Among the 33,000 professionals and 3,326 companies who attended the NRF 2017 in New York City, was French Tech, a label that is exporting well. This label includes ten French start-ups who crossed the Atlantic, supported by Business France, to meet retail professionals.
This year, ten promising French companies represented French Tech at the ‘Retail’s BIG Show’, a worldwide business-oriented event in New York City. Selected by a jury made up of Franco-American experts, they were part of the 750 French companies who attended this 106th edition. Organised by Business France – a public agency working for the international development of the French economy– and as a part of the annual state-sponsored programme France Export, the operation offered start-ups a customised programme, in exchange for a financial contribution. The ten companies thus benefitted from coaching sessions before the exhibition, to optimise their presence. On site, they were granted with “full-exhibition” 3-day passes and had access to the meeting and demo areas for their appointments. The start-ups were also highlighted in a press release and on Business France’s online media and their videos were broadcast on the French Tech stand at the exhibition. Finally, the young company directors had the opportunity to share their experiences with retail entrepreneurs from New York, outside of the exhibition.
These ten satisfied start-ups had the opportunity to present their know-how to the French retailers who attended the NRFrenchParty which took place on 15 January, at the Consulate General of France.
The ten French start-ups supported by Business France at the NRF
1 – Alkemics
Specialising in e-commerce, Alkemics offers a platform which connects brands and retailers. The company enhances retailers and brands’ product sheets with smart data to improve search results. “Our SaaS platform connects brands and retailers to improve together product data quality and automate data sharing with their partners. These connections create a collaborative data sharing ecosystem which helps optimising decision making and improving customer shopping patterns,” explains Alkemics.
2 – ContentSquare
Specialising in e-commerce, ContentSquare aims to boost online exchange rates by optimising user experience across all devices.
Jonathan Cherki created ContentSquare in 2012 in the ESSEC business school’s incubator. “We wish to provide marketing teams with solutions that will help them understand the interactions between internet users and their digital tools, and work on the most relevant parameters identified by our SaaS platform’s analyses,” the young entrepreneur explains. “Our team is deliberately varied, international and composed of talents coming from different cultures and places, but still focused on a common project: generalising data to achieve a better UX.”
3 – Critizr
Specialising in the digitalisation of points of sale, customer involvement, and satisfaction measurement, Critizr wants to improve customer experience. “We believe that an engaged customer, even dissatisfied, is more valuable than a silent customer. An engaged customer can help improve commercial efficiency, capacity for innovation, and communication between companies. Marketing management teams are conscious of these challenges and are trying to implement customer engagement tools that will help collect, process and use customer reviews,” the start-up explains. Through Critizr, customers can leave reviews, and their comments will be sent to brand managers who will be invited to answer via a free app. Critizr also offers a customer relationship management tool for retailers.
4 – Mirakl
Specialising in e-commerce, Mirakl offers a marketplace SaaS solution that helps brands and retailers develop their online activity and extend their product range by welcoming third-party sellers on their website. Created in 2012, the start-up raised $20m in July 2015.
5- SimpliField
Specialising in marketing, SimpliField helps brands and retailers manage their marketing and sales operations in real time. “At Simplifield, we believe managing on-field operations is the key to success for a performing company. SimpliField’s solution facilitates communication in the company. Teams on the field have responsibilities and can now focus on tasks with higher added value,” the start-up explains. Field feedback are sent via an app and dashboards are generated in real time to monitor the actions.
6 –SoCloz
Specialising in the digitalisation of stores, Socloz offers a SaaS-based service platform. Through a single interface, retailers can deploy several services such as express payment anywhere in the shop or click & collect, to digitalise their stores. Socloz raised €4m in June 2016.
7 – Storetail
E-commerce specialist Storetail was created in 2014 by Mathieu Azorin and Elie Aboucaya. The start-up offers brands and retailers a technological platform to create value across the e-commerce channel. “The e-commerce channel is strategic for both brands and retailers. The rules of physical points of sale must be reinvented in line with digital technology,” says Mathieur Azorin. “Storetail offers a technological platform that includes all the sales events solutions that can enhance customer experience, boost sales and monetise retail websites more effectively.”
8 – Think&Go NFC
Specialising in the digitalisation of stores, Think&Go, which belongs to Ingenico, connects screens with customers and brands. Customers can for example get discount vouchers and purchase products by paying a deposit via a contactless payment device.
9 – Vekia
Specialising in new generation supply chains, Vekia develops stock and procurement monitoring solutions. The editor specialises in retail and Machine Learning issues. “Our provisional procurement monitoring solutions help retailers hold the right amount of stock at the right place and at the right time,” the software vendor explains. “Not only do we optimise each operation’s efficiency thanks to very accurate sales forecasts on all products and points of sale, including the new ones, but we also allow the implementation of new sales and retail models.”
10 – Ysance
Specialising in digital marketing, Ysance makes a people-based DMP and is an integrator of data-centric digital platforms. The start-up wants to use the data capital of companies as the driving force of their digital transformation. “Your customer data speaks for itself. It explains and helps us anticipate customer behaviour . We can make this data talk, with a magic button that shows its hidden value. Used respectfully, this data can turn into a real source of value for your business,” the company explains.
