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Smart retail tech gains recognition – apps, self-checkout & unmanned stores

By Retail Technology | Tuesday February 18 2020

Retail IT innovation gains European retail technology awards recognition at EuroShop 2020

Mobile apps, self-checkout systems and unmanned stores were among the winning retail IT innovations recognised at the 13th reta awards, held during EuroShop 2020 in Düsseldorf, this week.

The awards, hosted by the EHI Retail Institute as part of the world’s largest retail trade fair, honoured three prize winners each in Best Customer Experience and Enterprise, Instore and Omnichannel solutions categories.

RetailTechnology.co.uk is a proud to be an awards media partner, where our publisher Miya Knights was also part of this year’s awards judging panel. Read on to find out more about the winners and their IT partners.

Best Customer Experience

This award recognises three retailers who have introduced forward-looking technologies to improve customer satisfaction. The 2020 prize winners were:

Bonprix – the fashion retailer has integrated online advantages instore via its “fashion connect” app developed by GK Software, which enables customers to scan garments, choose their size and reserve fitting room.

Their chosen garments are waiting in the fitting for them when they arrive. Integrated payment options also enables payment through the app, which is also synced with all other SAP instore technologies in real time.

Miele – the home appliance brand’s store in Amsterdam takes customers on a digital, visual and tactile tour of the Miele brand world. Virtual shelf extensions and digital product information provided shopping inspiration.

Large-format screens displaying emotionally relevant content and wall-sized LED displays are accented with intelligent lighting that round out the concept developed by xplace.

Würth – Working with provider, Wanzl, the wholesale construction supplier made trade shopping around the clock a reality. While sales staff are on hand for customers during the day, the Würth app operates 24-hours.

The app enables customers to enter the store anytime and scan their desired products. Their shopping cart contents are automatically identified at the self-checkout while EAS systems prevent shoplifting.

Best Enterprise Solution

This category honours retail enterprises that have enhanced their efficiency by developing and implementing innovative systems and technologies. The 2020 prize winners were:

Cordes & Gräfe – the specialist construction wholesaler has made life easier for craftsmen. Thanks to the innovative solution, “GC CarLoad,” products can be delivered to the boot of a customer's car overnight.

The costly management of physical keys is made superfluous by the digital keys from T-Systems’ “MIA Mobile Identity & Access”.

Getränke Hoffmann – the specialist beverage brand has made its shopfitting even more efficient. Together with VR Insight, the company has developed a virtual reality app to virtually plan its stores.

Even before a store is actually built, a variety of scenarios can be tested in a virtual space and in real time for the fine tuning of product placement, shelving, in-store promotions and furnishing elements.

MediaMarktSaturn – the consumer electronics retailer has developed new analytics capabilities to improve customer satisfaction. CB4's algorithm analyses historical sales data to reveal consumer demand trends.

Correlating these trends against sales for each store helps optimise product inventory and visual merchandising via an app that updates store managers on non-sellers with suggestions for possible solutions.

Best Instore Solution

Retailers who demonstrably achieved operational added value through the use of technology at the point of sale (POS) emerged as winners in this year’s category. The 2020 prize winners were:

Ikea Italy – the home retailer has eliminated long dining queues using iTray – an AI-based self-checkout system from Diebold Nixdorf that uses cameras and sensors to identify which dishes are on a customer's tray.

Customers merely need to confirm the product to then enjoy their food, which frees up staff to spend more time to spend with customers instead of scanning products at checkout.

Metro – the supermarket giant has optimised its self-checkout process. Customers can scan their selected products using an app on their smartphone or with a handheld self-service scanner.

At checkout, a validation unit verifies the purchases in a multi-step process developed by Bizerba, which ensures articles that have not been scanned can be reliably identified.

Netto Marken-Discount – the food retailer has become the first in Europe to introduce an innovative packaging technology for its checkouts that simplifies and speeds up the scanning process.

Digimarc’s ‘imperceptible’ barcodes printed onto the packaging of more than 2,000 of Netto’s private label products in addition to their regular EAN codes, enables a quick and reliable scanning process for customers.

Best Omnichannel Solution

This award goes to retail enterprises that have modernised their IT infrastructure and linked the online and offline worlds with each other. The 2020 prize winners are:

Decathlon USA – the US sports retailer has piloted cashless stores, made possible by the mobile, cloud-based omnichannel solution from NewStore, which uses iPhones and has been integrated into existing mobile payment terminals.

Store staff can confirm product inventory or process a purchase using an iPhone. The basket is registered via RFID at the checkout station and transferred using a QR code to the customer’s app for payment to be made.

Engelhorn – the fashion retailer has created a new partner platform. Using a marketplace solution by Tradebyte, partner companies can offer products for sale in Engelhorn's online shop and are also listed as suppliers in the online shop.

The new platform has expanded the former range of products to include those offered by partners while also improving product availability.

Otto – the ecommerce giant has optimised its platform concept working with IT supplier Stock-square. Customers browsing otto.de, can enter their postal code to see whether a particular product is available within 50 km of their home.

The local German online shop currently provides information on local availability for more than 29,000 products.

You can find out more about the reta awards winners and watch videos profiling their winning solutions, here. You can also discover more about the winning IT solutions providers, here.

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