looking to adjust their fees and terms as they look to convert revenue growth into profitability growth. TikTok is looking to increase seller commission fees from 5% to 9%. However, there is the opportunity to reduce fees based on the volume of live and shoppable videos. It's clear that they want to drive content-based commerce, rather than just having brands and retailers list their products on the channel. Meanwhile, Temu is looking to recruit Amazon sellers who already hold stock in US and EU warehouses as a mitigation plan against import tax changes. This would likely expand Temu categories into bigger ticket items and possibly bulkier products too.

?? Holland & Barrett have invested in security and anti-theft monitoring technology and have shared data about the level of crimes observed. Body cameras, upgraded CCTV, and the Auror crime reporting solution has been deployed in stores. Through this suite of solutions, over 7,000 incidents have been reported, including identifying 630 repeat offenders. The surge in retail crime is not new news; it's affecting retailers across the world. However, the scale has always been hard to pinpoint, so this is a great initiative to gather data and evidence.

?? 百安居 is exploring quick commerce and is partnering with Deliveroo to launch rapid deliveries in London and is also working with DPD UK to offer robotic deliveries in Milton Keynes. In another part of the group, Screwfix has been working with Deliveroo since late 2023. Quick commerce is slowly gathering pace as more non-grocery brands start deploying trials and experiments. Omnichannel retailers are naturally best placed due to having widely distributed stock locations. However, these experiments tend to be more focused on city locations with more densely populated areas.

?? John Lewis & Partners is looking to transform their customer experience when it comes to retail media. New media opportunities include banner ads and sponsored product listing page placement. Brands (who are the customers of a retail media business) will be able to self-manage through a new dashboard to enable quick changes. John Lewis colleagues will continue to review and sign off all new ads to ensure they have an appropriate look and feel. Meanwhile, they're also looking to restructure their Buying and Merchandising teams, although I don't believe this is exclusively around the retail media propositions.

??? And finally, 沃尔玛 is using 'depackaging' technology to process waste food in stores. Called Zero Depack from Denali , waste products are fed into the machine which then opens the packaging and separates the waste food from the recyclable packaging. This means the waste stream is kept cleaner and the food can be used for reuse options, such as animal feed or composting.

?? Listen to these news stories and my thoughts on the action points from each in the latest episode of The Retail Show. Plus see what happens when I put eBay and Walmart's livestreams head-to-head. Find the episode in your podcast app now or listen on TheRetailShow.uk website.

New on the Retail Transformation Show podcast: Stay up to speed with The Retail Show - #306

The world of retail is always evolving and it can be hard to stay up to speed. Fortunately, my new podcast has you covered. The Retail Show is the weekly podcast with useful news and relevant views. Listen in to an episode of The Retail Show podcast and remember to subscribe on your usual podcast app.

Listen to episode 306 of the Retail Transformation Show and discover:

• News you can use – essential headlines and actionable takeaways.
• Insight spotlight – and why Walmart is talking about “adaptive retail”.
• And finally – an amusing or good news story to help put a smile on your face.

Plus, check out these recent episodes:

#305: Winning at continuous improvement

#304: The fragile digital world: lessons from the CrowdStrike outages

#303: Exploring retail around the world

Keep transforming better,

-- Oliver

?? I help retailers build effective operating models and drive transformation - with hands-on consulting services or advisory support.

?? I speak about the evolving retail industry and delivering transformation and also host two retail podcasts.

?? My book, Driving Retail Transformation: How to Navigate Disruption and Change, is out now.