It was Retail Week’s annual technology awards on Tuesday night, and there were more than a few techies with sore heads the next day.
Last night it was the annual Retail Week Technology Awards, sponsored by BT, and the room felt busier than it had at any time since we moved the event from Birmingham a few years ago. There was a good retailer turnout, and they very much seemed to enjoy the event, which was hosted by my colleague Joanna Perry and TV comedian Rufus Hound, who managed - just - to avoid offending too many people in the room.
Category winners includedOcado, New Look, Wilkinson and Argos, while Aurora won IT team of the year, which must have been nice for them after what’s been a tough year for the business.
I didn’t stay late but apparently the celebrations went on well into the early hours. I was sitting with two of our judges - Carpetright’s Ian Woosey and BMI’s IT director, formerly of B&Q, Peter Federico - who were great company, while it was good to see so many other familiar faces there, including a big contingent from Boots headed by retail chief Alex Gourlay and marketing director Elizabeth Fagan.
They must have had a feeling they were going to do well as Boots not only won the multichannel category, but the overall award for the best of each of the category winners. Having been up to Nottingham earlier in the year to see what they’re doing, they have certainly done a great job of transforming their supply chain and ensuring its infrastructure is really geared up for multichannel.
They’re now talking to Asos about how their store network can help with fulfilling its orders, a pioneering move which is symptomatic of how Boots is really at the cutting edge of a lot of the good things going on in retail right now.
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