Retail Critical Issues

Recent independent research commissioned by compostable packaging company TIPA reveals 80% of UK shoppers believe that the retail industry should be doing more to tackle the issue of plastic waste, while 6 in 10 (63%) feel it is retailers’ responsibility to reduce the environmental impact of plastic waste.

A new survey reveals that more than half of restaurant diners would eat food made by robots – if it tasted good.

In light of the recent difficulties faced by high street giants like Debenhams, House of Fraser and Claire’s, British consumers have been revealed to be three times more likely to shop more with independent stores than large shops over the next five years according to findings from marketing automation suite Pure360.

Red Box, the platform for voice, has announced the results of a global survey of CIOs, general C-suite and IT management enterprise employees into their views of voice capture in the enterprise, showing the majority of businesses are capturing only partial voice data sets and are not able to make the most of this highly valuable data set as it is largely inaccessible.

Retail is rapidly changing, with a huge increase in the use of technology across every element of the process, from concept to consumer. In particular, the increased prevalence of the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) in the retail sector means businesses must adapt and invest in technologies to support this new era of network-controlled device management and automation.

The UK is a nation addicted to fashion, buying five times more clothes today than in the 1980s. But 400,000 tonnes of clothes end up in landfill every year – and there is growing awareness that the way these clothes are produced and discarded is having a massive impact on the environment, from water consumption during production to marine contamination from microfibres.

As younger, more mindful consumers increasingly dominate the fashion customer base, are we at an ethical tipping point, asks Craig Summers, UK Managing Director, Manhattan Associates.

The shopping season is upon us and, like every year, many of us choose to buy online instead of trawling through the shops. But do UK retailers ensure shoppers can trust their websites?

The spending power of disabled customers in the UK is estimated at £249bn. But the high street is yet to maximise income from the ‘Purple Pound’ because of a lack of awareness, poorly-maintained facilities or assistive technology that could smooth the interaction between customer and staff.

Traffic to the UKFast network, which hosts thousands of eCommerce websites and booking platforms, has seen a massive 30% increase in web traffic this Black Friday, compared to Black Friday last year.

These days, planning for peak retail season starts the moment the last peak ends. In a bid for continuous improvement retailers and carriers forensically review what went well, which new tactics and technologies worked, which didn’t and where refinements can be made.