Kiddicare founder and Haatch chief executive Scott Weavers-Wright believes grocers are “closed and risk averse” when it comes to working with start-ups.
Weavers-Wright, who worked at Morrisons for two years after Kiddicare was bought by the grocer, argues retailers need to be more willing to embrace change.
Speaking at a start-ups panel session at the Retail Week Tech & Ecomm conference, he said: “Bigger organisations are generally closed and risk averse, especially grocers, and often have legacy websites that are 10 to fifteen years old.
“I spent two years at Morrisons and they are going through massive change now because they did not embrace change and opportunity.”
He believes the unwillingness to embrace change happened at Morrisons because staff were too concerned about return on investment.
Weavers-Wright added: “I would advise embracing a lab or a couple of individuals who are reporting back to commercial and can challenge commercial.”
Shop Direct group ecommerce director Jonathan Wall believes choosing a start-up to work with can be a “lottery” for retailers.
He said: “You see some of these incubators and the list is hundreds of start-ups. Some logos are great but underneath there is not much there.
“If you are open and clear about what you are trying to achieve then they can come back and say we can help you with that. You’ve got to understand these people can bring a lot of value to your business.”
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