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EuroCIS 2019 was a relatively small trade show spread out over two halls (9 & 10) at Dusseldorf Messe. A majority of exhibitors showcased POS hardware and there was also a large contingent from Asia (mainly China, Korea and Taiwan). Our verdict: Approximately half of all the exhibitors were domestic to Germany, or companies we have not heard of before (this was our first visit to EuroCIS). The size of the show may be due to the much larger EuroShop show (next opening in Feb 2020) opening every other year. However, as a trade show country, Germany is definitely one...

Amazon had applied for 17,199 patents by February 9th, 2019 (source) Amazon has developed a number of novel technologies and applied for multiple and numerous patents. All of these have been with a view to further Amazon's business. However, may Amazon be coming to an end with many of its innovations and patents? Styleintelligence would recommend they set-up a licensing team to capitalise on unused IP. However, this may go against everything that Amazon wants to do with their "vertical integration concept". Jeff Bezos, founder echo show, built to [partly] recommend fashion items to customers Amazon Echo, built to add...

Robotics is one of the more exciting spaces right now and while there was no lack of vendors at NRF 2019, perhaps the space is not conducive to display and demo some of the more exciting systems (space limitations). Readers may also be interested in Styleintelligence's Goods to Person robotics 2018 report available for free here. Types of robots on display The types of robots available at NRF2019 can be split into three different categories: Customer Service Robots, Stock Check Robots and Warehouse Robots. It should be noted that we did not document ALL the robotics available at NRF. However,...

A review of the frictionless store concepts on view at #NRF2019; Ai-Fi, Cloud Pick, Cisco, Toshiba, Zippin, and Soul-M. Only one of these appeared commercially available right now - Cloud Pick, a Chinese company.

At a recent visit to #NRF2019 we noticed a less than perfect working AI which apparently mistook a man's elbows for two packets of Cheerios. We presume there is a potential for these types of 'AI mistakes' once these stores are rolled out on mass scale. Not all stores will have the very latest technology and may come with flaws such as this. How do you explain to your customers that their elbows look like Cheerios? Image source: STIQ Ltd, 2019 The real thing