And the innovation award goes to…Five retail technology questions for HyperFinity’s Peter Denby
RTIH asks major players in the retail technology space for their thoughts on the sector, and throws in a random question to keep them on their toes. This time around, our five questions go to Peter Denby, Co-founder and CCO at 2022 RTIH Innovation Awards winner HyperFinity.
RTIH: Looking at the hottest retail technologies right now, check-out free stores, rapid delivery services, the metaverse and NFTs, automation and robotics, and blockchain technology, which ones stand out to you, and for what reason?
PD: Retail is a truly exciting sector – especially with all the tech trends you’ve already listed.
Customer expectations are sky high. The likes of Amazon raised the bar for next day delivery, so it’s logical that demand is growing for rapid delivery services.
This is underlined by the recent Just Eat and Sainsbury’s partnership, which will offer customers a choice of 3,000 items delivered within 30 minutes. I’m interested to see whether ecommerce and fashion retailers move to offer something similar.
Check-out free stores are also an interesting innovation. The concept was pioneered by Amazon back in 2018, but other grocery retailers like Tesco and Aldi have steadily followed suit.
At HyperFinity, we’re always talking about ease, speed and value – the three customer experience pillars that retailers need to get right. Check-out free stores really play into ‘ease’ and ‘speed’, so perhaps in-person grocery shopping really is set to change forever
Finally, automation and robotics are probably the most exciting retail tech innovation of all. Our business is centred around using AI to automate data science processes.
It’s a huge opportunity for retailers, as it means humans can be freed up from manual, repetitive tasks, to focus on more complex work. I can see the same concepts being applied across retail more generally, as well as part of decision-making processes.
RTIH: Which retail technology trend is overrated in your opinion?
PD: A tough one, but I’d say the metaverse is overrated.
At the end of last year, Meta cut over 11,000 jobs after a collapse in revenue – and also after heavily investing in the metaverse. A bad omen? Its Horizon Worlds metaverse platform hasn’t seen major adoption either – so I’m not convinced.
Over time we’ll see how the metaverse develops. Perhaps it will succeed if it cracks genuine retail conundrums such as providing a realistic virtual experience for trying on clothes before you buy them.
If so, that will help from both a customer experience perspective and reduce retailer costs, which is always a win, given it’s a relatively low margin business.
RTIH: What are the top five retail tech social media accounts you can’t do without, and why?
PD: Retail Technology Innovation Hub always has a finger on the pulse!
I’m also a big fan of Richard Lim – especially his weekly retail summaries on LinkedIn, which are a great way of catching up on any news I’ve missed.
I enjoy reading Ian Shepherd’s take on retail and the economy via his Moving Tribes newsletter. His combination of practical retailer experience, board room perspective and data and analytics background is highly relevant to our business.
Over The Atlantic Rick Watson, via The Watson Weekly, is very insightful about retail and e-commerce trends, particularly in the US. As is Neil Saunders at GlobalData Retail.
RTIH: If you could have a dinner party with any five retail pioneers, dead or alive, who would they be and why?
PD: Wow, this is a tough question!
I’d start with Sam Walton, founder of Walmart. He built an extraordinarily successful business, which is still the largest pureplay retailers in the world today. Among his leadership principles were an absolute focus on the customer, which many modern retailers would do well to follow.
Geoff Bezos of Amazon would have to be there, and I’d sit him next to Sam. Love them or hate them, there’s so much to admire about Amazon, from a retail perspective and general management theory.
Can I class Nike as a retailer? I think so. Phil Knight, their founder, is another fascinating character. I’d love to quiz him on his memoir, Shoe Dog.
His drive and bravery in the early days helped him built a business which is both hip and accessible. I’d be asking him questions about Michael Jordan all night, the greatest sportsperson of all time, in my opinion.
Bringing it up to date, I’d invite Mel Smith, outgoing CEO of Ocado. She led them through a very difficult time – a global health pandemic and a high profile partnership with M&S. As a regular Ocado shopper, I’m a fan of their model, although I preferred it when they partnered with Waitrose.
Finally, I’d invite Bernard Arnault, CEO and Chairman of LMVH. Oh, and the world’s richest person. He’d be paying for dinner, clearly.
RTIH: What does being a RTIH Innovation Awards winner mean to you?
PD: It was the cherry on top of a brilliant 2022!
It’s fantastic to be recognised – not only for our innovative technology, but also for our potential for long-term success.
It’s also great recognition of the traction we’ve already achieved with retailers, as we help them make profitable, customer led decisions with data science and AI.
The idea for our startup came to life in the craft ale pubs of Leeds – back when HyperFinity’s co-founders were still retail practitioners.
Our decision intelligence software has been in the pipeline for a couple of years now, so the RTIH Innovation Awards win really validates what we’ve built.
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