Many of the largest technology companies in the world have been on display at the NRF Big Show this week – but might doesn’t always make for right. Retail Week looks at some of the most interesting tech start-ups

While the giant international tech conglomerates such as Amazon, Microsoft, Samsung and Fujitsu dominated the main expo floor at this week’s NRF show in New York, the exhibition was notable for a number of absences.

With the ongoing trade war between the USA and China rolling on, this year’s Big Show felt notable for the lack of Chinese delegates and exhibitors. In 2019, the likes of Alibaba and JD.com were on the floor in full force, bringing new concept stores and the latest innovations. In 2020, however, all the big Chinese brands have stayed at home.

As a result, with many of the market-leading Chinese retailers staying away, some of the best and brightest tech innovations were actually found in the start-up zone.

Fabric

While Ocado boss Tim Steiner was on the main stage continuing with his seemingly endless global sales tour for the Solutions technology brand, 2019 bought the emergence to the mainstream consciousness of grocery micro-fulfilment – with firms like Takeoff Technology emerging as possible rivals to Ocado’s ecommerce grocery and technology crown.

Another micro-fulfilment technology company is Fabric, which was displaying some of its robotic technology in the start-up lab.

Much like Ocado, Fabric has designed, built and owns all of its end-to-end stacking tech and, in order to save on warehousing space, focuses on height rather than width for automated distribution centres.

As a result, Fabric says a micro-fulfilment centre can be set up in much closer locations both to prospective customers’ shoppers and in negative space in-stores.

Another differentiating point is that Fabric claims it can set up a micro-fulfilment centre in just 100 days, whereas a full-sized Ocado depot can take up to two years.

And the little robots they had on display were adorable.

Drapr

Drapr

A small firm out of Berkeley, California, Drapr has effectively created a virtual try-on tool that can be used to digitise any clothing inventory. The technology also learns customer body shapes and aggregates that data for the retailer at the back end – showing what consumers are browsing, buying and how the sizing fits them.

The platform is predictably driven by AI, which Drapr has calibrated to produce digital customer models “accurate to within a millimetre” of their measurements, before digitally laying garments over that model.

The firm claims 50% of customers who used Drapr reported “buying [clothes] when they would have otherwise” and says using the technology can increase conversions by 6.3%.

Texel

Another body scanning and measuring technology company, albeit one that approaches things slightly differently.

Texel Inc, a Russian company, was at the Big Show demonstrating its digital avatar technology – effectively allowing customers to create a hologram of themselves and then digitally dress that avatar in a variety of different clothes to select size, fit and style.

The avatar technology can be plugged into existing websites and recommends customers’ “personal fit scores” and size recommendations through their mobile phones. Texel claims its technology drives down returns and improves the customer experience.

In the UK, Marks & Spencer has invested in Texel and its technology in a bid to turn around the flagging fortunes of its clothes business.

Singularity University

While the majority of start-ups at the Big Show were displaying tech that could either be used directly by consumers or by retailers to solve issues around logistics, there was only one that offered tech for training.

Singularity University, based in the heart of Silicon Valley, was showcasing its Uncommon Learning adaptive virtual reality (VR) training system.

While the VR headset might seem a bit gimmicky, Singularity University says the technique can be used to gather biometric data including brain response, heart rate and eye-tracking times from staff.

This data can be used to help staff improve tasks they struggle with, understand what jobs they may become bored with and better shape their workload as a result.

The company also offers on-demand online classes on a number of topics including hacking, cybersecurity and AI.

While a lot of the biometric data stuff went mostly over people’s heads, there was something very enjoyable about watching them fumbling around with the VR headsets on.