Latest retail publications

European financial advisory firm iBe has identified online marketplaces as the best opportunity for growth in ecommerce. Sam Tidmarsh talks to Onogo.com CEO Paul Murphy and Evan’s Cycles Marketplace manager George Schofield about the impact marketplaces have on their ecommerce strategies, and the opportunities they provide looking forward. Marketplaces currently contribute $1.7 trillion to the… Read More

One week it’s sushi, then it’s poke bowls and next thing you know kippers are back on trend.

It can be hard for retailers to keep up with the whimsical ebb and flow of eating habits. In an ideal world, supermarkets want their shelves stocked with on trend cuisine as soon as the hashtags show any sign of trending. But instead of staying ahead of the game supermarkets often find themselves playing catchup.

To combat this problem Sainsbury’s has teamed up with Google and Accenture to forge a machine learning solution that feeds off the supermarket’s vast pool of customer data to ‘empower’ customers to stay connected to the latest food trends. Using Google Cloud’s machine learning solutions, the UK’s second largest supermarket chain is on the hunt for insights about customer demand and the trends driving eating habits.

Salesforce has added to its extensive portfolio of cloud products with two new cloud platforms for the consumer goods and manufacturing industries.

The CRM giant said the two platforms will help companies in both industries adapt to transformational trends brought about by AI, blockchain, IoT and 3D printing that are forcing them to become more customer-centric.

More than 100,000 high street retail jobs have been lost to automation and e-commerce since 2011, according to a report.

Women and regional workers were most affected as retailers cut traditionally female customer service positions in favour of extra warehouse roles which had mostly gone to men, the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) said.

Digital transformation is proving a gamechanger for small businesses and franchise owners who operate at the edge, but it brings with it a distinct set of challenges. Those that can combine digital tools with their existing strengths and local market knowledge will be well positioned to compete and win.