Description of Challenge:

Retail is the main connection between producer and consumer by influencing the demand and supply to manufacturers. Retail sales are a thermometer of the general economy and consumer’s trust. As a link between consumption and production retail is also closely related to other economy sectors. These include several manufacturing industries, construction, wholesale distribution and logistics sector including transport of goods and loading and unloading as well as storage. Innovations in retail may exist both in the retail operation front-end, through what is visible to consumers, as well as in the back-end to increase productivity, efficiency and reach a faster time-to-market. The main goal of retail innovation in the front-end is to improve the customers’ quality of life in their purchasing process; this means that innovation may be better planned to put the customer in the center (called “focus on client”); innovation by substantially reducing the customers’ efforts is based on the idea that, if the retail company makes the buying experience much easier and more comfortable the customers will return to the chain stores.

Opportunities for Startups:

• » Customers-based solutions: Challenges and opportunities related to the differences in customers’ characteristics in mature, emerging and/or less developed markets;
• » Industry-based solutions: Challenges and opportunities related to the differences in the competitors’ nature, technology and suppliers in mature, emerging and/or less developed markets;
• » Use of retain multi-channels for sales of retail goods and services in more than one sales and service channel including physical stores, on-line (fixed or mobile) commerce;
• » E-commerce: Purchase and sale of products and services through the Internet (different marketplaces) either business-to-consumer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B);
• » Development of innovative solutions such as m-commerce, omni channel and C2C commerce by means of social media;
• » Use of neuroscience for phenomena of human behavior of purchase and consumption specifically;
• » Development of mobile applications for retailers to narrow their relationship with consumers;
• » Development of new technologies providing better purchase experiences and possibility of analyses for better decisions and more efficient processes in the offer of new and better services, in the customer service model and even in the company and people management model;
• » Use of shared logistic chain;
• » End-to-end tracking system for the industry, retail according to the national logistic capacity.