H&M has invested in several major startups in recent months indicating a direction of travel for the retailer that’s related to greater personalization, a circular economy and increased convenience for shoppers.
The group announced it is backing men’s personal styling service, Thread, this week through its venture arm, CO:LAB. It is putting $13m into the artificial intelligence-based startup, which has just closed a $22m Series B round.
The UK-based service offers recommendations for men on what to wear by combining data with a layer of human insight.
The team behind it said the funding will go towards “hiring data scientists and engineers to make the artificial intelligence much more powerful”, according to CEO and co-founder Kieran O’Neill. The site sells 536 brands, including Paul Smith, Diesel, Barbour and Hugo Boss, among others.
What Thread has alongside that, of course, is data into how men shop and what their tastes are. H&M says its interest lies in exactly that to strengthen the personalized shopping experience that it too can offer shoppers at a time when such expectations are only increasing.
With that same consideration comes the fact shoppers now demand better options around payments, it has also noted. Enter its $20m investment in Klarna, a Swedish fintech startup.
The funding, announced just last week, signals a global partnership that will see Klarna’s digital payments technology integrated into H&M’s physical and digital stores. The outcome will “provide an enhanced omnichannel customer payment offering [and] a streamlined post-purchase service in the H&M app”, according to the company.
What Klarna is particularly known for is its “try before you buy” service, which gives shoppers the flexibility to pay for their items later. That will be available eventually to H&M customers in 14 markets, starting with the UK and Sweden in 2019.
Karl-Johan Persson, CEO of the H&M group, referred to the move as part of a strategic and relentless focus on creating great customer experiences.
Both come at a time when H&M, which has been struggling in the market, has promised its shareholders that it will focus on improvements around not only inventory, but the shopping experience directly, based on understanding the changing retail and consumer landscape it sees before it.
“We know the industry is undergoing a huge shift – the catalyst for this transformation is technology. It’s not just one technology, but a set that includes artificial intelligence, augmented reality, robotics and more,” he said back in February at the company’s Capital Markets Day.
“There are changing consumer behaviours as a result – they are expecting more and more. They expect a more tailored offering in how we set up our stores, in how we communicate with [them]. They want a hassle free shopping experience, and the ability to shop anywhere and anytime. And they want even better designs at higher quality and better prices.”
Meanwhile, the company is also placing a big focus on sustainability. One of its other broad ambitions is to move to a 100% circular model by 2030, which means that everything it uses will go back into the system to be either recycled or reused.
Another, quieter investment it announced in August helps with this – it led a £5m round for polymer recycling technology startup, Worn Again Technologies. This is a business focused on how to drive circularity for the fashion industry by separating, decontaminating and extracting polyester polymers and cellulose from cotton to create new products as part of a repeatable process.
As Cyndi Rhoades, Worn Again Technologies’ CEO, said: “There are enough textiles and plastic bottles ‘above ground’ and in circulation today to meet our annual demand for raw materials to make new clothing and textiles. With our dual polymer recycling technology, there will be no need to use virgin oil by-products to make new polyester and the industry will be able to radically decrease the amount of virgin cotton going into clothing by displacing it with new cellulose fibres recaptured from existing clothing.”
At present, less than 1% of non-wearable textiles are turned back into new textiles due to technical and economic limitations of current recycling methods. This will therefore help with H&M’s goal.
As the group’s head of sustainability, Anna Gedda, explained on TheCurrent Innovators podcast recently: “We only have one planet, and the toll [the fashion industry] has on resources today is simply unsustainable.”
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How are you thinking about innovation? We’re all about finding you the perfect partners to do so. TheCurrent is a consultancy transforming how fashion, beauty and consumer retail brands intersect with technology. We deliver innovative integrations and experiences, powered by a network of top technologies and startups. Get in touch to learn more.
Payments startup Klarna raises $20M from H&M, its second backer from the fashion world [TechCrunch]
CULTURE
The London Underground is getting vending machines to clean all your dirty clothes [Wired]
Meet the robotic museum guide that will turn art into sound for the visually impaired [FastCompany]
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How are you thinking about innovation? We’re all about finding you the perfect partners to do so. TheCurrent is a consultancy transforming how fashion, beauty and consumer retail brands intersect with technology. We deliver innovative integrations and experiences, powered by a network of top technologies and startups. Get in touch to learn more.
Much has been said about the death of the store at the hands of the digital era, but retailers and brands with physical footprints are increasingly harnessing technology to instil a sense of connectivity and immersion in their spaces.
Front and center within that is the Asia market, which is setting the standard by responding to consumers’ avid connected behavior and facilitating increasingly digitized physical journeys that perfectly blend both realities.
Here, we highlight four of our favorite recent brand examples.
Ford and Alibaba’s unstaffed car vending machine
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has partnered with automaker Ford on a cat-shaped car vending machine in China that allows potential buyers the chance to try-before-they-buy. The structure, located in Guangzhou, is completely self-directed and available only to Alibaba’s Super Members, the highest tier of membership in the retailer’s program.
Once users go through a background check on the Alibaba app, they can select their preferred vehicle and head to one of the Super Test-Drive Centers. Arriving at the location, they can use either facial recognition or a login code to trigger the test-drive experience, which they can do for up to three days.
Starbucks’ augmented coffee mecca
Starbucks Reserve Roastery AR experience
Starbucks meanwhile is focusing on augmented reality in its new Shanghai Reserve Roastery, where the coffee brand tapped into the Chinese consumer’s mobile-first behavior by creating a digital scavenger hunt.
Available through Taobao, consumers have to scan a code in-store and then proceed to scan coffee machines and brewers around the store to trigger content. Doing so with such physical objects activates animations on the mobile screen, and then offers the user more information on the coffee making process, such as how specific machines roast the coffee.
By offering consumers more branded storytelling through mobile, the company aligns with its Reserve Roastery concept ethos, which is to act as a mecca on all things coffee-making, and serve avid customers accordingly.
Shiseido’s smart diagnosis and brand content mirrors
Shiseido’s smart mirror
Smart mirrors might not be anything new within the ‘tech in-store’ discussion, but at Shiseido’s recently opened flagship in the Ginza Six shopping complex in Tokyo, the connected device offers more granular and personalized content than we’ve seen before, including around diagnosis.
Customers visiting the store can have their picture taken by a smart mirror, which results in a skin analysis and step-by-step guidance on screen on how to apply a curation of products. Afterwards, users can scan a QR code generated on the screen to put their counselling data on their own phone.
Additional features in Shiseido’s tech-enabled store, include screens that change visuals whenever someone is within two meters of them, as well as smart tables that recognize when a specific product has been picked up, and generate information on a smart screen accordingly.
Jack & Jones and Vero Moda’s facial recognition payments
Jack & Jones
You can’t talk about Asia without mentioning WeChat, and in this instance the future of payments. Danish fashion brands Jack & Jones and Vero Moda, part of the Bestseller group, have recently opened smart stores in two Chinese locations that are powered by Tencent’s facial recognition technology, allowing customers to pay with their face.
Located in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, the smart stores allow shoppers to shop without the need for cash or even their mobile phones. After completing the facial recognition registration at digital kiosks in-store, shoppers become members of the Tencent’s “AI Club”, which is powered by WeChat Pay. When checking out, they can then use the feature to complete the payment, which is debited through their WeChat wallets.
Beyond cashless (and mobile-less) payment capabilities, the entire store experiences can be automated. At the fitting room, the same technology is applied – once the shopper is recognized by a smart screen, they can receive recommendations based on past purchases.
Zara is launching a tech-enabled pop-up store in London designed for click and collect purchases ahead of a new permanent flagship space.
The Westfield Stratford City pop-up, opening today, offers a small edit of men’s and women’s clothing that shoppers can purchase online while there in person. Doing so enables delivery same day if placed before 2pm, or the next day if placed in the afternoon. They can also access the full catalogue of the collections to choose from online.
Staff are on hand to assist with mobile devices, while an easy payment system operated by Bluetooth is also aiming to facilitate a frictionless experience. Meanwhile, a product recommendation system based on RFID technology means customers are able to use mirrors to scan items to get more information about them, as well as see other suggested coordinating pieces.
The pop-up will be open until May while the retailer’s flagship is refurbished and seriously upgraded. The new space to follow will then be 48,000 sq ft and similarly focus on placing technology at its heart.
Zara’s new flagship due to open in May
It will feature four sections: women’s, men’s, kid’s and click and collect. The latter will see automated collection points where an optical barcode reader can scan QR codes or PINs received by customers. Orders are then delivered to a mailbox manned by a robot behind-the-scenes for customers to then collect items at their convenience. The robot has the capacity to handle 2,400 packages simultaneously.
Further tech features include mobile payments either through the Zara app or the Inditex group app, InWallet, and a self-checkout area that sits alongside the regular associate-serviced desks.
Meanwhile, the two-storey store will feature sensors on the top floor that project images on the windows when shoppers approach them.
Pablo Isla, the chairman and CEO of parent company Inditex, said: “[Both stores] mark another milestone in our strategy of integrating our stores with the online world, which defines our identity as a business.”
The move comes after Inditex rolled out in-store mobile payments through all its stores in Spain, and the trial of interactive fitting rooms and self-service checkouts in Spain, Germany and the US in 2016.
Rebecca Minkoff is paying attention to her Chinese fan base this New York Fashion Week, introducing in-store mobile payments via Alipay.
The initiative enables China shoppers to use their Alipay Mobile Wallet to make purchases at any Rebecca Minkoff store in the US, as well as at home when visiting the brand’s e-commerce site. Alipay is China’s leading online payment provider, with more than 520 million active users, and the primary means of online and mobile payment for Chinese consumers.
The partnership was announced ahead of Minkoff’s show, which took place in New York on Saturday, September 9.
“Chinese travelers represent an important and growing audience for Rebecca Minkoff,” said Uri Minkoff, CEO and co-founder of the brand. “By offering Alipay, we are ensuring that Chinese shoppers visiting any of our US stores or our website are met with an exceptional experience which includes the easiest and most familiar payment method for them. We are excited to be able to offer Alipay.”
Souheil Badran, president of Alipay North America, added: “By accepting Alipay, Rebecca Minkoff is able to target the right shopper through our Discover platform to ensure that the Chinese consumers can enjoy the best experience in-store or online without any language or payments barriers.”
The number of Chinese consumers visiting North America is predicted to grow to four million this year. Alipay first expanded its mobile payment service into the US in late 2016.
Natalie Massenet announced her move to Farfetch as co-chairman
All eyes might have been on the Milan collections, but the big business news this week is back in London where Natalie Massenet announced her move to Farfetch as co-chairman. An Instagram Story featuring Massenet with José Neves answering a Q&A followed – do watch it via @Farfetch before it disappears.
Otherwise, some interesting stories this week debating retail tech – what consumers do and don’t want on the one hand, versus why the industry hasn’t adopted artificial intelligence faster, on the other. Both are worth digging in to and digesting. Beyond that, there are new campaigns from Calvin Klein and Converse, as well as a scathing (but amusing) piece over on Digiday about just why fashion advertising is all out of (terrible) ideas. And if you’re still not sure about your video strategy, you might want to pay attention to the fact YouTube users now watch one billion hours per day.
TOP STORIES
Consumers don’t want Amazon or Google to help them shop [Bloomberg]
AI can make us all dress better, so why isn’t the fashion industry using it more? [Fast Company]
How Neiman Marcus is turning technology innovation into a ‘core value’ [Retail Dive]
Tommy Hilfiger looks to technology as it combats Macy’s decline [Bloomberg]
The trouble with all those t-shirt slogans about diversity on fashion’s runways [Quartz]
BUSINESS
Natalie Massenet joins Farfetch as co-chairman [BoF]
How teen retailer Aerie is thriving while its competitors flounder [CNBC]
Céline names new CEO, joins Instagram, announces plans to launch e-commerce [The Fashion Law]
There was a media frenzy when Amazon Go was announced in December 2016. A grocery store based initially in Seattle, it enables shoppers to literally just walk out with whatever items they choose thanks to sensors recording what they pick up and charging back to their Amazon Prime accounts. Facilitated by first swiping the Amazon app on your smartphone, it nods to the automated future of retail, but more than that the growing potential ahead for the phone to control the entire commerce experience.
A wake-up call to retail execs around the world, the question on many people’s lips is whether that concept is equally applicable to other verticals? From a value proposition, not to mention strategic business perspective, it’s something that makes a great deal of sense for grocery, where both the barrier to entry and level of associated risk, is low. But for the sake of this argument, can it work for fashion? Will we all soon be able to pick up new clothes in-store and just walk out too, or will we always expect to have a level of human interaction with such tactile purchases?
The fact is, we live in an evermore-demanding society. Consumers today expect instant access to everything – from cars to food – at the touch of a screen. Patience has gone down. Convenience is key. Even in fashion, new businesses keep popping up offering us clothes for rent, clothes through our mailboxes, clothes tailored to our exact needs.
For all of these retailers, it’s a race to the bottom (led by Amazon no less) to offer faster than ever fulfilment to meet our expectations. The same goes in the store space, where standing in line to pay for something is as far removed as can be from the ease of the on-demand mobile era we otherwise inhabit, even at a luxury level.
This was part of the premise behind the launch of New York designer Rebecca Minkoff’s self-checkout in her Soho store at the end of 2016 too. Partnering with QueueHop to provide the technology, the aim was to ease the shopping experience for the millennial consumer the brand is targeted at. Unlike Amazon Go, there is still a checkout to contend with, but one the shopper can do for herself.
“More and more we are seeing millennials want to be in complete control of any and all of their shopping, and that includes payment. Long gone are the days where you needed to depend fully on a sales assistant to request new sizes or to ring you up,” said Uri Minkoff, CEO at Rebecca Minkoff. Part of his point is that there’s an inherent burden that comes with shopping in stores when the line is long. “If we could shave off time, would that spur consumers to go into stores more? Could that spur a return to retail?” he asked.
The other piece for the Rebecca Minkoff team was about reducing the “social friction” of a luxury shopping experience, or as Minkoff referred to it, removing the “Pretty Woman moment”. This means enabling shoppers to no longer feel judged by staff for what they look like and instead being left to enjoy the experience. “If we use technology to take that [bias] out of the equation, then we become blind to what a person looks like, meaning ultimately we can create a better relationship between the store associate and consumer,” he explains.
Katie Baron, head of retail, innovation and insights at trends service Stylus, agrees: “I think there’s a need to look at the wider implications of automation beyond the desire only for speed and convenience – understanding the mileage these concepts also have because of the sense of control they present to the consumer, who doesn’t always want to be steered or cajoled into line or, particularly in the case of luxury brands, have to contend with a rather intimidating experience.”
The QueueHop system comes with an RFID tag that brings the item up for payment on an iPad and an anti-theft device that only unlocks after that exchange is made. That means there is literally no need to speak to or deal with a sales associate at all if so desired, much like the online shopping experience feels.
Uri Minkoff in front of the new Rebecca Minkoff self-checkout
Central to all of this is the fact the technology is only today fit for purpose, Minkoff said, emphasizing that he’s been working on this concept for two years. With stores (and products) today now evermore connected, the possibilities for this ahead are, of course, only going to improve. Rebecca Minkoff also has a connected fitting room experience for instance, while others including Ralph Lauren and Nordstrom are also playing in the space. As highlighted in this 2017 tech trends for retail list, it’s about the Internet of Things having a useful consumer impact by enabling a more frictionless mode of shopping.
As Uwe Hennig, CEO of retail software vendor, Detego, which works with other retail brands to help connect their clothing and their physical spaces, says: “We’re already starting to see a change in the way stores are being designed, with conventional [checkouts] being replaced by mobile terminals. […] In the not too distant future, you can expect to see retailers putting self-checkout systems directly into the fitting room, in combination with smart fitting rooms. These will allow consumers to try on clothes, but also browse and choose other accessories, styles or sizes and request sales staff bring them directly to the fitting room, as well as checkout themselves.”
He sees getting point of sale (POS) queues under control as of particular benefit to fast fashion retailers, over luxury – a boon to high traffic sites and particularly time-starved shoppers. For the more premium store by comparison, there’s somewhat of a gap between the values of automation, and a remaining focus on personalized service and interaction with the customer.
As Ana Andjelic, SVP and global strategy director at Havas Lux Hub, notes: “Self-checkouts are firmly going to set apart the mass/fast fashion from the premium/luxury fashion. They make more sense for the former, where it’s all about speed and volume versus the latter, when it’s about the quality of experience, of service and feeling being taken care of.” Indeed you can imagine automated purchases in H&M more so than Louis Vuitton.
Minkoff admits the feedback he’s received from the industry has been mixed: “Some brands have said ‘that’s amazing and we love it’, and others say ‘we don’t think it’s right for us’, and that’s totally cool.”
Of course, there were many brands who also believed e-commerce wasn’t going to impact the industry at one stage of its development, yet it’s now expected to be worth €70 billion annually for luxury goods by 2025, according to McKinsey.
The answer at this point, therefore, is about balance. José Neves, founder and CEO of online marketplace Farfetch, which also owns London boutique Browns, recently told the Guardian: “I’m a believer in physical retail experiences; I always say ‘fashion isn’t downloadable’. You need the human element – a program or piece of technology won’t provide the full level of care, attention and assistance that a shop assistant or customer service team will give. This interaction and engagement is an essential component of providing a luxury experience. On the other hand, you can’t ignore technology. To succeed we need to strike a balance between the online and offline experience.”
To achieve this Sucharita Mulpuru, chief retail strategist at Shoptalk, recommends thinking about high touch and low touch interactions with consumers in different ways. “Paying for your transaction needn’t be high touch. Even high-end hotels let you check out on your own, so self-checkout in stores shouldn’t be a foreign concept. That said, luxury will still need people in stores to greet people, to share the stories of the brand and the products, to manage exceptions and problems with transactions, etc. but for straightforward transactions, there is no reason that self-checkout shouldn’t be an option.”
Part of the issue, is that what a self-checkout looks like itself isn’t overly luxurious. “The form factor and execution will be critical. It would be silly to have a kiosk that looks like something you’d find at an airport, but if customers can check out on their own phones (like the Apple Stores allow), that could be the right approach,” Mulpuru adds.
Amazon Go operates on the basis of turnstiles similar to those found in the subway, which permit entry into the space once your Amazon app has been swiped. Uri Minkoff doesn’t imagine this will translate overly well to a high-end fashion store, but he does see the idea of more seamless automated transactions enabled in other ways in the future, so customers can similarly just walk out. “We’re already working on a next iteration that would make it even more seamless than it already is,” he explains. “I still think when dealing with items that are hundreds or thousands of dollars, then there’s got to be a security element to it. In a grocery setting, where an item, is a dollar or two, it’s different, but maybe through technology like facial recognition we will get there.”
Indeed, there’s no reason down the line why a luxury retail experience shouldn’t also include automatically identifying consumers (through facial recognition, or their phones, on an opt-in basis) when they enter the store in order to tailor service personally to them.
Andjelic suggests a layer of artificial intelligence is what will then make all the difference for luxury retailers adopting some level of automation at the checkout stage. “There’s tons that AI can do for luxury fashion when it comes to luxury stores as POS, and is all going to revolve around low-value interactions (like filling out one’s billing address) being outsourced to AI and high-value interactions (like white-glove customer service) belonging to humans. High-end fashion stores would definitely want to make the checkout process as seamless, efficient and convenient as possible, and AI will have a big role in that but more on the back-end side… What can we outsource to technology that is going to help us to have a better one-on-one personal relationship with our customers?”
John Vary, head of innovation at UK department store John Lewis, similarly imagines a future where in fact what we have is automation alongside human interaction to maintain a sense of luxury as far as fashion is concerned. He believes the result will be an enhancement of the customer experience, thanks to technology.
“We are moving to ‘intelligence amplification’ through the creation of intelligent artificial systems resulting in humans having extended ability to provide better services and solutions for customers,” he explains. “The rapid evolution of technology, such as computer vision and machine learning is enabling retailers to curate end-to-end customer journeys built for convenience and connectivity. Having a hybrid model is essential, and the next natural step in the adoption and evolution of these behaviors and the successful convergence of digital and human centered experiences.”
As Minkoff concludes: “We’re in a period of radical change, and the old way over the last 100 years of going to market, being based on a busy street and having good product, no longer cuts it alone. Some brands are slow to adopt, for some [such new technology] just doesn’t work, but either way, change is inevitable and we prefer to be at front of the pack than the back.”
