How Can Retail Adapt to the ‘New Normal’?

Building a resilient retail future is hard enough, let alone when unprecedented events like COVID-19 occur.

MI Academy led teams of Australia and New Zealand retailers to collaborate and find solutions to the challenges that are facing the industry.

Some of the retailers that took part included L’Oreal, Dulux, Target, frank body and Bunnings, among many others.

The teams were led by industry experts including Wayne Baskin (Booktopia), Shane Lenton (Unified Commerce),  Mark Teperson (Accent Group), Anna Samkova (PAS Group) and Peter Knock.

Over eight days, the Retail HackGames promoted thought-provoking ideas, pitched to a panel of esteemed judges. The teams were poised to find a solution to the following statement:

Survival & Revival. Applying considered and insightful innovation for retail’s new normal.

Create a solution that can challenge an existing retail model to future proof our existence and fuel the revival of retail.

The Pitches

Team Klarna

A fulfilment provider and marketplace offering small and mid-tier retailers a cost-effective fulfilment and e-commerce solution to scaling and financial hurdles.

Team dotdigital

Winston – a personal shopper in your pocket that uses NFC technology with Ai and a ‘data-first’ approach that doesn’t require downloading an app.

Team CouriersPlease

Shop Assist – A 24-hour one-to-one human Shopping Assistant for shoppers, and an end-to-end conversion assistant for a market that retailers struggle to tap into.

Team ShopifyPlus

Niles – An AI-powered chatbot platform that helps shoppers ‘find what they’re looking for’ in four steps. The chatbot connects to a ‘shopping expert’ that showcases products that customers may be interested in and delivers the item to the customer’s door.

Team Steve

A platform that connects retailers with the right employer, with the right employee, at the right time, every time.

The Winner

Over 100 live attendees voted for the People’s Choice award, which was awarded to Team dotdigital for Winston.

The panel of esteemed judges chose to award the winning prize to Team Steve for its innovative professional service, Steve.

“It will be the businesses that encourage and embrace creativity, innovation and collaboration that succeed during these challenging times,” said Jo Harris, Team Leader at the HackGames.

“The HackGames provided an insight into how this is possible, and seeing the solutions produced shows there are some incredible individuals with great ideas ready to lead the change. The more businesses take on these ways of working and supporting their team to innovate, the strength of the Australian retail industry will be seen.”

The Future for Retailers

“We’ve achieved what many thought was impossible. Creative collaboration for the greater good across land and sea from peoples living rooms,” said Alita Harvey-Rodriguez, the Founder and Managing Director of MI Academy.

“Never has retail seen such a challenging time and retailers needed some serious creative inspiration to support the survival and revival of our industry. The calibre of the solutions pitched was outstanding. Teams looked to solve real problems for retailers with ideas ranging from staffing accessibility to bringing in-store experience home, even supporting our new wave of online shoppers with the over 60s market.”

“We are absolutely thrilled with the outcomes and cannot wait to do it again!”

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