Participate in the Next Generation Retail Lab

Thank you for your interest in participating in the Next Generation Retail Lab, a project promoted by Barcelona City Council, through Barcelona Activa and the Retail Department, and the Cercle Tecnològic de Catalunya (Ctecno), together with the CorEixample Retail Association, designed and coordinated by Readyfor.
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The Lab is a transformative innovation project that aims to validate the impact of the use of digital technology in retail, specifically in its ability to create value through data and direct communication with customers through displays.

This pilot will be executed by a single technology company selected by a jury of experts based on the proposals received under this call.

Two Preliminary Considerations

1. The chosen company must show experience and the ability to rapidly deploy and support participating businesses according to the project schedule.

2. Participation in the Lab will be at the selected company's expense, which will not receive any direct financial compensation for its participation in the project.

Basic Calendar

3rd March: Call Opens
21st March  (23:59h CET): Call Closes
31st March: Selected company gets notified
1st - 11th April: Set up and installation in stores
12th April: Lab Starts
4th July: Lab Ends
5th - 15th July: Equipment removal and final evaluation

WHY PARTICIPATE?

This call is for companies who, based on their experience in deploying retail solutions, want to submit a proposal for Lab participation under the following conditions:

Direct benefits

• Build a business case in a real environment (data)
• Management and coordination support
• Independently authored final report on business results
• Visibility and leadership in innovation in retail (before
  government, businesses and the general public)
• Continuity option with participants

Expected benefits

• Business Case: ROI for retailers
• Refined value proposition for businesses
• Know-how of needed collaborative work
• A defined deployment / scaling plan

Participation requirements

• Use of hardware / software during the pilot
• Installation, maintenance, support and removal
• Limitations on the use of data (GDPR)
• Resource Commitment to the pilot (including a Spanish speaking team on the ground)
• Continuity option for participants
• Participation in communications actions

CONTENT OF THE PROPOSAL

A. Objectives

The selected proposal will be the one that is most potentially effective in achieving the following objectives:

• Data collection
• Digital communication with the user
• Knowledge generation, learning and transformation

1. DATA COLLECTION

One of the important challenges of retail is transforming the innumerable activities that take place in a store (which are traditionally collected informally and anecdotally) into analyzable data.

The proposal must provide for collection of at least the following data sets:

• Traffic inside the establishment, zones into relevant areas for each store.
• Traffic outside the establishment (in front of the shop window)
• Interaction with the products or relevant categories for each store
• Purchasing data (sales tracking)
• Satisfaction: Feedback and other forms of engagement measurement.
• Actual impressions and interactions with content displayed on the displays
• Optionally, other data considered important to drive data-based strategies and actions (move to data-powered business)
• Users will need to be bundled into relevant demographic profiles.

The proposal must explain how this information will be collected in a systematic, relevant and continuous manner.

The proposal must include:

• The general approach
• The hardware elements to be installed in each store
• Software and processes planned to manage the system effectively
• The measures to protect privacy and respect for the GDPR

2. DIGITAL COMMUNICATION WITH THE USER

If communication and attention are the basis of value creation in the digital society, next generation retail unfolds as a new space for communication, as a new media channel.

The proposal must allow effective communication of the store with its users, customers and visitors with content such as the following:

• Promotions
• Products
• Brand content
• Citizen content (from City Hall, Neighborhood, Communities…)
• Promotions to other shops in the system
• Other value generating content

The proposal must include:

• Hardware planned for each establishment (displays and others)
• Software needed for smart content management to best explore the potential of retail as media

The proposal will include a description of how content will be personalized/relevant to users based on:

• User characteristics (demographic or behavioral)
• Business logic and value creation opportunities

Also under consideration:

• The ability to bring brands and content to the project and generate promotion and engagement campaigns.
• Solutions for measuring promotion conversion among stores

3. KNOWLEDGE GENERATION, LEARNING AND TRANSFORMATION

In order to be able to act on the data, businesses must be able to access relevant reporting of the information obtained as well as the system's own recommendations.

The proposal must include a platform for accessing and processing data, including reports and results.

Some of the relevant data may include:

• Traffic data (number of people, length of stay)
• Conversions
• Sales data: Average ticket / number of sales / volume
• Promotion conversions (sales / promos)
• Satisfaction

The proposal will include the mechanisms and technologies for learning and generating recommendations aimed at improving the store’s business metrics
The proposal must also include training support in the interpretation of the data and definition of actions for stores.

B. Service Conditions

The proposal must include a description of the services to be carried out, including the following:

• Schedule for equipment installation and setup (with flexibility to avoid disrupting normal store business)
• Maintenance and technical support
• User and management support including recommendation for improving business metrics
• Proposal for content management including social, promotional and other brand (and similar) content
• Expected calendar for equipment removal (with flexibility to avoid disrupting normal store business)
• Other activities or services supporting the stores. Other activities or services supporting the project

C. Company characteristics

The Lab aims to select a technological partner who has the experience and ability to execute the pilot effectively and contributes significantly with its expertise in its deployment and success.

The proposal will include a description of the following:

• Experience in retail digitalization projects (references)
• Company title of the lead person for the project
• Team participating in the project
• Brief description of the company’s motivation for participating in the project.