Retail IT Connect 2025 Blog

Take a look at the round up of Retail IT Connect!

In the Retail CIO Playbook 2024, WBR Insights surveyed 150 of the most senior IT decision-makers from around Europe. In a sneak preview of the research, we reveal how retailers are turning to digital innovation to achieve growth.

We had the pleasure of chatting to Jeannette Copeland, Technology Director at Ann Summers ahead of her appearance as a speaker at Retail CIO Connect 2022. Read on to discover her top challenges and priorities in the coming year.

We all know how critical digital technology is to the retail business in 2022 and meeting the expectations of customers in this regard should be a top priority for all CIOs moving forwards – see the first article in this series for more details.

It’s a brave new world when it comes to reaching out and engaging with your audience and retailers the world over are reaping the benefits of merging marketing and communication channels together into a single congruent whole.

It’s not particularly innovative or revelatory to state that digital transformation is the future of the retail business. 

In their current state, health care systems are a loosely associated mix of public and private-sector health facilities, organisations, providers, consumers, pharmaceutical companies, and other related players. Digital transformation has brought some improvement to isolated areas of health care, but if services are to become more efficient and convenient through data-driven insights, the entire ecosystem needs to be fully integrated.

Recognising this, Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), the largest retail pharmacy, health, and wellbeing enterprise across the US and Europe, has entered a strategic partnership with Microsoft. Working together, the two companies will harness the power of Microsoft’s cloud platform and related tools, to deliver innovations that enable next-generation health networks, integrated digital-physical experiences, and new care management solutions.

After a turbulent year full of senior management changes and challenges from the greater retail environment in which it suffered a dip in UK sales of £63.4 million, Wilko has achieved an exceptional turnaround in profitability during its latest financial year. Much of this success stems from the discount retailer’s decision to partner with a technology platform that’s enabling a range of Software as a Service (SaaS) based solutions to drive its category management strategy.

To help optimise its supply chain operations, gain a better, real-time view of its inventory, and create a truly connected and automated environment that removed the rigid processes of old, Clarks needed an updated solution. Read on to find out more.