Shoptalk Europe 2022

Shoptalk is where thousands of retail changemakers come together to create the future of retail. The event covers the latest technologies, trends, and business models, as well as the rapid transformation of what consumers discover, shop for, and buy—everything ranging from apparel and electronics to beauty and groceries.

Industry leaders and innovators from a broad cross-section of companies, ranging from established retailers and brands to innovative new startups and prolific investors, spoke during the event.

Shoptalk Europe 2022 was hosted by Hyve International Events Limited at ExCel London. There were about 3000+ attendees with over 220 speakers, most of whom were C-suite.

Our Learnings

We’re at a tipping point in retail history. Businesses in nearly every sector have accelerated their digital transformation to adjust to the “new normal” and meet growing demand for online shopping. Latest figures show that over 85,000 businesses in the UK moved online during the pandemic alone. But, merely existing online doesn’t automatically lead to success

In a world where you never see your customer face-to-face, there are numerous hurdles to clear. So, in order for online retailers to thrive in this new world, up against fierce competition and other external forces dictating the global economy, the pressure to up their game is on.

How do online retailers go about emulating the quality of service and goods that people get in-store while providing a seamless experience from cart to door?

When it comes to spending our hard-earned cash, consumers want to know that they’re getting what they paid for without the frustration and stress of something going wrong. The good news is that most common e-commerce failures, such as poor address verification or late deliveries, are avoidable. Retailers who take a proactive approach to delivering the very best experience online don’t need to be worried, but retailers employing a ‘wait and see’ approach might find that customers have jumped ship and, worse, that they have no intention of coming back. The future of retail lies in Omnichannel, Metaverse, live commerce, Q-commerce and driving efficiency through automation and Robotics. 

Opportunities For Startups

The event served as a platform for the startups to pitch their ideas and form important fundraising, product, distribution, and other partnerships with retailers, brands, tech companies, investors, media, and more.

Some interesting startup pitches that we attended:

• An AI-powered data intelligence platform that converts in-store transactional data from anonymous shoppers into highly-optimized digital audiences. This allows the online and offline sales to be mapped to the right marketing campaigns.
• Live commerce: connect with customers for remote selling via video, audio, SMS, WhatsApp and chat.
• Underground delivery system with zero Emissions.
• AI powered chatbots and product recommendation solutions.
• AI powered human translation platform.
• Making in-store inventory visible to people searching for it nearby.
• Delivering real time experiences by understanding the customer intent.
• Crowd shipping.

What did we do?

• Understand the trends in the retail sector.
• Talk to customers and get to know their changing expectations.
• Look out for the new offerings that we can provide to our customers.
• Connect with peers, tech partners and service seekers.
• Evaluate new frameworks, product offerings in retail .
• Attend learning sessions and workshops on sustainability, new insights and perspectives on the fast changing retail industry.
• Educate prospects and others about our offerings and brand story.
• Network, Network, Network.

Our Takeaways

We were keen to meet and greet technology partners who are relevant and would add value to our existing customers in the form of their offerings. We also got the opportunity to meet and understand more about larger enterprise ecommerce frameworks like Commercetools, which is in the news for all the right reasons; HCL Commerce, Spryker, etc. This gave us an insight into the various enterprise-level features that these frameworks could offer in the digital transformation process.

As the world moves more towards an API-driven approach, these tidbits were of extreme use in formulating our strategy to stay ahead of the curve.

The keynote speakers were of particular interest, and some very high-quality content was discussed by them on stage. Anya Hindmarch was one of the standout performers, an English fashion accessories designer who founded an eponymous company. She was gracious enough to share a copy of her book, “If in doubt, wash your hair.”

We also got the opportunity to meet and greet some of the keynote speakers post presentation.

Well, we believe the 3-day event was informative and left us better than we were at the beginning. We look forward to the next edition.