This week's retail news 'you may have missed'.....
At mdj2, we’re passionate about retail and always looking to share our news, views and insights. With so much information out there, we wanted to share just a small selection of retail news headlines from last week that we found interesting…??
Boots boss: Our pharmacies could ‘help solve the NHS crisis’
Boots boss Seb James has said the pharmacy giant could “help solve the NHS crisis” if given the go ahead to provide more services.
The chief executive told?This is Money?the move could save the NHS almost ￡2 billion each year.
James said he wants those suffering from minor ailments to be able to visit their local chemist to reduce the pressure on the UK’s health service.
If given the green light,?Boots?pharmacies could be ready to provide support “within weeks”.
“We could help solve the NHS crisis,” said James.
“We could make a massive dent in waiting times for GPs.
“And we could make a massive dent in waiting times for chronic care.”
Currently, pharmacies in England are not able to write free NHS prescriptions whereas those in Scotland and Wales can.
James said he wants the chain’s pharmacists to be able to prescribe medicine paid for by the NHS, which is currently only available through a GP or doctor.
Boots and other chemist chains are in talks with ministers over plans to change the current policy arguing it would provide?the health service?with “significant savings” and put it on a much more sustainable footing.
The group believes a change in policy in England would cut the need for 47 million GP appointments each year.
Boots director of healthcare development Marc Donovan said: “It is rather simple and could be rolled within weeks.
“The whole healthcare system is under pressure and there is a more efficient way of managing minor ailments in particular.”
Aldi extends partnership with Company Shop Group to help reduce food waste
Excess stock from Aldi’s network of Regional Distribution Centres is to be made available to Community Shop stores across the UK after the supermarket extended its partnership with Company Shop Group.
The supermarket has confirmed that all its Regional Distribution Centres will now help redistribute surplus food that cannot be sold in its stores.
Company Shop Group is the UK’s leading redistributor of surplus food and household products and is working with Aldi to manage surplus stock from its Regional Distribution Centres. This will then be redistributed to the Group’s Community Shops across the country, where items will be sold at discounted prices as a way to help those in need.
Since first collaborating in 2015, Company Shop Group has helped Aldi prevent over 14,700 tonnes of food going to waste, with this new national roll out estimated to prevent a further 2,860 tonnes of food from going to waste each year.
Government announces plans for single-use plastic item ban in England
England is set to follow?Wales?and Scotland in announcing plans to ban single-use plastic items, the government has confirmed.
Environment secretary Thérèse Coffey said the ban, which includes plastic cutlery, plates and trays, would help protect the environment for future generations.
It is not yet clear when it will come into effect.
According to government figures, 1.1 billion single-use plates and more than four billion pieces of plastic cutlery are used in England every year.
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The confirmation of the move from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) follows a long consultation, which will be published on 14 January.
While the ban has been welcomed by campaigners, some feel it doesn’t go far enough. Megan Randles, political campaigner for Greenpeace UK said: “Whilst it’s welcome that the government’s finally banned certain items; we’re dealing with a plastic flood, and this is like reaching for a mop instead of turning off the tap.
“We need the government to deliver a meaningful plastic reduction strategy, which means bringing in plastic reduction targets and a proper reuse and refill scheme.
“It’s time to stop pandering to industry lobbyists; stop promoting false solutions; and stop dumping our plastic waste in countries that have done the least to cause the climate crisis. Anything else is not global leadership on plastic.”
Wilko secures ￡40m funding from Hilco as it faces cash squeeze
The discount retailer Wilko has borrowed ￡40m from restructuring specialist Hilco and rejigged its leadership team as it faces a cash squeeze after falling to a loss and struggling to pay suppliers.
Lisa Wilkinson, a member of the family which controls the 400-plus store chain, is stepping down as chair to be replaced by the former Bensons for Beds chair Chris Howell. Another former Bensons executive, Mark Jackson, stepped in as chief executive before Christmas, the group’s third in three years. The managing director, Alison Hands, will also leave the company this month about 18 months after taking the job.
Wilkinson said the company was making “necessary changes” to restore confidence and safeguard the future of the business.
“That includes making sure we have the right leadership in place – one aligned team with the right expertise to deliver the retail experience our customers are demanding of us today,” she said.
The two-year credit facility with Hilco, which specialises in providing financing for healthy and distressed companies, comes after Wilko paid down some of its debts by selling and leasing back its distribution centre in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, for initial proceeds of ￡48m.
Infobip reveals the five most significant trends in customer experience and omnichannel communications for 2023
Global cloud communications platform?Infobip?reveals its top five trends for customer experience and omnichannel communications for 2023.?According to global market research firm Forrester better customer experience leads to higher revenue growth. So, as the world enters a more challenging economic climate, Infobip advises businesses to focus on the following five trends to delight customers and maintain a competitive advantage this year.
Composable tech platforms will drive speed and scale
In an increasingly cost-conscious environment, businesses and brands will look for composable technology platforms to reduce implementation time and deliver transformation more quickly. In the past two years, 50 percent of companies have had to transform at great speed, according to an Accenture survey of 4,053 c-suite executives. To meet this speed of change, businesses will need to adopt plug-and-play composable tech platforms. Such interoperable solutions enable organizations to quickly integrate new capabilities through easy integration, increasing time to impact while reducing infrastructure costs and implementation timelines. Data from Accenture shows that companies with high interoperability unlocked up to five additional percentage points of revenue growth than companies with low or no interoperability. Composable tech platforms will drive innovation, augment customer experience and deliver faster and more extensive digital transformation. For instance, our integration with?Adobe Marketing Cloud?enables firms to engage with their customers via SMS and WhatsApp, ensuring global reach and high delivery rates.
Hyper automation and intelligent bots will deliver efficiencies
Automation can come in many forms, but the breakthrough in customer experience will be in the adoption and scaling of automated bots. As ChatGPT shows, chatbots continue to advance by leaps and bounds. We expect to see scaling text bots alongside progress with voice and video bots. As a result, businesses and brands will create and deploy bots that bring a new level of automation, speed, and availability. Such intelligent virtual assistants will help scale customer service, drive efficiencies and enable businesses to up and cross-sell. More advanced bots will also enable brands to enhance marketing and sales automation. Such bots will answer product or pricing questions, schedule deliveries and take payments – all within a customer’s favorite channel.
Hyper personalized end-to-end CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE JOURNEYS enabled by artificial intelligence and analytics?
Businesses will look for more intelligent ways to operate to drive efficiencies. Hyper personalized end-to-end customer experiences enabled by artificial intelligence and analytics will become a critical part of the customer journey, providing better experiences for customers and agents. AI and analytics can already respond to basic queries. Next year, Infobip expects organizations to use AI and analytics to predict customer behavior and drive real-time responses. For instance, companies will provide hyper-personalized?messaging that instantly adapts to each individual and their preferences and ways of communication.?Businesses will look to apply such tools to all parts of the customer journey to create hyper-personalized experiences to increase loyalty and drive sales. This trend will be accelerated by the increasing shift to first-party data and automation in writing AI code.
Immersive hybrid ‘phygital’ experiences will bridge the real and online worlds
In 2023, Infobip expects a world where the physical and digital meet to create immersive experiences that customers want, where and when they want them. Such experiences help enhance customer engagement while providing greater convenience around ordering, paying and delivery. Retailers will continue to integrate technology into their stores, using data to personalize what customers hear, smell and see.?For instance, geofencing, a location-based marketing tool, enables retailers to send automatic alerts, such as coupons or promotions, when a customer enters the area around the store. Meanwhile, eCommerce platforms will use virtual and augmented reality to create a 21st-century digital store. Brands are enabling customers to ‘try on’ clothes through virtual dressing rooms. Customers can see how they look in the clothes they might want to buy, all from the palm of their hand. Infobip expects the first launch of a digital replica of a product using AR or VR.
Some companies such as Amazon and Alibaba are combining the retail and eCommerce experiences. Hema, Alibaba’s fresh food-focused ‘New Retail Store’, allows customers to shop in-store or through its app. It provides customers with augmented reality integrations in-store, where they can scan products to reveal their origins, deliver items and pay with facial-recognition technology. Amazon is harmonizing the physical and digital to deliver highly personalized customer experiences. It uses customer data from many sources – from online browsing activity to how customers navigate stores – to tailor store experiences to everyone.
Conversational user experiences
Everything will become conversational next year.?Customers now have access to more channels and devices than ever before. Whether for marketing, support or sales, they increasingly want conversations with a business or brand on their preferred?chat channels. By creating a richer and more proactive experience, Infobip expects to see two-way conversations scale hugely across the customer journey. This year, we will see greater app-like experiences in chat apps. For instance, Infobip has developed an AI-powered chatbot for Uber that enables its customers to order a ride through WhatsApp, creating a seamless booking experience. Many the major tech companies including WhatsApp, Google and Apple will launch new features this year that enhance their conversational capabilities. There is also speculation that others like Microsoft will enter the conversational market with a new ‘super app’. Moreover, Infobip expects to see such user experiences expand across sectors from ride sharing to healthcare and even the public sector as it adapts to conversational everything.