We had a hugely successful Retail Hive Live meeting in September, where over 90 senior retailers came together to discuss collaboration and innovation.

When we think about innovative and disruptor businesses, the common thread between them has been to simplify the user experience. While the technology behind the scenes may be complicated for the retailer, for the user it’s now simple to hail a taxi with one click or tell Alexa to add milk to a grocery order.

Here’s a snapshot of our takeaways from Retail Hive members which are featured in our post-meeting report available to download.

  1. Retail isn’t dying, it’s reinventing itself
  2. Leverage Amazon capabilities, don’t fight it
  3. There is no single definition of omnichannel
  4. Delivery experience is not just about cost – it’s about speed of delivery too!
  5. AI should not replace humans
  6. Talk to your customers – don’t just rely on data
  7. Curate content for your end customer, not just for your brand
  8. Customer service is not just about systems
  9. Innovation should be targeted towards business strategy
  10. Performance is more than just speed

We’d like to offer thanks to our hugely valuable Partners; Apptus, Adyen, Akamai Technology, Brightcove, iAdvize, Manhattan Associates, SoftServe, Sorted Groups and Zendesk for their insights and candid contributions on the day. And of course, to all our Retail Hive members who joined us.

Photos from the day can be viewed and downloaded from our Photo Gallery.