Retail Information Technology news dedicated to in-store and supply chain IT hardware & software solutions

Office of National Statistics (ONS) retail sales estimates for April will result in the extinction of many much-loved stores, fears the UK home delivery specialist ParcelHero.

The world has transitioned to a digital-first economy, and online has become the lifeline for many businesses. New research shows that, in the UK, 41% are online shopping more than before the pandemic. 

In 2019, Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends report found that only 41 percent of C-level respondents believed that employees within their own organisations were ready to meet their leadership requirements.

ShopFully, the digital platform connecting shoppers with retailers, has acquired PromoQui S.p.A. and its info-commerce marketplaces PromoQui and VolantinoFacile.

The coronavirus outbreak has highlighted how important essential supermarket workers are, but in reality, they are often among the most poorly paid and undervalued employees within our society.

InReality has unveiled a new suite of Safe Space Solutions powered by their integration and analytics platform. The Thermal Mirror, an Enterprise-focused  turnkey fever scanning solution, displays almost immediate temperature results, either anonymously for visitors or via facial recognition for employees.

New research from Blue Yonder highlights how shopping behaviour has changed globally since the COVID-19 pandemic started. Blue Yonder surveyed 6,000 European adult consumers in April and 1,000 US adult consumers in both March and April.

As retailers begin to open UK stores from the beginning of June (at the earliest), they can expect to see a shift in footfall with consumers more willing to visit town centres as opposed to other shopping destinations, says GlobalData, the data and analytics company.

What has struck me most about COVID-19 so far is the rapid business response to the crisis. Brands are switching up their game plan and capitalising on the e-commerce surge by going direct to consumer.

The ONS has reported that men working as sales and retail assistants were found to have raised rates of death involving COVID-19.

The ongoing crisis has undoubtedly presented considerable challenges for the retail sector, yet for those organisations that are able to be agile and adapt in these challenging times there is an opportunity to prosper.