Advanced AI solution to meet retailers’ critical need for smarter merchandising: Retail Express

Advanced AI solution to meet retailers’ critical need for smarter merchandising: Retail Express

Retail Express, a leading provider of merchandising solutions and services for retail, has announced a major upgrade to its intelligent merchandising software, RE 2.0, introducing significant AI enhancements.

This follows a two-year investment cycle in product development, new appointments, and an office relocation to its new HQ in the tech centre of Leeds. This progressive and ambitious expansion programme will ensure its products reap the benefits of artificial intelligence to deliver smarter merchandising and collaboration tools to support the modern retail industry and better meet global customer demand.

The digitalisation of the retail industry is driving leaders to look for innovative technologies to help them stay ahead in an increasingly competitive marketplace. AI-driven solutions hold the key to solving today’s complex business challenges, supporting a move away from the limitations of forensic analysis to the use of real-time data to generate accurate predictions and forecasts, the company said.

Business intelligence about pricing and promotions, derived from the insights that such systems produce, can be used to streamline supplier management and make operations much more efficient, completely revolutionising processes that have been historically carried out through a manual process of phone calls, emails and spreadsheets.

Retail Express’ CEO, Barry Grange, said: “The acceleration by retail leaders in their digital transformation journey is driving demand for intelligent merchandising solutions. Our expansion will enable more retailers to have access to our SaaS technology, helping them to transform their merchandising and supplier processes while removing the reliance on legacy IT infrastructure with its time-consuming and labour-intensive manual processes.

“As we see the growth of disruptors in the retail market, such as online behemoths on one side and the ‘deep discounters’ on the other, it’s essential to invest in systems now that will create a competitive advantage while helping to boost revenue.”

Crucial to delivering innovative advancements into the retail sector has been a strategic overhaul of Retail Express’ intelligent merchandising Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution, RE2.0, based around major enhancements to its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.

A next-generation Supplier Collaboration module also now forms a key component of the platform, providing a two-way Supplier Portal that allows retailers and vendors to plan, negotiate and agree deals, track funding and manage media and promotion.

RE2.0 now includes many additions to increase useability including options to refine category management, and a suite of new productivity tools, resulting in a powerful software solution that can be tailored to meet the precise requirements of any retail business.

Improved cybersecurity via more stringent encryption methods also provides peace of mind for managers, while SAML support with F5 deployment and Salesforce User Identification capabilities ensure secure management of user identities between RE2.0 and Salesforce CRM systems.