Fashion dominates digital retail innovations rankings

Companies from the fashion sector have dominated the second annual ‘Retail Insider Digital Retail Innovations’ report, which identifies 50 digitally-driven innovations, of which 14 in the UK and Ireland are fashion related, more than any other retail sub-sector.

Fashion retailers’ favourite, delivery partner Doddle, topped the rankings for allowing customers to click and collect their online orders from more than 32 locations including most major London train stations. The service has been gaining popularity and is used by River Island, TM Lewin, Warehouse and Missguided.

Next best placed in the fashion sector was app, Like to Know, which provides fashion bloggers and select retailers a way to link their Instagram posts to a retailer and receive commission on items sold.

On the high street, House of Fraser was recognised for three separate innovations: Qudini queue management encouraging shoppers to spend more time shopping, Iconeme beacon technology embedded into mannequins and a click and collect partnership with Caffé Nero.

Doddle ranked top digital retail innovation for 2015

Other fashion innovations noted in the report included footwear retailer Clarks iPad foot gauge, Metail’s virtual fitting room, Farfetch’s click and collect, and very.co.uk’s image recognition app. Also recognised was Topman’s personal shopping hangout, Asos’s Apple Watch app, and Argos’ introduction of 3D printed jewellery.

“It’s been fascinating to see how quickly the retail landscape has evolved, even in the past year since we first sponsored the Digital Retail Innovations report,” said Guy Chiswick, managing director of Webloyalty Northern Europe, who commissioned the report. “The consumer experience is constantly changing and improving and this report really highlights the necessity for retailers to continue to innovate in order to stay ahead.”

The innovations were scored by an advisory panel consisting of expert analysts and senior executives from a range of companies, including Boohoo, Monsoon Accessorize, and Shop Direct Ireland. The panel’s scoring was based on four criteria: how innovative, potential influence across the sector, commercial potential and the potential benefit to customers.

Image: Doddle