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Brought to you by Retail Insider and K3 BTG Paolo Woods-Wyatt, COO, Tails.com 1. What is the greatest opportunity for your business? At tails.com, the team have spent the last few years investing heavily in our infrastructure – people, technology, supply chain. We’re now in a place to leverage that to continue to scale the business rapidly. We have plans to continue to launch in new markets (we’ve launched in 7 new markets this year) and into new categories. 2. What is the biggest challenge to your business? We’re scaling really fast and that always comes with challenges. We need to hire lots of people, the average tenure at the company drops, we need new processes/procedure to manage with the more complex business we now have. Ensuring that we can do all of this while maintaining the tails.com culture is a big challenge but one I’m confident we will be able to overcome. 3. With the benefit of hindsight what would you have done differently so far? For the majority of time t...

It is with great pleasure that we launch the annual ‘Retail Insider Digital Retail Innovations’ report for 2020 (sponsored by Webloyalty ), which is arguably the most dynamic edition to date as highlighted by DNANudge heading up this year’s list of the Top 60 innovations. Covid-19 has been a major driver of new consumer behaviours and the more proactive operators in the retail sector have been busy innovating during this period of disruption. As well as reflecting the impact of the virus it also highlights the most interesting and potentially impactful digitally-driven innovations in the retail industry. Alongside DNANudge are some entirely new innovations that have been created as a result of Covid-19 and others that have come from existing technologies, which have pivoted to create tools that serve a Covid-19-impacted environment. Among the Top 20 innovations these include Lost Stock, Sunburst UV Bots, WeChat group buying, Ubamarket in-store app and Chowbotics Vending.  ...

Retail Insider, in partnership with  Novomind , held its latest Zoom Cocktail Hour with Ken Daly, CEO of JML Group , who talked about rocketing online sales and the importance of hit products to fuelling the company’s £100 million annual sales. The business was already enjoying growing online sales through its own direct channel when Covid-19 drove a trebling of turnover as demand for fitness and personal grooming products in particular increased dramatically. Catch some of Ken’s insights here . This has gone hand-in-hand with a recovery in bricks & mortar sales after the first lockdown and revenues stood at levels higher than pre-Covid-19 before the industry moved into the second lockdown phase. These sales are driven by video content that is created for every product that JML sells – whether it is on 5,000 digital screens located in the stores of the likes of Asda, on QVC or on JML’s own website. Senior executives heard Ken highlight how integral this content is to sa...

Sponsored by Womble Bond Dickinson and Openpay We asked all our winners in this year’s Transforming Retail Awards to tell us how they felt about winning their category. And here is more detail from Jeremy Byfleet, UK operations manager, Infarm on how it feels to be awarded Best Newcomer. How do you feel about winning this Award? It’s great to be recognised in the retail sector for the work we do and for the changes we hope to inspire. We feel very passionate about making fresh, pure, tasty and nutritious produce available to everyone and are thrilled that customers and retailers are responding so positively to our form of sustainable and environmentally friendly agriculture. Infarm launched in M&S Why do you think your entry stood out? The pandemic has undoubtedly shown the need for a change to the UK’s food supply chain and our produce, that is grown either in-store or within the communities it serves, can be easily manoeuvred to meet demand. Infarm is pursuing ...

Brough to you by Retail Insider and K3 BTG Retail Insider is pleased to launch the 2020 edition of the Movers & Shakers in retail Top 100 report highlighting the most digitally progressive people in the industry who are making a major contribution to changing the landscape of retail. Produced in conjunction with sponsors K3 BTG , this year’s report continues with the objective of previous editions in seeking to find those individuals who are pushing digital transformation strategies forward and also those developing new business models. Covid-19 is but one more challenge they face and has been another factor that has helped determine those people who justify a place in this year’s report. An advisory panel carefully selected the list of 100 names, which has been topped by the leaders of The Hut Group, Gymshark, Depop and Bloom & Wild. The only traditional retailer in the top 20 this year is Next. The esteemed panel eventually decided that first place t...

On leaving the Royal Academy last Sunday after viewing this year’s Summer Exhibition it felt like a much more airy and less frenetic experience than previous year’s, with the art seemingly less crammed together on the walls.  But then I realised it was nothing to do with the art at all. It was instead all about the fact we weren’t packed in like sardines with other visitors all craning our necks to get a half-decent sighting of the works. At times, we had whole rooms to ourselves, which would have been unthinkable any other year, and it made for a much more enjoyable experience.  This turned out to be an all-too-rare escape from the troubles. I’m unable to think of any other positives to be drawn from the current situation. Certainly for central London, the ongoing restrictive measures being enforced and the continued ambivalence towards hospitality by the city’s mayor has created an environment of slow death for far too many businesses. Tier two added to the misery and ...

Brought to you by Retail Insider and Flooid Name: Bread Ahead The Place: Started in the oldest market in London (or pretty much anywhere) Borough Market   but now has several sites in the West End and has just opened up a big old emporium at Wembley (but more of that later). The Story:  Bread – the staff of life innit. And hasn’t it taken on a whole new role during Covid-19 in the nation’s hearts. Just when you think it couldn’t get any more in love with baking than it already was, it did. And then we ran out of flour, which was, like, properly scary wasn’t it… Get back to the point please: Sorry. There’s something about bread isn’t there – makes you suddenly digress on to weightier matters like life, death, belonging, Mary Berry vs Prue Leith. Get back to the point please: Yes. So the founder is Matthew Jones. His background is firmly in the best restaurant kitchens of Britain where he spent a lot of his working life. However, in 2013 he decided to go it a...

Sponsored by Womble Bond Dickinson and Openpay We asked all our winners in this year’s Transforming Retail Awards to tell us how they felt about winning their category. And here is more detail on exactly why the judges were taken with John Lewis’ entry in the Best Connected Experience . How do you feel about winning this award? We’re delighted to have been recognized for all the hard work we have put into creating great virtual experiences for our customers.  We have lots of virtual events in the making for this Christmas so keep your eyes peeled! Cathy Capande from John Lewis’ Customer Experience team with the winning certificate Why did this entry stand out? John Lewis Partnership has successfully transformed previously ‘in person’ experiences into a market leading virtual execution. It has evolved numerous different customer propositions including; Waitrose Cookery School, Wine Tasting at Home, Fashion Personal Styling service, Nursery Advisory Serv...

Taking my regular cycle route to the top of Alexandra Palace in north London recently it was impossible to miss an enormous stage being constructed on one of the car park spaces. It turned out to be set-up for a two-week run of Puccini’s La bohème by the English National Opera dubbed “ENO Drive & Live” that operated like a drive-in cinema but with a live opera performance.  ENO’s Drive-in production at Alexandra Palace Like the rest of the leisure industry – even the ENO is on its uppers and experimenting. With the ability to only drive very limited revenues from its central London home, it devised this clever plan to generate money from paying customers showing up in their cars and for car-less opera buffs it had struck a deal with Uber whereby vehicles could be hired for the evening. But the key (cash generating) element in the plan was no doubt the recording of one of the performances for broadcast on Sky TV.  Although such a move was very much driven by covid-1...

Welcome to this column within our broader sustainability section which focuses on what clothing retail is doing to address the issues in its industry. It’s exciting times for anyone involved in this area as technology and retailers try to keep up with customers’ demand for all things ethical. From palm oil to fur farms, fast fashion to single-use plastic, excess packaging to food waste – this is where the real action is. This month’s column focuses on shoe brand Allbirds is trying to alter the way consumers think about its products’ carbon footprints and is brought to you by Retail Insider with  Clipper  and  Give Back Box . What difference would it make to consumers if they could learn to think about products’ carbon emissions in the same way as they currently think about the calorie content of food? That’s the question that US/Australian trainers brand Allbirds has posed in the hope that it can allow consumers to differentiate between brands and make informed choi...

Sponsored by Womble Bond Dickinson and Openpay 1.      How do you feel about winning this Award? We are truly humbled that what started out as a little idea back at the start of lockdown has grown the way it has and now to be recognised alongside such exalted company is amazing. This award really is testament to the hard work of the team coupled with the willingness of consumers to shop in a different way and to help others. Lost Stock has only existed for just over 4 months and whilst we might not have got everything right it is amazing to have had the impact we’ve had in such a short period of time.  2.      Why do you think your entry stood out? I think we probably stood out because we are doing something completely new and reimaging the fashion retail supply chain. When we read a quote from a Bangladeshi factory owner which said “if coronavirus doesn’t kill my workers then starvation will’ at the start of the coronavirus pandemic we decid...

Many times over the past couple of weeks at the end of the day I’ve thought about popping out to the pub for a quick pint while I read the paper. But I’ve then changed my mind and instead cracked open a can of beer or poured a glass of wine at home. Once lock-down ended, I reckon I was more excited than the majority of people at the ability to again simply go for a drink in a convivial atmosphere that wasn’t my own garden or house. But what has transpired has not been particularly appealing because of the growing number of steps you have to go through before you get to the point of having a glass in your hand. When I first ventured out to my local pub, table service was being strictly enforced and the advice was to book ahead. Wandering in randomly was OK at quieter times but problematic at other periods.  The good old days I took the option to instead frequent a pub a little further away because the radicals down there allowed orders to be made at the bar – with social di...

Retail Insider, in partnership with  Novomind , held its latest Zoom Cocktail Hour with Mark Fox, CEO of Roadchef , who talked about his mission to elevate the perception of the motorway service station. With a major £75 million investment made across the estate of Roadchef service stations and the introduction of new brands like Leon Mark detailed some of the big changes he has brought about since he took on the CEO role at the company two years ago. These have been made to change the view that the offers at motorway service stations are expensive and low quality. Senior executives from businesses including McDonald’s, Amazon, Rank, Laithwaites and Sourced Market also heard Mark acknowledge that he had been “incredibly lucky”, when compared with many other companies, as traffic levels at Roadchef are down by only 10-15% since Covid-19. Catch some of Mark’s insights here . He revealed that 630 million vehicles pass the Roadchef sites annually and that around 7% stop at one ...

Brought to you by Retail Insider and K3 BTG Freddy Ward, co-founder of Wild Cosmetics 1 . What is the greatest opportunity for your business? We believe there will be an unstoppable wave of change in the way consumers think about sustainability and how their buying behaviours impact the world we live in. Wild is well positioned to help consumers on this journey and to drive sustainability focused innovation in the bathroom. If we can deliver on our mission to create innovative, sustainable and high performing natural products for your everyday personal care routines we will be an exciting place.  2. What is the biggest challenge to your business? Whilst in the short term we have benefitted from the surge in online buying activity, we believe this sudden change in emphasis for large retailers, who need to move online, will put a lot of pressure on CPMs and online marketing inventory and it will be very hard for start-ups to compete efficiently. Now more than ever smaller b...

Sponsored by Womble Bond Dickinson & OpenPay We asked all our winners in this year’s Transforming Retail Awards to tell us a bit more about themselves and their winning entry. Customized blind and curtain company Stitched won out in the Editor’s Special Award category and also caught the editor’s eye with their Covid plan to utilise artisan workers working from home when their usual manufacturing facility was given over to PPE production. Stitched co-founder Elinor Pitt with the winning certificate How do you feel about winning this Award? It’s amazing to have three years hard work recognised by such a prestigious panel of tech and retail experts. Why do you think your entry stood out? Curtains + blinds is not the first vertical people think about when discussing retail problems and tech solutions. But, curtains + blinds present some real problems for homeowners and renters alike. Our solutions are technically complex but wonderfully simple and fun to u...

The art of the deal is suffering along with the hospitality sector “The occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.” You might not have experienced much of this over the past six months because it’s the definition of serendipity and it’s become a bit of a scarce resource. Over the years it’s fair to say that my personal circumstances and work-related activities have enjoyed incredible upside from that ephemeral commodity: serendipity. You never know when it will strike, whether it is in a bar, or a coffee shop, or at a conference or an event. But when it does the outcomes can be joyous, uplifting and sometimes unexpectedly beneficial financially. Sadly, it is becoming ever more rare as each new diktat imposed upon society by the government is impacting increasingly negatively on our ability to interact – across all aspects of our lives. The negative consequences of ill-thought-out measures like curfews and the imposition of a myriad of other con...

Sponsored by Womble Bond Dickinson and Openpay We asked all our winners in this year’s Transforming Retail Awards to tell us a little bit more about themselves and their winning entry. DPD Group won out in the Delivery Innovation category with its new app. Tim Jones, director of marketing, DPD Group, holding the winning certificate How do you feel about winning this Award? We’re delighted with this award. Our app has been downloaded a massive eight million times, making home deliveries much more convenient for shippers and shoppers alike. So it’s great to have our reputation for innovation further recognised by Retail Insider.  Why do you think your entry stood out? Probably because the app gives consumers more control than any other carrier over how, where and when they receive a parcel.  As a result, DPD has been able to significantly increase the number of parcels delivered right-first time. We now have record-high service levels and this helps...

Sponsored by Womble Bond Dickinson and Openpay We asked all our winners in this year’s Transforming Retail Awards to tell us a little bit more about themselves and their winning entry. Order management system OneStock jointly won the Editor’s Special Award for its agile Web to Store IT system which allowed Whistles to unify their stock (e-commerce, warehouses, points of sale, suppliers) and fulfil orders from every selling channel, turning stores into efficient, productive multi-channel centres. Romulus Grigoras, CEO of OneStock with his winning certificate How do you feel about winning this Award? OneStock is really happy to have won this very special award. It is great to get recognition from industry leaders and our peers. I am very proud of our team for delivering such a high quality and efficient product after several years of research and development. Today we can really see the relevance of the system we have developed. The market for highly efficient order mana...

Brought to you by Retail Insider and Flooid Name: Selfridges The Place: One of the grande dames of the department stores of London’s Oxford Street (and now Birmingham and Manchester too) but one which has always been a bit wild and exuberant and just a teeny bit off the wall. Like Princess Margaret to the Queen’s Fortnum & Mason if you will. There used to be 16 little mini Selfridges but these were sold off in the 1940s to John Lewis. Nowadays the chain is owned by Wittington Investments run by the Weston family which also owns…wait for it…Fortnum & Mason. The Story:  Seriously, have you not watched the TV series about brash Yankee Harry Selfridge? I think that might have been mainly fiction: Well you say that but they definitely got some of it right. The showmanship, the slightly un-English razzamatazz of it all, the business of the perfume counter in the front hall (shocking), the Bleriot aeroplane on show and other such dramatic Edwardian moments. But just i...

Brought to you by Retail Insider and Flooid Name: Selfridges The Place: One of the grande dames of the department stores of London’s Oxford Street (and now Birmingham and Manchester too) but one which has always been a bit wild and exuberant and just a teeny bit off the wall. Like Princess Margaret to the Queen’s Fortnum & Mason if you will. There used to be 16 little mini Selfridges but these were sold off in the 1940s to John Lewis. Nowadays the chain is owned by Wittington Investments run by the Weston family which also owns…wait for it…Fortnum & Mason. The Story:  Seriously, have you not watched the TV series about brash Yankee Harry Selfridge? I think that might have been mainly fiction: Well you say that but they definitely got some of it right. The showmanship, the slightly un-English razzamatazz of it all, the business of the perfume counter in the front hall (shocking), the Bleriot aeroplane on show and other such dramatic Edwardian moments. But just i...