This week John Lewis Partnership’s unique retail tech innovation programme, JLAB launched a challenge to find start-ups and established businesses that are creating retail experiences that could shape how consumers shop in the future.
Successful entrants will have the opportunity to develop their ideas with John Lewis & Partners. The retailer is already championing in-store shopping experiences, for example with its Experience Desks offering concierge style shopping and an expanded personal styling service.
John Lewis & Partners has also experimented with a wide range of ‘sell out’ events and experiences in its shops (including gin masterclasses, cinema screenings, and overnight stays in pop-up luxury apartments inside shops).
Peter Cross, partner and director of customer experience at John Lewis & Partners, said: ‘As customer expectations of the shopping experience grow at the fastest pace in living memory, John Lewis & Partners is actively looking to engage with the brightest and most entrepreneurial minds in the nation, whether that be a new technology solution to make shopping more convenient, or an idea that will fundamentally transform how the nation shops.’
This new experiential retail theme follows two other JLAB challenges that launched earlier this year – health and wellbeing and reducing the impact of plastic waste.
Four businesses who can help reduce plastic waste by reusing and reducing food, liquid and postal packaging were selected at a recent pitch day, with CupClub (reusable cups that are returned and washed) soon to start a trial within the Partnership’s head office.
Entries for the experiential retail challenge are to be made online by November 25, with the pitch day in February.
Top: The recently rebranded John Lewis & Partners is pioneering retail experiences.
