Euroshop 2020 Takeaways: Retailers Seek Data-driven Customer Experience and Growth

Author: Miya Knights, Head of Industry Insight at Eagle Eye Solutions Ltd.

A lot has changed since 2017, when EuroShop last convened retailers and their suppliers from around the world. EuroShop 2020 saw demand for improved data-driven customer experiences and growth as top strategic agendas.

Held this week in Düsseldorf, Germany, as the largest retail trade show in the world, EuroShop 2020 attracted 2,300 exhibitors and 114,000 visitors from over 60 countries to share the latest innovations and best practice.

With sectors as diverse as foodservice equipment, visual merchandising and store design represented, the triennial event also included the annual EuroCIS retail technology and marketing exhibition and conference.

Of the 500+ conference sessions ranged across six stages, the comments of Tsvetan Dimitrov, Adidas Business Solutions RFID Director, summed up retailers’ technology-led strategic priorities during his presentation.

Commenting on the use of item-level RFID tagging of goods in the sportswear giant’s supply chain, he said: “The technology allows us to work on key KPIs instore and improving the customer experience.”

Enhancing the instore customer experience

Dimitrov shared two use cases based on the perpetual inventory visibility RFID provides: they include the ability to activate ‘ship from store’ in support of omnichannel fulfilment alongside smart mirror tech instore.

Antoine L'Hotelier, Chief Digital Officer of Lagardere, shared details of a mobile self-checkout project enabling instore shoppers of its Relay travel banner to scan and pay for their shopping using their own mobile phone.

“Our objective is to have 4-5% of transactions completed using scan and pay,” he said. “We are only two weeks into the trial, and we are already at 2%. We want to test which customers take up the solution.”

Scott Renton, Head of Store Development for UK footwear retailer Schuh, commented that digital had to play a “purposeful, integrated” role instore that reflected the same brand story customers experience online.

Although Renton’s comments focused on Schuh’s ongoing store refresh – the latest of which will re-open later this month on Oxford Street – they reflected the omnichannel approach all retailers are taking to instore tech. 

Continuing last year’s focus on store optimisation and customer experience, new self-service scanning, checkout and kiosk systems for fashion, grocery and quick service food-to-go sectors also featured heavily.

Digitally enabled data-driven advantages

As retailers look to streamline and digitise the instore shopping experience, there was evidence that they would not overlook the data-driven capabilities that digitalisation enables from the convenience sector.

Spar NL has developed an ERP template for supply chain data after optimising its processes. Reinder Zijlstra, SPAR NL IT Manager, said: “We may sell food today, but we may sell more data than food in 5-10 years’ time.”

A select few retailers also received recognition for their recent IT innovations at the 13^th annual European retail technology awards (reta), held at an evening EuroShop and EHI Research Institute gala.

Having the privilege of contributing as a judge, the number of winners who were using data to both extend business models and increase customer satisfaction for growth was both notable and encouraging.

Bonprix was a Best Customer Experience award winner for integrating the advantages of online with offline via its “fashion connect” mobile app, where customers can scan garments, choose their size and reserve a fitting room where their chosen garments will be waiting for them when they arrive. Integrated payment options also enable payments through the app, which is also synced with all other instore technologies in real time.

Otto won a Best Omnichannel Solution award for adding an ‘availability by location’ search function. Otto.de customers can enter their postcode to see if a particular product is available within 50 km of their location.

Read more about the reta awards winners and watch videos profiling their winning solutions, here.