John Lewis to focus on payments and connected home as second JLab launches

John Lewis, which first launched the initiative last year, is inviting 10 start-up technology companies at any stage of growth to apply for the programme. The team with the best idea will win £100,000 to fund tech developments. JLab also has funding for up to £20,000 initial investment per company.

John Lewis is particularly focused on ideas in the following categories: meshing the digital and physical; effortless payments; smart partners; connected home; as well as a wild card category where the retailer wants companies to provide “innovations that are so out of this world they are hard to classify.” [See box below].

The JLab accelerator - which is run in association with technology entrepreneur Stuart Marks’ investment fund L Marks - gives John Lewis early access to innovative and emerging retail technologies.

The programme runs for 12 weeks and takes place over the summer, with a number of expert mentors helping the participants to develop their ideas.  The overall winner will be decided at a final pitch day in September. 

John Lewis IT director Paul Coby told Retail Week one of the most exciting things about retail in 2015 is that “it’s all changing and nobody quite knows where it is going to end up”.

“How we used to shop is a pretty poor guide of how we will shop in the future,” he said. “Way back people didn’t think anyone would buy anything significant on mobile phones.”

Coby said the one area which he is keeping a very close eye on is the Internet of Things as well as the mass of data that is being generated from technology. “I just feel there has to be a use case in there where somebody is going to make sense of all this connectivity and data, in a way that will be useful and people will want and trust it, and it will be secure,” said Coby. “I can feel it’s out there but I can also imagine lots of people are trying to shine a light on it but I can’t see it.”

Marks said: “It’s about finding what the consumer is going to see value in, rather than technology for the sake of it. A lot of companies now are working with cool technology but they’re not sure what to do with it.”

Localz

The programme ran for the first time last year when micro-location technology specialist Localz won the top prize. Localz uses beacon and smartphone technology to allow John Lewis to know when click and collect customers near a store. This information helps employees speed up their order so it is waiting by the time they arrive at the collection desk. The technology can also help customers to navigate their way around the department store.

The start-up is now trialling its beacon solution in the Peter Jones store, with three more trial stores scheduled.

Tim Andrew, co-founder and commercial director of Localz, said: “Since winning JLab, Localz has enjoyed amazing growth in our clients, and a large part of this is due to the on-going support of John Lewis which has worked closely with us to maintain their edge as a leading omnichannel retailer. We’re excited to see what the future holds and will continue to work with John Lewis on our Click and Collect solution.”

Applications are open now, and will close at midnight on May 1 2015.