Reta awards: Real-time data goes mobile

The EHI reta 2013 awards recognise the most innovative IT projects in Europe involving retailers including Shop Direct Group, Tommy Hilfiger and Migros Turkey

The 2013 European retail technology awards (reta) held this week in Düsseldorf placed a heavy emphasis on the consolidation and analysis of data for the purpose of disseminating its analysis as meaningful information to every type of retail stakeholder, including staff, managers, suppliers and customers.

Hosted by retail trade organisation, EHI Retail Institute, during technology show EuroCIS from 19-21 February 2013, the sixth annual reta awards sponsored by IBM and Toshiba were given to three equal winners in three categories: Best Customer Experience, Best Instore Solution and Best Enterprise Solution.

Providing value-added services to customers

In the Best Customer Experience category, EDEKA Grümmer won for extending its point-of-sale (PoS) to handle banking services like cash withdrawals, account balance inquiries and other money transactions in cooperation with Micros.

Another German regional supermarket, EDEKA Südwest IT services created an information portal for its local brand. Spanning some 1,000 suppliers, it identifies the exact origin of each product using quick response (QR) codes and provides production transparency to both staff and customers.

American fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger was also awarded a Customer Experience prize for its work with ID24 to roll out customer touchscreen kiosks to 200 branches in 20 countries. Having logged in, the customer can view their purchases, including receipts and vouchers, and comment on their shopping experience, which provides the retailer with up-to-the-minute data and up-to-date feedback.

Making the best of IT innovation instore

In the Best Instore Solution category,Migros Turkey and MicroStrategy won an award for developing a comprehensive tablet-PC-based information platform for its store managers, called ‘My Office App,’ in the space of six months. The app provides real-time access, coordinated with head office, to various data and analyses, including planograms, product information and clearance sales analysis. 

In partnership with IT provider arvato/Bertelsmann, Metro Group’s real,- hypermarket brand was recognised for building a ‘Cross Channel Commerce Hub,’ to consolidate information across all of its sales channels as part of its multichannel commerce strategy. Mobile, online, PoS and social media data can now be accessed as a “single source of truth” by its call centre, PoS systems and ever third-party suppliers. 

Rounding out a number of supermarket innovations, the IT department of Rewe developed an intuitive mobile data capture software and hardware system for fresh produce staff to obtain, information about stocks, promotions and cannibalisation effects. This knowledge base enables orders to be processed in situ on the mobile terminal so stocks can be managed to optimise freshness and reduce waste.

Shop Direct, SAP HANA win in enterprise

By integrating near-real time user data from the various distribution channels into its Teradata data warehouse, UK fashion brand retailer Shop Direct Group has gained closer insight into its customers and their preferences, to win in the Best Enterprise solution category. Using this analysis and a target group-oriented customer approach derived from it, the investment paid for itself in seven months.

Using the SAP HANA data analytics platform, Media Saturn Holding also picked up an award in the enterprise category for its work with consultancy Gicom to calculate and analyse the real-time prices of products, taking into account all contractual conditions, such as bonuses and advertising cost contributions for example. This enabled the German electronics retailer to put the effects on turnover and profits of pricing changes immediately in the hands of executives on their mobile devices.

Lastly, Garant-Moebel-Gruppe won with Oxid for a project to create a centralised repository for its store managers to compete effectively with online-only furniture retailers, while retaining local branding and control and taking into account legal requirements.

Raising the bar for IT innovation success

The judges commented on the increased volume of high quality awards entrants, saying this year’s winners had yet again raised the standard of excellence for retail IT innovation. Joined by, Miya Knights editor of Retail Technology, the reta awards 2013 judges were Professor Dr. Jörg Becker, managing director of the European Research Centre for Information Systems (ERCIS) at the University of Münster in Germany, Jörg Glaser, managing director of German buying group ZGV, and Winfried Lambertz, editor-in-chief of rt-retail technology.

Richard E. Mader, Director Emeritus of the Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) in Washington D. C., Ivano Ortis, head of international at analyst IDC Retail Insights, and Björn Weber, retail technology research director at analyst Planet Retail, rounded out the judging panel.