Gary Piper is Sales Director at Barron McCann, which provides IT services to customers throughout the UK and Europe, and works across retail, hospitality, travel, banking and payments. The company was recently highly commended for its work with Pets at Home at the 2023 RTIH Innovation Awards and here, Piper shares his thoughts on the retail tech space ahead of 2024.
When it comes to retail and hospitality, we can still, just about, refer to the ‘post-Covid’ impact. The reason being, more than anything, the shift in behaviours and expectations of us as consumers.
Online shopping clearly spiked during the Covid-19 outbreak but data shows that we are going back, at least in part, to visit bricks and mortar and look for the shopping experience.
Interestingly, it is reported that online sales increase by 80% when the retailer has a physical shop within 15 miles of the consumer. That brings an interesting dynamic to the balance that retailers are facing between their e-commerce and bricks and mortar offering.
What the consumer is looking for drives the technology offerings in play in the shops. Self-service terminals are moving at pace and RFID technology – radio frequency identification that uses radio waves to passively identify a tagged object – is now more frequently in use.
That means just walking through a gate or barriers, with no scanning or bagging area challenges, with a payment card will become the norm.
This is in place in a handful of UK shops already and will continue to grow in 2024. Equally, cashier less shops using camera and avatar technology is appearing more and more, proving that the return on investment is becoming less of a barrier to entry.
Hospitality is seeing the use of the same technology, and it’s been hailed a huge success.
For example, at three football grounds in the UK, there are bars where the consumer ‘taps’ through an entry gate, picks up the drinks and snacks they want from a self-service counter, and leaves through another barrier. Their card is then charged upon exit.
This does mean, though, that the retailer or bar owner need to carefully consider how they engage with the consumer to ensure that the ‘personal touch’ doesn’t fall away.
Research shows that consumers appreciate advances in technology and so in-store apps, consumer Wi-Fi plug-ins, kiosks and customer centric loyalty apps are a great way of meeting their needs.
2023 RTIH Innovation Awards
As was mentioned at the top of this article, Barron McCann emerged victorious at the 2023 RTIH Innovation Awards.
Leading #Derby tech company @BarronMcCann has been highly commended by judges for its work with a top British pet care company @PetsatHome
The pair were praised by judges at the @RTIH_RetailTech Awards.
Via @D_Times https://t.co/XgqcnzmNWI
— Penguin PR (@Penguin_PR) December 15, 2023
It has been supporting Pets at Home with the installation of technology solutions across the UK, to help store workers provide a practical and unique experience for pet owners.
The firm replaced more than 2,000 legacy chip and PIN terminals at 456 sites during a 14-week period.
This work led to Barron McCann being highly commended in the Best Retailer/Technology Supplier Relationship (UK) category, together with Pets at Home.
Piper said: “We are delighted to be shortlisted for this award, which reflects the strong relationship that we have with Pets at Home. It is a testament to our commitment to delivering quality service through innovation and collaboration.”
“I am genuinely excited about the relationship we have with Pets at Home and the key word in all we do is ‘collaboration’. Through the open and transparent approach from both parties, solutions and improvements become frictionless and and we are growing a culture of celebrating joint success.”
Following the chip and PIN roll-out with Pets at Home, Barron McCann has since provided an ongoing engineering maintenance support service for the terminals.
Mark Baird, Service Supplier Manager at Pets at Home, said: “Barron McCann are a valued partner of Pets at Home and we have built a relationship on trust and honesty.”
“This gives us confidence when initiating projects such as the chip and PIN roll-out, that we have a safe pair of hands to hit our timescales and react to issues when required.”
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