Reports

Since January 2020, retailers and restaurants in Germany have been legally obliged to issue receipts, a major annoyance for the industry. Digital receipts are a way to avoid the additional burden on the environment.

Retail companies aim to test innovations faster in unvarnished real-world use. What they expect from their core technology suppliers is: more openness. Preferably in the style of Apple and Google's app policy, they should enable start-ups to develop on their platforms and provide add-ons. A wish that does not go unheard.

A nine-member independent jury has selected this year's winners of the Reta Awards on behalf of the EHI Retail Institute. Winners in five categories include retail companies such as E.Leclerc, Edeka, Fressnapf, Ikea, Rewe, Salling Group and Tegut.

Consumers want more transparency. Product scanner apps for shoppers' smartphones are booming. However, the evaluation of a product can only be as good as the quality of the data set available in the app. It is worth taking a look at the cooperation between the French pioneers Alkemics and Yuka.

Tests in some stores and even framework agreements with technology suppliers are not yet proof that electronic labels will soon be seen in all stores. Retailers will only achieve a rapid ROI if they use the labels to react more dynamically to market developments with intelligent price optimisation solutions, to optimise in-store processes or to offer customers significant additional benefits.

We are delighted that the Retail Optimiser has been able to accompany the internationally highly valued retail expert Bryan Roberts on a store check at Asda in Stevenage, UK, and share his personal insights.

Nutri-Score based on the French model comes to Germany. The commitment of major German retailers to use the nutritional label on their private-label products increases the pressure on brand manufacturers. In France, retail primus E.Leclerc is a pioneer.

In less than a year, Rimi Baltic, a grocery retailer belonging to the Swedish ICA Group, has switched its pricing to the optimisation solution from Revionics, a pricing specialist recently acquired by Aptos. This has increased sales of its 280 stores in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Whether they like it or not: German grocery retailers cannot avoid e-commerce. Amazon is not letting up. For the likes of Edeka, Rewe and Schwarz Group, it is worth looking at the French market. Through innovative concepts and investments into technology, companies such as Groupe Casino and E.Leclerc are confidently securing their business against Amazon.

French retailers go innovative ways to tackle consumers' request for more product data, reports our guest author Antoine Durieux, CEO of Alkemics.