The 2023 Connected Retail Conference is taking place in Manchester, with award winners announced at the awards dinner at the Museum of Science and Industry.

This year’s SPAR Connected Retail Conference got underway in Manchester on Tuesday, October 10. The week sees a multi-disciplined conference where delegates collaborate and share best practice across Digital Commerce, Marketing, IT, e-Commerce, Supply Chain, Responsible Retailing and Design.

On Tuesday night, delegates gathered at the Museum of Science and Industry for a dinner and awards ceremony. SPAR country organisations were recognised for excellence across different disciplines.

Award winners

SPAR UK partner Henderson Group took home the award for Retail IT Excellence for their partnership with RELEX to implement a new volume and planning system. This new system works alongside changes to business processes to maximise efficiency gains for their stores, warehouse operations, and their suppliers.

The award for Digital Marketing Excellence went to SPAR Norway. These digital initiatives include Google max campaigns, online leaflets, personalised ads, and further builds on their loyalty programme.

SPAR UK partner James Hall & Co. with their fantastic Win with Every Goal campaign in 2022 saw them win the award for Best Online Campaign.

The Better Together – International Collaboration award went to SPAR Kosovo for their partnerships with SPAR country organisations and external organisations.

The eCommerce Innovation and Excellence award went to SPAR Slovenia for their ‘Smart Basket alias MIRKO’ innovation. This platform uses an AI algorithm to look at customers buying habits to suggest an online shopping basket, making online shopping faster and more convenient.

SPAR Norway also received the Supply Chain Excellence award, jointly given to logistics division of NorgesGruppen, Asko. Their work in this area ranges from solar harvesting and wind turbines at logitics centres to alternative fuels including hydrogen and electric trucks. A pioneering project saw electric powered ferries bring electric trucks across the Oslo fjord.

SPAR Zimbabwe received a Special Recognition award for their collaboration within the SPAR network. After implementing the Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform with preferred supplier LS Retail, the team gave their time to provide insights and experiences to other SPAR country organisations looking to evaluate the application and its benefit to their business.