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Walmart topped a list of Top 10 innovative companies in the retail sector, and was the only legacy retailer to make the list. In a broader look at innovation across all sectors, however, no retailer made the top 50.
Fast Company release their 2024 list earlier this month. Each spot was noted with the reasons a company gained that spot. Walmart’s excerpt is below:
Walmart: For meeting customers where they are, even if it’s at home. (The retailer was cited for building a frictionless e-commerce experience for its Walmart+ paid loyalty program, including its Return from Home option that sends employees to members’ homes to pick up items. Also,Fast Company noted that Walmart now has ultrafast delivery drones in 37 hubs across seven states.)
The rest of the Top 10 in retail:
Archive: For making clothing resale as easy as scan and click. (Launched in 2021, the resale system company works with more than 40 global brands, including The North Face.)
Erewhon: For turning a grocery store into a designer brand. (With 10 locations, the L.A. area health food grocery store chain is a favorite of celebrities and locals alike. Its smoothies, launched in partnership with high-profile celeb influencers, are a huge money maker.)
GlossGenius: For giving spa and salon owners the best tools of the trade. (The company’s platform handles bookings and payments for more than 60,000 salons and spas, generating revenue from both subscriptions and commission on payments.)
Babylist: For being a one-stop shop for new parents. (In 2023, the online baby registry giant opened its first physical store and also expanded its offerings with the launch of Babylist Health, which helps visitors find health and wellness products and services whose purchased can be covered using their health insurance.)
Optero: For bringing the returns process right to customers’ doors. (In 2024, the returns company launched an at-home pickup service which is now available in 40 cities. Optero uses the data it collects on returns to help its retail partners identify which customers are loyal to a store and what their return habits are.)
Whatnot: For cornering the market on collectibles and live shopping. (A livestream shopping app, Whatnot connects buyers and sellers of all sort sof collectibles, from sports cards to comics to sneakers.)
Queen of Raw: For finding life in deadstock fabrics. (The company’s marketplace connects sellers of unused fabric with buyers that include factories, retailers and brands.)
RetailNext: For giving retailers access to first-party data and preventing theft in real time. (Used by more than 450 retailers, RetailNext, among other things, tracks sales and shoppers via in-store cameras and sensors.)
Angara: For turning every customer into a jewelry designer. (The online jeweler lets customers use an AI-powered tool to design and create unique jewelry pieces within their budget.)
As noted, retailers failed to crack the overall Top 50 list of innovative companies. (Fast Company broke businesses down into more than 50 individual sectors.) Below, with short explanations, are the overall Top 50 for 2024, according to Fast Company:
Nvidia: For bringing the chips to the AI party
Novo Nordisk: For unlocking the full potential of Ozempic
Microsoft: For making artificial intelligence real for the business world
United Auto Workers: For electrifying the labor movement
National Women's Soccer League: For resetting the value of women's sports
Gensler: For remodeling abandoned office spaces into homes
YouTube: For winning the living room
Taco Bell: For showing the world that tacos are a state of mind
OpenAI: For building on the boom it generated
KinetX : For charting a path to distant asteroids—and back again
Vertex Pharmaceuticals: For infusing the first CRISPR treatment into the market
J.M. Smucker: For demonstrating that PB&J plus R&D can be a BFD
USAFacts: For harvesting government data to inform citizens and lawmakers
Sphere Entertainment : For dazzling audiences, even by Vegas standards
Taylor Swift Productions: For reimagining the business of concerts, music, and movies
Parkwood Entertainment: For using a blockbuster tour as the world's largest fashion runway
Mattel: For refashioning a heritage brand into a modern cultural event
Loop Earplugs: For designing ear protection that people want to wear
Redwood Materials: For inventing a new way to recycle EV battery materials
Climeworks: For putting direct air capture on the map
Perplexity: For locating the answer to the perennial problems of web search
Nubank: For transforming bank security into a covetable set of features
Hybe: For turning K-pop into peak commercial art
Husk Power Systems: For decarbonizing the grid in places with historically unreliable power
REX: For giving the World Trade Center site a forward-looking theater
Kraft Heinz: For catering to the condiment-obsessed consumer
Mill Industries: For trashing food waste
Chipotle: For updating its menu at the speed of TikTok
Hopper: For taking the pain out of the travel-booking process—wherever you are
Google: For picturing the future of the AI phone today
Brightline: For accelerating U.S. rail service
WhatsApp: For broadening its appeal by letting users narrow their focus
Adobe: For embracing generative AI the right way
Symbotic: For speeding up warehouse robots, even in the dark
Vanta: For offering startups tools to trust, but verify—in the age of AI
Zipline: For flying delivery drones out of sight
Gogoro: For supercharging electric scooter adoption
Credo AI: For empowering enterprises to manage AI risks
Sol de Janeiro: For dropping new fragrances at an intoxicating pace
4 Day Week Global: For convincing the world that a four-day week actually works
Hyrox: For invigorating gym rats with a global fitness competition
Plaid: For facilitating money's real-time future
Viz.ai: For harnessing AI to expedite lifesaving diagnoses
Bicycle Health: For finding new ways to help vulnerable people treat their opioid use disorder
Universal Music Group: For rethinking how musicians are paid in the AI era
Uncommon: For executing one helluva high-stakes rebrand
Pivot Bio: For producing a more sustainable crop fertilizer
Slingshot Aerospace: For keeping an eye on the (crowded) sky
Campus: For creating a national online community college
Chess.com: For beknighting chess as must-watch TV
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