Purpose: To provide critical insights for Retail Tech companies looking at Entry into the UK and European Markets
Speaker: Tom Jones
Event: Unlocking the UK opportunity for Tech (London Tech Week 2022)
Organiser: The UK Launchpad
Summarised By: Haoyue Xue
This blog follows on from The UK Launchpad event at London Tech Week 2022.
Tom Jones, the Business Development Director at Retail Week, gave his key insights
into opportunities and trends in the UK Retail Tech sector.
The UK Market
Now the UK market is a pretty mature one from a retail perspective.
Covid-19
John Roberts, the CEO of a predominantly white goods retailer, said that during the
pandemic he had seen a five-year acceleration online, which he would probably be
expected to have seen over six months. Now that has provided a massive opportunity
for those retailers and brands that have been able to be agile during the pandemic.
Now, unfortunately, there have been traditional retailers and brands who perhaps have
not embraced digital transformation to its full extent, and sadly, have gone by the
wayside. But those which have partnered with technology providers, going from
major global multinationals down to the startup markets have seized the opportunity
during the pandemic.
Direct to Consumer (DTC)
From what we can see from the pandemic that one of the key themes certainly in retail
at the moment is the shift to online. In addition to that, another theme is the move to
DTC, so direct to the consumer that is having a massive impact on retail, because
organisations want to have direct access to the consumer data appears to be the only
game in town at present. So understanding consumers and how they have evolved
their consumer behaviour, tracking them from in-store online, and marrying up the
two is a key trend that we are seeing at present.
Customers want to know the whole supply chain such as where the
the product that they are buying has come from.
Proposition, Product, and Purpose
Proposition, product, and purpose are ever more vital. Because of the pandemic itself,
it took a backseat but then had a cop summit in Scotland recently and it came to the
fore and now seeing a move towards ESG, ethical retailing and that also comes down
to the consumer. Customers want to know the whole supply chain such as where the
the product that they are buying has come from. So there are technologies that one can
scan a QR code in-store and able to see where that product has come from and where that
was manufactured, and under what conditions the product was manufactured, and this
is where an opportunity for tech startups is.
One of the issues from a tech vendor
and a start-up perspective is understanding retail and learning to speak that language.
A Common Mistake
It is found that many technology companies and startups mistakenly assume that
retailers and brands have a lot of perceptible knowledge, whether that be on the
products of technologies and software that they are looking to sell to them, such
as AI, the multiverse all these different concepts. One of the issues from a tech vendor
and a start-up perspective is understanding retail and learning to speak that language.
Most retailers are very time-poor. They find it difficult to find time to understand the
latest technologies and they are merely hoping to be able to sell more apples or more
pairs of T-shirts by the time of their next trading meeting. So understanding retailers
and doing a bit of homework to understand their current challenges, rather than
talking specifically about your product.
Five Winning Strategies
There are five winning strategies, which are brand relevance and evolution, agility
and partnerships, customer experience, innovation, investment and culture, and
purpose, where your solution and your product should fit into one of those five areas.
Pilots
If you have got pilots underway, use those case studies when you are engaging with
the retail market, retailers and brands will necessarily be interested in who you are or
your product, but what they will be interested in is who you have done it for in the
past or you have got pilots out with and that is key.
There are probably several people involved in any one decision
certainly when specifying technology, so do not hang your hat on one conversation
with one person, try and get into an organisation and then go out from there.
Who to Speak to
Now, one of the things you are probably finding tricky at the moment is
navigating who to speak to retailers and brands. And what we have found is that there
is a democratization of the decision-making process where in the past you know one
might have gone to the owner, the CEO, that C suite has now broadened to CIOs,
CTOs, CMOs, etc. There are probably several people involved in any one decision
certainly when specifying technology, so do not hang your hat on one conversation
with one person, try and get into an organisation and then go out from there. Because
you might find that finding the next person on the line is the person that is going to
put you in touch with the most important decision maker.
Events
The next stage would be some events for the tech startups if they can travel, come to
the UK, or join online and participate in events. Such as retail week runs retail week
live which is one of the largest gatherings of C suite decision makers in UK retail and
specifically for the startup sector. Retail Week also runs a programme called
Discovery, which has manifested itself as a report whereby we will list the top 40 or
so technology startups that are genuinely having a massive impact on retailers and
brands in the UK.
Want to know more?
The UK Launchpad is an innovation ecosystem specialising in supporting tech companies looking to enter or raise money in the UK and European markets. If you would like to see if we can help your company:
Email us at contact@uklaunchpad.com
Visit our website at www.uklaunchpad.com
