Retail Technology Show review – differentiating through people and technology
Despite the transport issues, retail executives and technology specialists gathered at Excel London for the Retail Technology Show (RTS) to share ideas and to experience the latest developments on a buzzing Expo floor and through a rich programme of conference sessions.
Ai was invariably present across the two days of the event but thankfully visitors to RTS were not overwhelmed by this particular technology and instead a broad array of issues and developments were discussed and debated.
Subscribe to TRBUnprecedented pace of change
Irrespective of AI there was no escaping the increasing role of technology in the retail sector and the pace of change as highlighted by Kate Jones, executive partner at IBM: “Everything is happening all at once, with tech evolving fast. In the last 12-24 months I’ve never experienced technology moving at this pace. Retailers who win will be those who take advantage of that technology…it’s about tech solving problems for retailers.”
For Dean Kramer, chief services officer at Currys, this has multiple impacts because the business sells an increasing array of connected, tech-powered products that shoppers need help with and the company is itself being operationally affected by new tech developments.
Even with fewer physical stores – down to 300 from a previous 1,500 – there is still as much as 70% of sales involving touching a store in some way as part of the customers’ onmi-journeys so Currys has positioned its employees as the differentiator. “We’ve a consistent selling model that is the backbone of how colleagues are inducted and trained. This links to [measuring] customer satisfaction. As tech evolves we’ll deploy more tools [in stores],” he says.
Empowering colleagues
Since the company has 4,500-5,000 SKUs per store – and a lot of complexity around many of these goods – this consistent framework of selling helps. Equipping colleagues will knowledge across the range and the shopping history of customers when interacting with them is also becoming more important to the business and AI has a role to play.
The need to make data discoverable – for Currys employees and externally for chatbots – has been recognised by Kramer and he is making the company “foundationally ready for the world of shopping through chatbots”. But he recognises the magnitude of the challenge with data when he acknowledges that the single customer view is still some way off for Currys.
“We’re three out of 10 with it. We’ve amazing information on our customers but we are not in a place where we would like to be in equipping colleagues with this single view of the customer. We are on the journey because it’s a big opportunity but there is still lots to do.”
There is also still plenty still to do at Matalan that is in the midst of a major turnaround under its new owners that is underpinned by technology. Katherine Davis, chief retail officer at Matalan, says: “The transformation was a priority for the new owners, to improve the whole customer experience – technology, visuals, brand experience and the product proposition. We’re thinking of an omni-channel journey and with only 20% of shopping with Matalan via digital there is not much option but to do this.
Transparent relationships
Among the partners it is working with is Toshiba, which is delivering a whole new capability at the PoS in its stores. For Phil Hackney, chief operating officer at Matalan, it is critical to have a transparent relationship with tech partners in order to identify and address problems quickly. He is also an advocate of having colleagues involved across the whole journey of technology implementations.
“Colleagues are 100% at the heart of what we’re doing. We need to tap into that expertise. They live and breathe it as they do it every day. They just focus on the outcomes and this centres on the customer experience. They are passionate about the small details,” he says.
People are also playing an increasingly important role at Holland & Barrett, which has built up a large team of scientists – and a partnership with Randox – who are all helping the business position itself as a specialist in wellbeing and the prevention of illnesses. Across its 1,000 H&B stores in the UK and Benelux customers can book free consultations and seek advice.
The team at H&B are supported by a big investment in technology that Anthony Houghton, group CEO of H&B, puts at £300 million and involves a mix of in-house built solutions and third-party bought-in technology. This includes new tech in-store and a major overhaul of the supply chain involving implementing AutoStore in the distribution centre. “All parts of the business are now tech-enabled. We’ve invested massively in the data stack and are evaluating it. Next is how we serve up the data,” he says.
Switch to manual
Rather than focusing on building systems Marks & Spencer last year had to deal with someone trying to destroy its systems, according to Archie Norman, chairman of M&S, who says the major cyber-attack it faced a year ago left it having to protect the business by switching off its online operations and shutting down things like its time and attendance solution. All ordering through the supply chain also had to be switched to manual.
“Never assume your systems are impregnable. It’s a false assumption. Recent cyber-attacks have been impersonations rather than [flawed] technology. And check your insurance. A year before the attack we’d doubled our insurance and we received £100 million from them. Although the attack has cost us over £300 million,” he says.
This year M&S is firmly on the front foot. It is expanding its presence internationally – including in the US where is has launched with Nordstrom and is in Target stores – and is adding more stores in the UK. However, there are also closures in the UK as Norman says: “We inherited a legacy store estate, which have tended to be in town centres, and in truth many are not efficient now and with online the demand is also different today,” he explains adding that the 220-plus full-line stores will be reduced to around 180.
But new stores are being opened, often as replacements in an area, which is contributing to M&S opening more food space this year than the four major grocers combined. “We often need enlightened councils. In Harlow the leader came to us knowing we did not want to do a high street store and asked us about a new location near the station. We’re now opening a new full-line store there,” says Norman
Focus on loyalty
The company has also just re-launched its Sparks loyalty card, which he says is not about money-off rewards or differential pricing in-store but is instead about “making shopping easier and collecting data”. Norman adds: “We want to talk to people individually and not have a single wasted email sent to them. We make using the card worthwhile by showing them relevant products.”
Identifying customers in-store – to enable loyalty-type programmes and richer engagement – is an issue for many retailers. Rebecca Smith, senior marketing manager at Yocuda by Shift4, provides a route to solving the problem with the company’s dynamic digital receipts solution. When a payment is made a QR code is displayed on the card reader of PoS screen that provides access to the receipt and also an opt-in for a retailer’s loyalty programme.
When digital receipts are offered she says there is a 60-80% adoption rate versus paper. When the email is then sent the receipt is opened by 75% of recipients who potentially engage as part of the post-purchase mechanic. This interaction can also present the opportunity for the customer to opt-in to the retailers’ loyalty scheme.
Loyalty for SMEs
For Jan Hogetviet, CEO of Diller, loyalty programmes at large companies are so far ahead of smaller organisations, which he says struggle to get them off the ground. “SMEs is where there is a problem. The big chains are way in front. SMEs are standing on the platform and the loyalty train is departing,” he suggests.
With Diller he is hoping to enable smaller retailers to operate their own programmes through its plug & play solution. It is integrated with a growing number of leading payment providers and PoS solutions. When the customers’ payment is taken the card or mobile phone can then be used as the identifier for collecting data and personalised communications along with automated promotions, which can then follow for those who opt-in.
Ensuring front-line employees undertake all the relevant steps during these in-store engagements with customers and achieve the right level of service can be a challenge. Ben Collier, co-founder of Ocasta, says there is often far too much guesswork in how employees deliver on tasks and he has developed a solution to overcome this issue.
“We’ve a front-line operations platform that delivers communications, task management and training all in one place – through an app and web interface. It helps get people out of the back office,” he says. Although the solution is often just given to store managers he suggests access should be given to all front-line employees.
“Gen Z’s want to know what’s happening. Lots of communications in stores [via noticeboards, emails and other routes] are really tasks in disguise. We can send these as actionable tasks and can record that the task has been done. It can be simple things like correcting the price on a poster in-store,” says Collier.
Supporting younger workers
Gen Z’s and other younger groupings are also facing the greatest pressures when working in stores, according to research from the Retail Trust, whose happiness score for 16 to 24-year-olds is worse than for other age groups. Chris Brook-Carter, CEO of Retail Trust, says: “They are less likely to deal with life events and engage [when they have an issue]. Over 50% of this group anticipates being off work due to mental health over the next 12 months.”
In addition, the research shows that as many as 50% of retail employees are considering leaving their roles within the next year and that this figure is higher for store staff and younger team members.
What exacerbates the problem is that retail employees do not believe head office understands what they are dealing with on the shop-floor where abuse and violence from customers continues to be a serious problem. By better supporting colleagues on the front line it can have a dramatically positive impact. Brook-Carter says: “When staff feel supported, only 17% wish to leave, compared to 59%. The financial difference between the two is enormous [from recruiting replacements]. Hence we have to have focus on support.”
Supporting employees includes ensuring there is recognition of neurodiversity, which is something that Marisa Poster, co-founder of Perfect Ted, has effectively used as a superpower. Her ADHD was a contributor to her co-founding Perfect Ted whose matcha-based energy drinks were an antidote to the coffee she had been consuming previously and was having a detrimental effect.
“It’s a different sort of caffeine experience that helped me feel like myself again. We wanted to be disruptive to a category that generally focuses on men,” she says, revealing that the business clearly found a place in the market because it has enjoyed phenomenal growth. From sales of £200,000 in 2022 it has grown to £30 million in 2025 and this could reach £100 million this year.
No fear of failure
Behind this growth is a lack of a fear of failing that drives the company to experiment and learn from its missteps. And Poster says the company listens to the customer, which she admits sounds basic but can be overlooked by brands in the competitive drinks sector where new names frequently pop-up and then disappear.
Comparing retail with hospitality was also up for discussion at RTS this year. Nadine Neatrour, former CMO at Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, says retail is more advanced with digital and it is much easier to manage costs in retail because you sell a product at a certain price but in hospitality bookings come in and they could be for one or a group of 10 people and the spend per head at the outset is unknown. On top of this the margins are invariably tighter.
It is a similar experience for Jim Hingston, digital & technology director at Azzurri Group, who says he underestimated the differences and cites the perishable inventory in hospitality as a challenge as it contributes to wastage in a sector with already “wafer-thin margins”.
Legacy systems
He adds: “Labour costs also massively impact the experience – from [front-of-house] service to the kitchens. And the tech to support hospitality is fragmented. Over time with the digital channels and the delivery aggregators it has been hard to put together and join up the tech.”
This is a scenario well known to Ian Chambers, digital director at EasyJet, who says: “We’ve lots of disparate systems and legacy systems, which is more prevalent than in retail. Integrating with the airports, ticketing systems, and cross-border makes it more complex. The industry is trying to tackle it but it is hard work. We’ve 20-25-year-old tech on old systems that was built in-house.”
Legacy technology is also a challenge for Joanna Montgomery, head of digital at Butlins, who says 80-85% of bookings are via digital channels but the tech stack is having to catch up with this scenario. The complexity is boosted by the broad proposition at Butlins that includes lots of on-site products and services, which includes retail stores.
