Which tech innovations are truly transforming retail? 3 inspiring perspectives
At SQLI, we don’t just follow trends — we anticipate them, test them, and put them into action. In this spirit of continuous innovation, we recently organized a strategic session with our top management, dedicated to discovering three high-potential start-ups directly connected to retail challenges.
A proactive innovation approach at SQLI
Our approach is built on three pillars:
- Active monitoring: we continuously identify start-ups aligned with our CX, data, and commerce expertise.
- Strategic selection: we integrate them into our partner ecosystem, backed by an in-depth understanding of their solutions.
- Engagement and partnership initiation: after selecting them, we open a dialogue with the start-ups to explore potential synergies and launch partnerships tailored to our needs and those of our clients.
- Client activation: we introduce them to our clients when their technologies address concrete needs.
This executive committee session perfectly illustrates this approach: three start-ups, selected for their business and technological relevance, came to present their solutions to our international top management.
But our approach goes far beyond technology monitoring:
- We regularly take part in professional trade shows and organise learning expeditions with our clients — store tours, meetings with start-ups, trend analysis… The objective? To get inspired, share, and then move into action through Proofs of Concept (POCs). Once this exploration phase is mastered, we support our clients in structuring their own innovation lab.
- Internally, we foster an active innovation community that shares monitoring topics, feedback, and market insights specific to each country. This approach is reinforced by the regular publication of expert articles and inspiring content to feed collective thinking.
- Finally, we play the role of facilitator: connecting our clients with targeted start-ups, sharing best practices for running labs, and helping structure pragmatic, results-oriented innovation initiatives.
Three start-ups, three visions of tomorrow’s retail
During this session, we showcased three cutting-edge start-ups, each illustrating a major trend shaping the sector:
HABS
HABS deciphers consumers’ emotions and reactions in real time thanks to its neural sensors and interpretation-driven AI, giving brands an unprecedented understanding of the customer experience.
By revealing what traditional studies fail to capture, HABS helps brands design journeys that are more engaging, authentic, and emotionally accurate.
Heuritech
Heuritech helps brands anticipate fashion trends by analysing millions of images shared on social media to detect emerging patterns, colours, and shapes ahead of the curve.
Thanks to the power of its visual data, the platform enables the creation of more accurate collections, reduces unsold inventory, and keeps brands aligned with consumer expectations.
Kahoona
Kahoona turns every visit to an online store into highly qualified audience segments — in real time and without cookies.
By relying on first-party data generated directly through customer interactions, Kahoona enables brands to optimise their customer journeys and sustainably increase conversions.
Retail & innovation: trends that are taking shape
Innovation in retail is accelerating around several key pillars that are profoundly transforming both the customer experience and operational models. Underpinning this shift, generative AI acts as a cross-functional catalyst — enhancing, accelerating, and making all the trends below more actionable.
AI at the heart of retail performance
Artificial intelligence (predictive, generative, or autonomous) is becoming embedded at every level of retail: demand forecasting, dynamic pricing, personalised recommendations, logistics automation, and product content creation.
The retailer becomes “augmented”, able to orchestrate ultra-personalised experiences and optimise operations in real time.
Phygital and immersive experiences
The boundaries between e-commerce and physical stores are dissolving. Brands are designing seamless, immersive, and coherent journeys: virtual try-on, enriched QR codes, connected services, invisible payment.
The store becomes an experiential and community hub that drives loyalty.
Data as a new strategic asset
Mastering customer and transactional data (first-party data) is becoming a central lever: performance management, retail media, marketing activation, and impact measurement.
The most advanced retailers turn their data ecosystem into a true revenue engine.
An agile and sustainable supply chain
Logistical pressures and societal expectations are accelerating the transformation of supply chains: micro-fulfilment, urban logistics, responsible packaging, digital traceability.
Speed, transparency, and resource efficiency are becoming new competitiveness criteria.
A more responsible and ethical retail
Consumers are increasingly favouring usage value, second life, and tangible commitments. Brands are integrating sustainability and algorithmic responsibility (ethical AI, data protection) into their business model.
“Smart retail” now combines innovation, impact, and trust.
Our positioning
At SQLI, innovation is a strategic lever at the heart of our mission. We support major brands in their digital transformation by combining our expertise in technology, creativity and data to design customer experiences that are engaging, useful, and sustainable.
Our approach is built on several strong beliefs:
- Innovation must be pragmatic: at SQLI, innovation is above all designed to serve our clients’ business objectives. This is why we experiment, test, and prototype concrete solutions that can be activated quickly. In every innovation process, we aim to define a clear objective and identify success indicators to measure the real impact of the initiatives. This approach enables us to frame relevant POCs that quickly validate the added value of a technology or use case before any potential large-scale deployment.
- Innovation is continuous: we maintain active monitoring of emerging technologies (generative AI, connected objects, retail media, neurosciences, etc.), which we incorporate into our thinking and our offerings.
- Innovation is aligned with our CX positioning: as a European leader in customer experience, we do everything we can to deliver seamless, personalised, and high-performing journeys, both online and in-store.
“At SQLI, pragmatic and continuous innovation is our response to emerging trends, serving a seamless, personalised customer experience aligned with the real needs of our clients.”
Thomas Gayet, Innovation Consultant at SQLI
