Paris Retail Week 2024

Paris Retail Week: key differences from EuroCIS

From 17 to 19 September, Paris hosted Paris Retail Week, which in 2025 will become the largest retail fair in Europe.

Compared with EuroCIS in Düsseldorf last February – a fair with a similar format – attention towards self check-out and payment systems remained strong. However, a surprising absence was that of electronic labels, which were centre stage in Germany but barely visible in Paris.

One major change at Paris Retail Week was the shift from automatic reordering functionality, the undisputed highlight in Düsseldorf, to the central role of mobility in retail operations. This trend, which particularly caught my attention, saw desktop interfaces almost completely disappear from the stands, replaced by mobile solutions for back-office management, checkout and logistics. For over 20 years, Aton has focused on mobility systems to deliver efficiency and speed to customers, and is now aligned with the vision of many companies investing in this approach.

Our .one suite fully embodies this philosophy, offering unified management of all operations: from inventory with product master data coded at headquarters, to real-time stock management, even when a salesperson is out in the field. Stock management, a critical point for the entire ecosystem, was indeed a hot topic at the fair: monitoring stock from the start to the end of the production cycle is essential in a “Unified Commerce” perspective.

Another aspect that caught my eye was the massive presence of companies offering both B2B and B2C e-commerce solutions, often integrated with AI. Their focus was on stock, product presentation, integration with checkout and back-office systems, and strategies to improve customer engagement (including Instagram-like e-commerce). In this context, portals have been enriched with new features: from clearly visible multilingual reviews, to AI-powered SEO analysis, and even automated webpage creation. At Aton, we know the value of B2B portals well – part of our .one suite – which has already brought significant benefits to our clients.

AI takes centre stage in Paris

Artificial intelligence, once again the real star in Paris, appeared more mature than it had in February. Beyond ideas, we now see concrete solutions such as:

• insight analysis from competitor websites to monitor prices, stock and sales, providing strategic guidance to brands;
• SEO optimisation and improved user experience for websites through more engaging design and interactions;
• competitor data analysis based on information gathered in the field;
• prevention of tax fraud in payment systems.

Paris Retail Week 2024: key innovations

Among the most curious innovations I came across, I was struck by:

• systems to monitor customers’ heartbeat and blood pressure, to understand the emotions they experience in front of the shelves;
• software that, through cameras, provides data on checkout waiting times and customer behaviour in store;
• 3D product holograms or even holograms of singers performing in virtual live shows.

New ways of engaging the consumer and the integration of multiple functionalities into a single platform were the true common thread of the fair.

These events represent a crucial moment for reflection, not only to discover what’s new, but above all to understand the direction to take.

We’ll keep you updated on the next events!