Following a competitive pitch day for its JLAB retail innovation programme, The John Lewis Partnership has announced the six businesses it will continue discussions with to develop their ideas.

Over 160 new startups and more established businesses entered the experiential retail challenge, with 11 invited to pitch to a panel of judges and partners at John Lewis in Southampton.

These ranged from a new way to navigate and explore larger shops from your smartphone, to the very latest beauty services in your home, and even pioneering technology to create urban allotments within shops.

The businesses selected to continue discussions with JLAB and potentially work with the department store in the future are:

· SeloyLive – which transforms shop windows into huge interactive displays which customers can engage with and control from their fingertips.

· Oriient – which is ensuring customers can navigate directly to the products they desire in our shops and unlock further exploration of the store experience through their smartphone.

· Ruuby – which allows customers to book the very latest beauty treatments at home, or any other location they choose.

· MemoMi – which lets customers virtually try on fashion and beauty products, navigate choice and access truly personalised recommendations based on their image profile and preferences.

· MakersCAFE – which uses 3D printing and laser cutting to personalise customers most loved products and gift purchases.

· LettUs Grow – which is using retail space for a more sustainable approach to farming, through the growing of plants without soil, to reimagine the world of farming and community gardening.

The experiential retail challenge follows on from two pitch days held in June and September 2018, which focused on health and wellbeing and reducing plastic waste.

Peter Cross, customer experience director at John Lewis, said: “Recent years have seen seismic changes in our sector, with a new benchmark in customer expectation every time they shop – we believe the dynamic new businesses selected for further discussions with JLAB will help us continue to stretch, shape and deliver together for our customers in the future.”

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