Shoptalk 2018
Shoptalk is billed as the world’s largest conference devoted to retail and e-commerce innovation. Conference organizers expect more than 7,500 attendees at the event this year, which runs March 18–21 in Las Vegas. Coresight Research is again partnering with Shoptalk to host the conference’s annual startup pitch competition.
On March 20, Core sight Research CEO and Founder Deborah Weinswig will also participate in a Shoptalk session entitled “Overview of Retail and E commerce Innovation in China.” Zia Daniell Wigder, Chief Global Content Officer of Shoptalk, will interview Weinswig and Hans Tung, Managing Partner of GGV Capital, on topics that include technology and business model advancements in areas such as checkout, payments, delivery, logistics, the IoT and robotics.
Startup Competition
On March 18, Weinswig will emcee a startup pitch competition between 15 early-stage companies. Each company will present its business to a panel of judges from the investment community and to the audience. Two winners will be announced, one chosen by the panel of judges and one by audience vote, and each winner will be awarded $25,000.
Shoptalk curated the participating startups based on their solutions to some of the most pressing challenges facing retailers today. As we highlight in our
18 Retail Trends for ’18: Preparing for Another Year of Change report, the retail industry continues to under go transformation, characterized by five key factors that are either driven by or affecting consumers and retailers:
- Consumers continue to switch from conventional retail formats to new, alternative formats and channels.
- Shoppers value life-improving services from retailers and technology providers.
- Brands, retailers and technology firms are offering new types of interactions, rewards and experiences.
- Industry changes are compelling closer collaboration among retailers, technology giants (including Amazon), logistics technology vendors and social media influencers.
- Retailers are leveraging technologies as diverse as block chain and 3D printing to make their supply chains smarter and fitter in an increasingly competitive market.
In response to these trends and opportunities, retailers in all channels are changing to accommodate shoppers’ shifting preferences. Below, we profile Spoon Guru, one of the companies participating in the startup pitch competition at Shoptalk 2018.
Spoon Guru
Company Description
Spoon Guru is an AI-based food search and discovery platform that enables food retailers to deliver personalized recommendations to customers based on their dietary restrictions and preferences. Spoon Guru analyzes ingredients for packaged foods and recipes and assigns tags for an array of well-being, lifestyle and medical diet profiles.
Spoon Guru’s technology allows retailers to refine their product offering based on individuals’ dietary profiles, with the goal of increasing basket size, average revenue per user and customer satisfaction.By creating personalized customer profiles that contain information on preferences and restrictions (e.g., a nut allergy or adherence to a vegan diet), Spoon Guru provides grocery retailers with a way to deliver relevant products and recipes to each customer, across channels.
Market Overview
More and more consumers are purchasing groceries online. According to a Prosper Insights & Analytics survey conducted in August 2017, approximately 30% of US shoppers are now purchasing at least some of their groceries online, up from 25% one year earlier.
What Problem Is the Company Solving?
While consumers still purchase the majority of their groceries in stores, the number of consumers shopping for food online is rising sharply. Spoon Guru helps grocery retailers enhance and personalize the online experience, thereby differentiating themselves from competitors and meeting customers’ expectation so fan exceptional shopping experience and meaningful engagement.For consumers, Spoon Guru seeks to solve a problem that many shoppers have: finding products that fit their individual dietary needs.
Headquarters
London, UK
Funding Stage
Not disclosed
Business Model
Spoon Guru operates under a B2B model, charging clients a recurring license fee and layering additional professional services on top.
Competitive Landscape
Spoon Guru defines its two main competitors as NielsenBrand bank and Label Insight.
Management Team
Markus Stripf, Cofounder and Co-CEO, has 15 years of experience in the music industry, where he focused on the digital transformation of the business. He formerly served as managing director at Warner Music Group. Tim Allen, Co founder and Co-CEO, is a lawyer and commercial leader. Cofounder and CTOSimon O’Regan is a solutions architect and technical director with experience at digital and mobile agencies. Chairman Andy Clarke, formerly CEO of Asda and President at IGD, has more than 25 years’ experience working in multi brand international businesses.
Company Outlook
Spoon Guru is in advanced negotiations with global retailers to provide personalized shopping experiences both online and in stores. The company is also developing additional functionality such as voice-activated search for home shopping and cooking.
