2018 Trends
One of the biggest trends in retail is to improve the in-store customer experience, to make it memorable and frictionless, that is to say as pleasurable and seamless as possible.
Today’s consumers are used to quick, easy, online transactions, and they are want something extra from stores when they go shopping. They want memorable experiences, meaning that brands and retailers have to make the shopping experience so incredible that customers will want to return to the store.
Innovation is a key factor in the experiential process, not only from a technological point of view, but also in terms of research and customer knowledge, to anticipate their desires and needs and offer them a totally personalised service.
That’s why retailers and brands are investing more and more in digitalisation at the point of sale.
Projects of the year
In 2018, we have undertaken large-scale projects in the Food, DIY, Health & Beauty, Fashion, Sport, Telecom & Electronics, Automobile and Travel Retail sectors. We have worked on everything from furniture to ground-breaking technological solutions for customers like Coca Cola, Red Bull, Walmart, Mercadona, Intermarché, Yamaha, Leader Price, Carrefour, Huawei, Vodafone, Wörten, Adopt’, Nyx, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Norauto, Leroy Merlín, Pikolin, Desigual, Emporio Armani, Gap, Michael Kors, Sfera, UGG, Adidas, Foot District, Forum Sport, Polinesia, Dufry and Lagardère, among others.
We know that this is just the beginning, and that 2019 is sure to be packed with new challenges and exciting projects with which we can assist our customers.
Innovation: the retail challenge
Aware of the technological challenge facing our customers, HMY is still firmly committed to innovation, which has made us one of this year’s Top 10 Retail Companies in Europe 2018 as one of the ten best Retail Tech companies in Europe, according to CIO Outlook’s Magazine. Click here to read the complete interview with Lorena Gómez Latorre, HMY Retail Technology Manager, on the occasion of this award.
Innovation is essential in retail, particularly in sectors like Health & Beauty where technology becomes an added value for consumers by providing them with a memorable shopping experience in the physical space. Click here to download the Health & Beauty case study.
Sustainability: key to the retail world of tomorrow
As part of all this technological upheaval, sustainability plays a central role and not only for manufacturers and distributors, but also for consumers. Thanks to the commitment and sterling work of numerous players from both the public and private sectors, social and environmental awareness is growing day by day. And while we at HMY know that we still have a long way to go, we also see a bright future ahead of us.
The United Nations devised a set of 17 goals for 2030 in a bid to push us all towards a more responsible and sustainable world.
At HMY we have been doing our bit for years, yet it is now that we must really ramp up our sustainability policies if we truly want to attain this goal. With this goal in mind, this year we presented our new strategic framework for 2018-2020, which focuses on sustainability as the cornerstone of all our business activities.
In this context, we have launched the Think TogethEarth campaign, which is based on our commitment to ethics, the environment, society, sustainability and transparency.
In 2018, we took another step towards our commitment to sustainability and joined the group of friends of the Fundación Lealtad, which gives us tools to make a rigorous selection of the NGO and projects with which to collaborate.
Challenges in 2019
In 2019 we will continue to address two challenges, essential in building the retail trade of tomorrow: innovation and sustainability.
The development of innovation and technologies applied to point of sale are still of paramount importance and necessary to keep growing in an increasingly competitive market characterised by consumers with higher expectations than ever.
And innovation and sustainability must also go hand in hand if we are continue to move towards developing socially responsible policies.
In all HMY Group we are totally committed to a set of values that identify and differentiate us in any country in the world where we are present and which, together, make up our policies. The five pillars that support the company we have become today are: customer satisfaction, concern for the people who make up HMY, goal orientation, being a global group and sustainability.
These values have guided us, and will continue to underpin our activities in each and every place we are present.
