Page 31 - FINAT Yearbook 2019

ELF delegates enjoyed a rainy river trip around Copenhagen’s beautiful waterways in the evening,
and chair of the executive committee of Ecommerce Europe, to study the changing face of retailing and the growing possibility of the end of distinction between traditional and online shopping – a topic on which he has authored a leading management book.
With online retailers opening physical retail stores around the world, labels and packaging are embracing a new definition of their role of enablers in this different shopper landscape – a role they can perform in-store, on-pack, online, and even at home -- with on-pack electronics major contributors
Fully-integrated cashless and cashierless (card payment only) stores, with such shopper options as selecting an item in a store display and then having it delivered to your home, are now a reality. Alibaba in China are leading established examples in this O2O (online to offline) retailing arena, and Amazon are planning to open up to 3000 cashierless stores by 2021. Other popular and fast-growing options are robot deliveries and, of course, Amazon Alexa smart speaking devices – enabling, among other time-saving tasks, voice- activated ordering. Wijnand Jongen said that Amazon are now even working on a device that can read emotions.
In fact, humanity’s engagement with the variety of online devices is creating a major change in human communications. As Wijnand Jongen said, ‘when families disconnect, they connect!’ – as he showed in a video, where ‘Mum’ wanted the family to set the dining table, but they were all individually online in some way or other. Alexa disconnected them, and the table got set.
Wijnand Jongen ended his presentation with a reminder of seven packaging trends to watch for this year, from active food freshness indicator labels to a variety of personalisation opportunities.
FINAT: ALL ABOUT PEOPLE
‘FINAT is all about people’, said Jules Lejeune and Chris Ellison as they reported to the general assembly – emphasising the current focus on recruitment of the future label industry workforce, which is supported by FINAT’s lively and hard- working newly-named Young Professionals Network, with new President Mikaela Harding of Pulse Roll Label Products, UK, which is tasked with shaping the future of the label
Preceding ‘ELF 2019’ was the first edition of the Converter-only Roundtables. Some 25 label business leaders took part in the open discussions (see also report on page 16).
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