EuroShop 2023 Insights
EuroShop 2023 offered insight into new and upcoming products and technology through exhibitions, presentations and displays. Retailers and brands from over 140 countries attended this year’s show, which was amazing to see considering that strikes caused many people to miss out.
If you are one of those who unfortunately couldn’t attend, don’t worry! Here is a summary of the hot topics explored at the show in February 2023.
Amazing Experiences:
For the first time in years people at EuroShop were able to communicate and connect in person with little to no restrictions. Many companies took advantage of this opportunity by allowing potential customers a chance to physically interact with products – the way they were designed to.
From experiencing virtual reality roller coasters, trying samples of food, to photo opportunities and beautiful lighting, everything was created with the purpose to provide an amazing experience. This exciting and feel-good atmosphere brought products to life and provided an immersive and memorable experience, encouraging customers to want to stay, and return in the future.
Store Design Innovation:
Flexibility within a retail space was explored by many companies, specifically how retailers use bespoke frameworks and lighting in order to adapt the store layout for new product launches.
Exhibitors displayed an array of options for how retail stores can have a reconfigurable layout using modular display products, including magnetic shelves and lighting. Unibox’s catalogue of retail displays show how magnetic shelves, and integrated lighting help to provide a flexible, ultra-effective way of creating product displays, guaranteed to make an impact.
With Unibox’s Kontakt and Magnetik shelving systems you can achieve a space that can be endlessly customised, updated and reconfigured to evolve alongside your business.
Sustainability:
Sustainability continues to be a hot topic among companies at EuroShop. However, this year they have been encouraged to also share their carbon emissions, with the hope of becoming carbon neutral.
Ulrich Spaan, Senior Vice President of EHI Retail Institute, said: “Sustainability and reducing carbon emissions has always played an important role in the retail industry, but usually only in the product. What we can now see is many stands, displays and stores being designed and constructed with recyclable and renewable materials.”
Exhibitors showcased their recycled products and exhibition stands, including lamp shades made from waste fishing nets, acoustic panels made from recycled textiles and shop stands from recycled plastics.
The hope is that these companies aren’t greenwashing, or just following a trend in order to look good at the show, and that they continue to use sustainable resources and reduce their carbon emissions!
Energy Management:
Being able to monitor and reduce energy consumption is an important factor when aiming to decrease carbon emissions. A new form of AI presented by Arneg helps to analyse the energy efficiency of a whole store, and can predict what to do in order to conserve energy.
As the largest consumption of energy in a supermarket is usually the refrigerators, this technology can work out a way to provide the maximum amount of refrigeration using the lowest amount of energy. Along with this, it can also use temperature control in order to predict when fridges, lights and air conditioning systems are going to need fixing before they break – this avoids expensive repairs and using landfill.
Smart Stores:
Automated stores have come a long way in the last few years, with sensor and image recognition technology becoming more common in every day retail shops. Companies such as Kende Retail Operation and Pentland Firth Software presented how they use “smart” shelves to monitor inventory, identify out-of-stock items and track and charge customers for purchases without the need of scanning items at a till.
Thank you and well done to everyone who exhibited and attended.
