Yael Kochman
April 28, 2019
In the first part of top retail tech trends for 2019, we dove into three key retail tech trends – conversational commerce, Cyber protection and the IoT.
This week we’ll take another look at the trends that are transforming the industry and the Israeli startups that are owning them big time.
A little context: Israel has 500+ startups specializing in retail tech. According to our new report, In 2018, 31 Israeli retail tech startups raised a total of over $400M with an average investment of $14.5.
Let’s take a closer look at the companies that are working on the next generation of disruptive solutions for the global retail industry.
Image Source: Engadget
With increasing challenges surrounding how customers purchase, collect or return their items, there is some serious pressure on retailers when it comes to delivering products.
Now, let’s take a look at the latest technology retailers have been embracing to run supply chains more efficiently.
Bringg- Bringg provides some of the world’s best-known brands with an efficient way to manage their complex delivery operations, in more than 50 countries worldwide. Bringg’s SaaS platform offers the real-time capabilities needed to achieve logistical excellence across their delivery ecosystem, by establishing successful cost-effective operations – from management at headquarters, through the teams in the field, and all the way to the end-customers who are at the heart of the entire process.
CS Robotics- Common Sense Robotics has a clear mission: to enable grocery retailers to profitably fulfill and deliver online orders within one hour.
To make this a reality, the company builds networks of automated micro-fulfillment centers in dense urban areas that combine the speed of local delivery with the efficiencies and scale of robotic fulfillment. The company uses proprietary robotic and AI technology along with a pay-as-you-go service proposition, ensuring costumers get their fresh groceries faster and smoother.
Freightos – Your’e gonna love this one. Freightos is a startup that allows freight forwarders and carriers to manage contracts and automate and manage the quotation and sales process from their own web site. The company’s technology makes shipping smoother, as it combines all freight rates including fees and surcharges into one web-based (SaaS) operating system.
Image Source: Forbes
As retailers today are constantly seeking new ways to deepen their relationship with the customer, it is clear that the future of retail lies in smart stores.
Smart stores – the combination of emerging technologies in brick and mortar stores – are meant to create curated and memorable experiences for shoppers encourage customers to stay. The longer, the better.
Bringing offline and online experiences together in a seamless way as possible has become a key focus in the retail industry; facial recognition technology, interactive mirrors, smart shelves, robotics and seamless checkout are just a few of the emerging technologies in this field.
Here are the Israeli startups leading the way when it comes to making your store smart(er):
Nexite (formerly Quickwy)– Nexite’s solution enables retailers data collection and access capabilities similar to those found in the online commerce. The company’s IoT-enabled tag provides automated live in-store data & analytics, “Just Go” self-checkout, IoT personalized experience in-store & smart closet at home. This tag creates the ultimate link between online and offline commerce, enhancing the shopping experience, creating pre and post engagement tools that otherwise are not possible, ultimately driving new revenue streams.
Oriient – Whether it’s a mall, megastore, hospital, university or an office building, consumers expect convenient, accessible and friendly experiences. Oriient provides an indoor GPS-like service, using earth’s magnetic field to provide hyper-accurate indoor positioning as a service.
Wiseshelf – Wiseshelf transforms standard retail shelves into IoT world. Wiseshelf is an appliance mounted on existing retail shelves that provides real-time information regarding the stock level of each product. The company uses the store shelf as a platform for interacting with employees/customers in a variety of use cases: Logistics & operation, Marketing & promotions, and creating valuable data that can be used by suppliers
Image Source: InternetRetailing
According to a recent study conducted by Startup Nation Central, Israeli startups in the field of computer vision have attracted more than $1bn in seed and VC funding over the past three years – more than half of it over the past year, a major increase from $56m in 2015.
Earlier this year, the Financial Times determined Israel is leading the way for computer vision, answering the burning needs of companies worldwide.
Computer vision – the ability of computers to automatically figure out what their cameras are seeing and what to do next – is being used in brick and mortar retail stores to perfect shelf merchandising, enhance operational efficiency and generate a frictionless experience for shoppers.
Here is a small taste from the Israeli startup reinventing the way retailers are using vision-powered innovation:
Donde Search- Donde is transforming the online shopping experience by AI, Computer Vision, and NLP technology to help E-commerce sites mimic the way their customers think about products. By integrating Donde’s technology, retailers are able to react faster to trends, reduce operational overhead, shorten the purchase time and improve the user experience. Donde’s SaaS platform provides visual intuitive search based on the product visual features – rather than words.
Trigo- According to Daniel Gabay, co-founder of Trigo, not too long-ago computers could not tell the difference between a cat and a dog. Today, computer vision can tell a car to swerve when a child appears on the road or in Trigo’s case, tell the difference between a bag of Doritos or a bag of regular chips.
Trigo’s technology automates the checkout in grocery stores, using sophisticated code and a small number of cameras which figure out what shoppers have in their basket and charge them automatically. Trigo Vision’s technology streamlines retail operations, prevents shoplifting, provides invaluable retail insights and presents opportunities for new levels of customer engagement within retail environments.
Syte– Syte facilitates a streamlined shopping process for customers through the use of visual search. The company helps retailers add a virtual camera to their mobile websites or applications. After indexing their product feed, camera implementation takes less than 24 hours, after which customers can upload images of interest and receive suggestions for similar products to purchase from the business’s website.
Image Source: Cool Mom Tech
When people think of the Israeli high-tech scene, retail tech isn’t the first that comes to mind. The startups we looked at, however, are just a tiny portion out of hundreds of Israeli tech companies that are enabling retailers to adapt to the changing needs of their customers worldwide.
Deepening relationships with customers is a tough task, and retailers that want to say relevant must embrace the emerging technologies we saw above. According to our new report, a growing number of international brands are beginning to realize this – and are in close contact with startups like the ones we just saw.
These numbers are expected to grow, as the retail industry continues to change, yet one thing is clear: staying stagnate is not an option.
