Top Retail Tech Startups To Watch In 2022

The last two years have seen the retail industry face many obstacles, and cross over uncharted territory, as the covid-19 pandemic presented itself with so many challenges - for both businesses and the public. Businesses all over the world have had to adjust their services to be able to survive in the ever-changing climate. Government guidelines saw rules introduced, instructing retail stores to close their doors, and with this move saw the demand for advances in tech retail. The introduction and growth of tech retail allows for businesses to forest stronger relationships with customers, stay innovative, and adapt to consumer behaviours.

Tech retail has now become a necessity to keep businesses afloat and ahead of their competitors, and in some cases differentiates between a successful, or unsuccessful retail business.

If you're in the tech retail world, you will already know that the industry is continuing to develop, and many retail tech startups are making themselves known - so to win over your market it's important to be aware of your competitors. This blog is going to take a deep dive into the top tech retail startups you need to watch this year.

TalkShopLive

L.A based TalkShopLive is an always live, social selling platform that collaborates with hundreds of brands, celebrities and artists to sell products and services in an interactive space.

‘TalkShopLive is the first live streaming, social buying and selling platform for anyone, anywhere’ - Ceo, Bryan Moore.

Their mission is to empower everyone: from entrepreneurs to home chefs, budding fitness gurus to the average social media user. TalkShopLive lets you host your own streaming show and move products that inspire and better your customer - speaking directly to your existing followers and beyond.

Since its founding in 2018, TalkShopLive has completed multiple crowdfunding campaigns to help grow its business and spread the word of its service - and in doing so had raised $10.5 million by mid-2021. This has allowed them to scale their product management and advance their technical teams - and provides great promise for the future of live stream shopping. Initially, the company was focused on the selling of books and music, working with famous names, such as Matthew McConaughey, Alicia Keys and Dolly Parton - to sell their products and services. However, after seeing the interest in their crowdfunding, they have now expanded their market; focusing on the food, beauty, fashion, and sports industry.

TalkShopLive recently made its biggest partnership to date, teaming up with Walmart to help push its online sales. The partnership enables Walmart to embed videos with shoppable content on their website and on social media platforms. TalkShopLive says its technology lets customers make purchases within the video player on any site, in effect “turning everywhere a video is shared, into a point-of-sale.”

As predicted in our previous blog ‘What does the online marketplace hold for 2022?” - we discussed how live-stream shopping could be the next biggest thing for online businesses - and TalkShopLive has proven this.

So , if you're looking to expand your online business, or looking for a way to break into your market - TalkshopLive could be the partner for you.

Fabric

Automation in retail is due to increase drastically throughout 2022, and all of the predictions of robots filtrating through the workspace are coming true.

Israel-based company, Fabric, has been using robotics to test and refine 1-hour delivery, automated micro-fulfillment centers across Israel. They believe that online shopping should be as personal and accessible as when you're shopping in a store - and by leveraging state-of-the-art software and robotics in their micro-fulfillment centers, they believe they can achieve this. With the mission to bring brands and online shoppers closer, they elevate the shopping experience whilst lowering the cost to serve - all whilst maintaining the brand’s ownership of the experience.

Like many startup companies, Fabric has completed multiple crowdfunding campaigns where they have raised a massive $200 million and put Fabric’s valuation at more than $1 billion, making it a micro-fulfilment unicorn, or as the company likes to say, a “Robocorn.” In announcing the robocorn status Elram Goren, Fabric CEO and co-founder says that the billion-plus valuation is a sign that micro-fulfillment has reached a turning point, from “trepid exploration”, to total market validation and now rapid expansion - which shows huge potential for robotic run fulfilment centres in the near future.

Fabric has already installed it's robot-staffed warehouses in spaces like parking garages to show how they can work even in crowded everyday settings, and has used them to make one-hour deliveries possible for a pharmacy chain and a grocery store.

So, could these robot-staffed facilities be the future? 2022, is going to see far more automation in the retail space and we are excited to see its development.

Resonance Companies

Imagine a fashion industry without overstock, markdowns, or shortages of bestselling styles and sizes - and one with far less waste. Well, New York based tech company, Resonance Companies, is doing just that. Resonance builds sustainable, valuable fashion brands with no inventory at all.

As our society becomes more environmentally friendly and the demand for sustainability from retail grows, Resonance Companies is the perfect solution for many businesses. Founded in 2015 by Lawrence Lenihan and Christian Gheorghe, the company has developed a technology platform that gives designers and clothing brands the ability to design, manufacture, and sell garments one at a time - meaning that customers can always get the products they want, with brands and suppliers not having to predict their sales - eliminating waste and saving production time.

Although they were founded in 2015, 2021 saw Resonance’s demand increase, and they have been producing on-demand orders for brands including Tucker by Gaby Basora, The Kit by Daniel Vosovic, and Rebecca Minkoff. This year they have plans to open the platform to more brands and designers. They also have plans to partner with hundreds of micro sewing facilities around the country in coming years, to facilitate fast delivery of made-to-order fashion.

‘We are on a mission to transform the $3 trillion fashion industry by fundamentally changing its business model and the way it impacts our planet.’ - Resonance Companies

Sustainability in the fashion industry is something that we are going to see grow, along with the advancements in retail technology, so if you're looking to stay on top of your competitors , introducing this garment technology could be the way forward.

Stint

Stint is a student workforce that's helping change the hospitality industry. Founded in 2018 by brothers Sam and Sol Schlagman, Stint revolutionises the operating models of hospitality businesses by connecting them with students who want short, flexible shifts to do simple tasks at the busiest daily hours.

For students, Stint is ending the trade off between learning and earning by enabling students to work for as little as 2 to 3 hours at a time - when they want to. This allows students everywhere to fit work around their studies, still allowing them to earn whilst they study. Since launching in 2018, they have completed over 65,000 successful ‘stints’ of work with over 1,000 businesses, including some high-end hospitality businesses, such as Ted Baker, The ivy group and Hakkasan. By connecting hospitality businesses with 100,000 signed up students looking for a short side hustle, Stint is helping people to work smarter – hour by hour, stint by stint.

“We live in a day and age where everything is accessible with the touch of a button and we thought, why shouldn’t students be able to earn money at the touch of a button in their spare time whenever they can?” - Stint

Stint has worked smartly to fill a gap in the market for both students and businesses, allowing students flexible work, and businesses low maintenance staff when needed - and Stint sorts it all out for you. Integrating with Stint gives you the ability to do something you’ve never done before: bring in staff for just a couple of hours when you’re busy. That means you can have the right number of staff working, for every hour of the day.

This type of tech retail is something that came at the perfect time, with covid hitting and many peoples work life becoming unpredictable, it introduced flexibility that both students and business owners needed. We predict that this will be something that will continue to grow in 2022 - and your business is looking for short term staff, get in touch with Stint today.

Mercaux

Mercaux is a next Generation, In-Store platform for Retailers. They transform regular retail stores from a simple point of sale, into a multi-purpose centre by empowering shoppers (both in-store and remotely) and sales associates by facilitating an Omnichannel Product Discovery, Clienteling, Remote Selling and Checkout experience, that also serves as a customer acquisition and data capture channel.It’s new generation modular in-store platform connects stores to all the backend systems that ecommerce currently benefits from (such as order management, customer relationship management, product information management and payments), in addition to ecommerce itself.

It then transfers all of this information into the hands of store associates through the Mercaux app. This then allows the store associate to facilitate a much improved shopping experience by using assisted selling, digital styling, clienteling and mobile payment solutions to serve the customer.Mercaux also places all of this technology into the hands of customers through self-service screens, digital fitting rooms and a web app that can be accessed by the shopper’s own mobile device via scanning a QR code in-store.

This digital transformation of a store brings the online and offline shopping experience into one, for both the customer and for the retailers. It in turn helps retailers see improvements on their conversion, loyalty, sales, UPT (Units per Transaction) and customer lifetime value in general - as customers are receiving a smoother service experience.

Another huge benefit of this type of technology is the data that retailers can collect. This is something that has developed massively from a time when retailers solely relied on footfall and sales. The benefits of the technology supplied by Mercaux have paid off as they have secured some huge names as their clients, including; Nike, Supersports, French Connection, and many other well known retailers. Since using Mercaux Nike claims to have improved their conversion rate consecutively by 7% - which proves how effective the systems are.

We don't see this slowing down, and expect many retailers to include Mercaux in their business model - so if you're looking to increase sales, and understand your customers behaviours, this retail technology could help you massively.

SellersFunding

SellersFunding is a global fintech company empowering growth for ecommerce sellers by providing the most comprehensive suite of financial solutions. Whether sellers are looking to get capital to scale their business, launch new products and expand into new markets, or need a cash management solution to help them improve their operational performance, SellersFunding was built to make life easier, save time and money, and help sellers achieve success.

SellersFunding has grown off the idea that ecommerce is ever-changing the landscape of the retail industry, as technology changes the way that consumers behave, and what they look for in businesses.

SellersFunding has been instrumental in shifting retail sales from brick & mortar to ecommerce. This was vital during the pandemic, as many stores were closed and people were forced to shop online. Although the ecommerce industry is growing and doesn't seem to be stopping, it is still lacking sufficient financial solutions that serve international merchants. As small and medium ecommerce businesses drive change in the space and pave the way for emerging brands, it’s only natural that a need for a tailored financial infrastructure emerges – this is where SellersFunding comes in. So far, its business model proves to be disruptive in the industry, which is reflected after recently securing $166.5 million, in a combination of Series A equity funding and a credit facility to continue developing its technology and payments platforms for e-commerce businesses.

As well as their financial services, SellersFunding recently developed ‘Sellers Signals’ - an analytical tool that allows sellers across the world to access detailed insights about sales performance, business valuation, pre-qualification for financial solutions, and profit and loss statements. This way retailers of any size can understand the success of their business - helping them create better plans for the future.

SellersFunding has assisted well-known UK retailer, Cath Kidston, in reinventing its business model by providing the company with a £5 million credit line. The credit line helped it transition from a capital-intensive in-store approach to a more cost-effective internet model. Cath Kidston's digital transformation was a success and resulted in an increase of 85 per cent in global sales. This is just one example of how SellersFunding, with offices in London, Florida, New York and California, delivers financial resources to streamline global commerce.

With the ecommerce industry continuing to grow, and as new businesses enter the market, the need for accurate financial reporting and customer behaviour reports SellersFunding has a bright future. The last two years have been a huge rush for many, to get online and provide their customers with their products and services in the easiest way.These circumstances may have meant sellers lacked the resources and knowledge they needed to expand and thrive in an ecommerce space - SellersFunding provides businesses with all of this and more, which is why it's predicted that they’re one to watch in the tech retail space this year!

In summary

To summarise, 2022 could be the biggest year yet for tech retail, as demand grows and technology continues to flourish. The fashion industry now has technology that can help it tackle the waste that fast fashion produces, the introduction of quick delivery could start to be seen more often - giving people the quick service they're wanting, and automation and accessibility will grow. People are now settling into the tech retail environment after an unprecedented two years - and we believe 2022 is the year that tech retail thrives.

The retail sector has undergone numerous transformations, especially in recent years, which is why it’s crucial that amidst this spiral of change retailers find a way to adapt to the new shopping habits of customers. This means that it is essential to understand where these trends are heading and what are the keys to making a business competitive in the future. Hopefully this blog has given you some insight into what's to come for tech retail this year - and provided you with insight on technologies that can help your tech retail business grow this year!

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