Amazon’s pay-by-palm technology is being tested in select Panera locations in the US. JP Morgan will also begin piloting biometrics-based payments with US retailers this year.

According to Google Intelligence, global biometric payments are expected to reach $5.8 trillion and three billion users by 2026.

Are shoppers ready for this next level of convenience? How will Amazon benefit? And how can linking loyalty programmes create a more personalised (perhaps too personalised) experience?

For more, visit www.nbkretail.com

Boris Planer, Head of Consumer and Market Insight at the trend forecasters WGSN, joins Natalie Berg to discuss the state of German retail and in particular why department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof is closing nearly half of its stores.

Natalie also breaks down Inditex’s annual results, exploring topics such as:

• Self-checkouts in non-food retail. Inditex's plans to eliminate hard tags on its clothes is expected to speed up the checkout process by up to 50%. Will it work? Who else is looking to cut friction at the checkout and how? Will we see more general merchandise retailers invest in solutions like self-checkout, scan & go, and equipping staff with mobile POS devices?
• The importance of human touch in digital stores.
• Innovative features of the Battersea Power Station Zara store, opened late 2022, including two-hour click & collect, an automated online returns point and RFID-enabled fitting rooms.

For more:

Boris Planer on LinkedIn

WGSN

NBK Retail

Miya Knights, author, consultant and publisher of RetailTechnology.co.uk, joins Natalie Berg to break down the biggest news stories reshaping retail.

They discuss:

• Recent changes to loyalty schemes at major UK retailers Boots and M&S. Are points-based schemes becoming a thing of the past as consumers demand real-time value and rewards? Or are these changes a sign that loyalty schemes are too costly to run at a time when retailers are facing an incredible amount of cost pressure themselves? Would you pay £120 a year for an Amazon Prime-style Sparks Plus subscription? And why is Amazon's Prime membership so successful?
• Instacart becoming the latest player in the retail space to trial ChatGPT. What is it and why have the grocers been so quick to jump on this new technology? Who is using it today and what are the AI opportunities for non-food retailers in the future?
• Barcelona's plans to halve emissions from delivery vehicles with 40% of online orders to be delivered to collection points, instead of individual homes, by 2030. Will other cities follow suit? Is this proof that the future of e-commerce really is click & collect? And how is Amazon decarbonising the last mile in Europe?

For more, check out:

Miya's site: www.retailtechnology.co.uk

Natalie's site: www.nbkretail.com

Miya and Natalie's book Amazon: How the World's Most Relentless Retailer Will Continue to Revolutionize Commerce

We often think of Amazon as one of those invincible brands. A bulletproof business. A business that has transformed the retail sector thanks to a relentless dissatisfaction with the status quo.

But like a lot of tech companies they thrived during the pandemic and now they’re finding life difficult.

Why?

1) General volatility. Like all retailers, Amazon is grappling with unprecedented cost inflation at a time when consumer demand remains sluggish. That’s a dangerous combo for any business but in Amazon’s case it’s exacerbated by the fact that during the pandemic they over-hired and over-expanded to help cope with the huge surge in demand for online shopping and cloud computing.

2) Recalibration: return to IRL shopping. We’ve now had a year of relative normality. The world is far more hybrid than we could have ever imagined pre-2020 but the pandemic has taught us the value of stores in this digital era. Shoppers are abandoning e-commerce and returning to bricks & mortar. They’re looking for value over convenience and delaying those discretionary buys. The pandemic has reaffirmed that the future of retail is NOT e-commerce – it’s a blended mix of physical and digital commerce.

 As a result, Amazon is looking unusually vulnerable. I believe that sometime within the next decade, Amazon will go from being the disruptor to the disrupted. Listen to the podcast to hear why.

For more, visit www.nbkretail.com

One of the most hotly anticipated store openings – or should we say REopenings – is happening this week. US-based beauty retailer Sephora re-entered the UK market last fall when it spent a whopping £132 million to acquire online beauty retailer feelunique. After an 18-year hiatus, Sephora is back in Blighty, and this week it opens its first store in Westfield in White City, West London.

In this episode of Retail Disrupted, we explore the return of the beauty retailer – what it means for the incumbents and how technology will play a critical role in the physical shopping experience.

But Sephora isn’t the only retailer expanding its bricks & mortar footprint this year - Aldi recently announced plans to open around 40 new stores across the UK this year. Are the discounters enjoying their time in the sun or is this perhaps a more permanent shift in grocery habits?

The retail sector is no stranger to disruption. Technology continues to disrupt all aspects of shopping - from on-demand groceries that turn up in 15 minutes to in-store experiences becoming more seamless, connected, and relevant.   Today, shoppers are hyper-informed, digitally-enabled and hungry for shopping experiences that reflect their 21st century needs. 

Hosted by Retail Analyst and Author Natalie Berg, Retail Disrupted will help you stay on the of the latest industry developments, trends and innovations from the UK and around the globe. Each week, we’ll get under the hood of retail, covering topics such as:

• The convergence of physical and digital commerce
• How tech can enhance the customer experience
• Reinventing bricks & mortar retail
• The future of e-commerce
• Macroeconomic and sociodemographic shifts
• Shopper loyalty

For more, visit www.nbkretail.com