Recently, supply chains in all walks of life have suffered devastating blows—retail is no exception. As we prepare for the NRF 2022: Retail Exhibition in 2022, we have carefully selected more than 50 visionary technology startups in the retail industry starting from January 16, 2022, and will exhibit them in the Innovation Lab. Companies in the innovation lab are at the forefront, investing in retail’s biggest opportunities, such as sustainable e-commerce, and solving their biggest problems, including supply chain disruptions.
Entering the peak holiday season, containers loaded with consumer goods lined up at the port, and transportation costs hit a record high. Part of the reason is that in 2020 alone, online spending by global consumers has increased by US$900 billion over previous years. Unprecedented demand, coupled with a general shortage of port workers, is lengthening the supply chain. This is even why you might see large retailers start Black Friday transactions ahead of schedule to prepare for the first two months of the holiday season.
Below are five companies in the 2022 Innovation Lab that are committed to solving key supply chain issues and increasing resilience in the coming years.
Ohi has changed the consumer's post-purchase experience by cooperating with brands to provide same-day, low-emission delivery services. The company focuses on working with small businesses to help compete with large retailers known for fast shipping. Supported by current micro fulfillment centers in New York City and Los Angeles and software analysis that helps brands predict demand, Ohi’s mission is to replace the current distribution system, which is far from environmentally friendly, flexible, or forward thinking (think large warehouses and airplanes). Continue to fly long distances). Ohi is expected to become a game changer for small businesses, ultimately achieving fast, convenient and sustainable delivery and distribution.
Toolio works with next-generation retailers such as Outdoor Voices, Soludos, and Summersalt to help navigate the complex retail environment and track their most important asset—inventory. Historically, merchandise planning has been primarily driven by spreadsheets, leading to bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and incorrect inventory in the wrong store. By providing all content in the cloud, Toolio is revolutionizing the back end of the retail supply chain, and the key elements of this process have not yet fully caught up with the wave of innovation on the front end (such as Shopify and headless commerce).
DroneUp is a last-mile retail delivery solution that uses the most advanced drones. Recently, it has established partnerships with large retailers such as Wal-Mart. Its mission is to deliver drones on a large scale. Thanks to DroneUp's expertise in unmanned aircraft systems, it can command a network of coordinated delivery solutions in the streets, sidewalks and the sky. It is expected that the inclusion of drones will help solve the last mile delivery problem in the retail industry, reduce delays, shorten delivery times and avoid complicated logistics.
The logistics service platform Fillogic helps retailers along the supply chain from point A to point Z, helping partners complete all the work from fulfillment to store delivery. Its retailer-oriented solution suite makes Fillogic a convenient one-stop shop that can provide a better customer experience while eliminating retailer inefficiencies. It achieves this by establishing and operating micro-distribution centers in shopping malls to maximize the use of physical stores. In a world where 5 million parcels are left at loading docks any day due to insufficient capacity, Fillogic is helping to bridge the gap between growing e-commerce demand and fulfillment—in today’s consumer-mad world China is imperative.
Shelf Engine revolutionized the way grocery retailers buy perishable items. It generates accurate orders for stores through intelligent operations-as-a-service predictions that rely on machine learning and proprietary predictive models. The technology is so accurate that Shelf Engine even promises grocers to buy back things they don’t sell. Given that 43 billion pounds of food are wasted every year, food waste is one of the biggest problems facing grocery retailers today. It reduces profit margins and is extremely harmful to the environment-a key problem the company aims to solve.
Want to see the practical application of innovative laboratory technology? Register for NRF 2022: Retail Expo, held in New York City from January 16th to 18th.