More than 13,000 retail specialists from 94 countries attended the leading trade fair for retail technology
IT investment in retail is booming
Trend topics: Omnichannel, self-checkout, AI and IoT
EuroCIS 2019, the leading trade fair for retail technology, drew to a close in Düsseldorf on Thursday (21 February 2019). Exhibitors, visitors and trade fair organisers were highly satisfied with the results of the event. Over three days 482 exhibitors from 39 nations presented IT solutions for all areas of retail. More than 13,000 experts travelled to the Rhine to browse the ranges specifically tailored to retailers and their partners. This corresponds to a 10% increase in visitors hailing from some 94 nations.
“Like almost all sectors of industry, retail is also increasingly data driven. EuroCIS 2019 has impressively confirmed that technology has also become the driving factor for retailers as they vie for customers’ favour,” says Hans Werner Reinhard, Managing Director at Messe Düsseldorf, commenting on the success of EuroCIS 2019 and adds: “EuroCIS has become a spectacular success story over the past few years. In view of the general advances in digitalisation and the high degree of specialisation of EuroCIS we assume that it will be able to also follow on from this success in years to come.”
Particularly positive to note for the Düsseldorf trade fair organisers is the strong increase in international trade visitors. “We registered significant increases from non-European countries, i.e. especially from the Near and Middle East, Asia as well as South and Central America, including many first-time visitors,” remarks Elke Moebius, Global Head of Retail & Retail Technology at Messe Düsseldorf, and goes on to emphasise: “Also striking was the high decision-making capacity of the visitors as well as the increased time they spent at the event. This time many stayed two full days in Düsseldorf rather than just one.”
According to a study published by the EHI Retail Institute for EuroCIS 2019, retailers’ IT budgets continue to rise. They focus on projects that make retailers’ IT infrastructures future-proof; however, the optimisation of merchandise information systems and omnichannel solutions also ranked at the very top of retailers’ to-do lists.
“EuroCIS is the most important hotspot for decision makers in the national and international retail industry. It is enormously important as a networking, innovation and trend platform,” comments Ulrich Spaan, member of the board at the EHI Retail Institute, and explains: “One of the key retail trends that EuroCIS 2019 reflected is the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In addition, self checkout, payment methods and the Internet of Things (IoT) played a prominent role at the trade fair. Chatbots, for example, use Artificial Intelligence to communicate with shoppers while the IoT is a valuable tool in data analytics for retailers.”
Supporting the exhibits, both the EuroCIS Forum and the Omnichannel Forum registered high attendance levels and provided plenty of inspirations for IT managers in retail with practical insights as well as lectures on innovations. The Start-up hub, in turn, also scored points with creative ideas at its second edition. “The Stage” – a forum embedded in the Start-up hub for the first time where newcomers introduced themselves to the expert audience and discussed their solutions – was well attended throughout and was streamed live at www.eurocis.com as well as by the online magazine mag.euroshop.de.
The next EuroCIS will be held as part of EuroShop 2020, The World’s No 1 Retail Trade Fair, in Düsseldorf from 16 to 20 February 2020.
www.euroshop.de.
Exhibitor Testimonials for EuroCIS 2019
“EuroCIS 2019 was great for presenting our robot TORY for automatic stock taking. We are very happy with the organisation of the trade fair, we were able to concentrate on conversations with customers 100%. We look forward to coming back next year.”
Dr. Andreas Bley, Co-founder and Managing Director, MetraLabs GmbH
“The response was very positive overall. In the Digital Signage segment the automation of content stood out in particular; the Counter Card and also the possibility to integrate Instagram and/or feed the system with content via interfaces with inventories went down well with visitors. They found the interactive mirror with sound shower and ambient lighting especially exciting in conjunction with the inStore Assistant App ISA on visitors’ mobile phones or Tablets. MERP (Retail Management System) and ISA met with a very positive response, especially among many new customers.”
Christian Brand, Head of Marketing, Bütema AG
“We see our ‘Storevolution’ strategy being fully endorsed in our visitor and customer feedback. Outlets continue to be in focus and the possibilities provided by digitally supported customer services through personalisation and store associate involvement via mobile applications improve the customer experience long term. Beyond this, the ongoing automation and modernisation of touchpoints like reverse vending machines are a high priority for our customers.”
Dr. Bernd Büker, Vice President & GM Retail DACH, Diebold Nixdorf
“We have had a very exciting trade fair. A good location, very good discussions and high exposure for our solutions. Since many of our cooperation partners were also on site we managed to maintain and strengthen our contacts. We look forward to EuroShop next year.”
Wilbert Hirsch, CEO/COO, ReAct – Responsive Acoustics GmbH
“For us EuroCIS 2019 was all about AI, the IoT and smart stores. The footfall at our stand was as high and international as ever. Especially all the showcases for smart stores were highly frequented destinations. The second part of our ‘Smart Stores, AI & IoT in Retail’ white paper, which we published together with the EHI Retail Institute as part of EuroCIS 2019, also helped us to make contact with new customers and intensify links with existing ones. We look forward to EuroShop 2020!”
Xenia Giese, Retail & Consumer Goods Industry Solution Executive, Microsoft
“We found exhibiting on EuroCIS a great investment as we experienced outstanding interest in solutions supporting data-driven information on physical stores. Visitors were pleased that Ultinous’ AI-based video analytics solution can provide them with Google analytics like information about their stores in a GDPR compliant way.”
Csaba Jóri, Head of Marketing, Ultinous
“This year we can again rejoice at successful days at EuroCIS. It has become clear once more that retail is faced with the challenge of further optimising offline business concepts effectively and cost-efficiently if it is to stand its ground in the face of competing online stores. Here shoppers’ ambivalent wish to have both digital and analogue payment methods at their disposal is a central issue. Decision-makers want to find ways to expand their services and use cash payment automation at all cashpoints to get more profit out of cash transactions.”
Thomas Rausch, Sales Director Germany, GLORY
“A highlight of this year’s EuroCIS was to watch how more and more Artificial Intelligence arrives in retail. This is no longer just a hype. We observed at the trade fair and in discussions that retailers increasingly embed AI in their processes. Companies and retailers are starting to automate and improve processes across departments and they focus on state-of-the-art technology to do so. Other highlights included, of course, our lecture at the EuroCIS Forum on ‘Markdown Management for Retailers’ and the presentation of the RETA Awards. We received the Award in the category Best Enterprise Solution. We had many great discussions at the trade fair not only with customers but also with the media.”
Dunja Riehemann, Director Marketing, Blue Yonder
“EuroCIS has once again provided an excellent platform for Detego to showcase our latest digital solutions for fashion retailers. We have seen an amazing response to our live Smart Fitting Room which is one of the few in-store technologies truly driving customer engagement. The use of AI to power our software has been a strong talking point for visitors of all kinds looking to understand the real business applications which we have proved within our RFID-enabled inventory management platform as well as our smart in-store technologies such as the digital store assistant/chatbot, Detega. Visitors to our stand particularly enjoyed interacting with these solutions in person – something which the EuroCIS platform is perfect for.”
Luke Sinclair, Senior Marketing Executive, Detego GmbH
“EuroCIS was the ideal platform to present our new group of companies: ROQQIO Commerce Solutions. We had so many conversations and demos going on at the same time at our stand that we were very grateful about the “manning levels” with colleagues from all three companies – eFulfilment, Futura Retail Solutions and Höltl Retail Solutions. For the first time we were able to show our new solutions as a link to the eCommerce world. In this sense the trade fair also doubled as a key kick-off for our new range for a seamless customer journey."
Vanjo Wandscher, Managing Director, ROQQIO Commerce Solutions GmbH
