Amazon developing new era of store retailing via Seattle book shop

Amazon recently opened a small book store in Seattle that taken at face value provides further evidence that the good old physical book store has plenty of life left in it yet, despite the havoc the behemoth itself has wreaked on the category over the last decade-and-a-half. Or does it? The likelihood of Amazon going…

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Innovative Retailer – Graze.com

The Name: Graze The Place: Through your letterbox – so anywhere in the UK and now launched in the US too. The Story: Snacks are very big business, agreed? I should coco. You can’t move for family bags of salted nuts in my house: OK, what about super kale and edamame bean snacks? Well, slightly…

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Adaptive innovation: Five considerations for start-ups on the bleeding edge

Setting up and running a start-up is becoming increasingly popular. Talented individuals are eschewing working for someone else, and instead looking to make their fortune by working for themselves. According to Startup Britain there were 581,000 new companies created in 2014, the most on record. And 2015 is expected to be another record-breaking year, with…

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Small is increasingly beautiful for UK shoppers

Asda recently announced it was to slow the pace of its openings in London and Sainsbury’s meanwhile stated that it was, in sharp contrast, to continue to open new units at a cracking rate. We’re talking about convenience stores, which have certainly been in the news of late and the coverage has highlighted how the…

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The delicate task of handling technology

Let’s face it technology can be a real pain. It costs a fortune to implement and then it never really does what you want it to do. Retailers have had their fair share of pain over the years from being over-sold the next big thing that’s been hyped to the hilt – only for it…

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Movers & Shakers Q&A – Steve Rothwell, founder, Eagle Eye

Steve Rothwell, CTO and founder, Eagle Eye 1. What is the greatest opportunity for your business? As a software service business you’d expect me to say digital or wearable technology wouldn’t you. Actually I think the greatest opportunity is the high street. There was some Kantar research released recently showing that over a three month…

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Back to the future for loyalty

Loyalty schemes were supposedly dead. The consensus was that they served little purpose when all the focus of shoppers and retailers was firmly on delivering the cheapest possible prices. Nothing was deemed worthy of distracting them from this mission. Such was the downbeat mood music around loyalty programmes that Tesco had its insight division Dunnhumby…

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Thinking of opening an innovation lab?

To accompany a recent interview with Marc Bolland, chief executive of Marks & Spencer, the photos showed him in the company’s innovation hub next to their HQ in London’s Paddington. It certainly ticked all the boxes for what you would expect if this space was the home of a start-up technology company located just a…

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