Countdown to Shoptalk: Startup Pitch Competition Participant Profile—Flashfood

Executive Summary

The Coresight Research team will be attending and participating in the Shoptalk 2018 conference in Las Vegas March 18–21. Billed as the world’s largest conference devoted to retail and e-commerce innovation, Shoptalk will cover “the rapid evolution of how consumers discover, shop and buy—from new technologies and business models to the latest trends in consumer behaviors, preferences and expectations.”

• On March 18, Coresight Research CEO and Founder Deborah Weinswig will emcee a startup competition between 15 innovative, early-stage companies at Shoptalk. Two winners will be announced, one chosen by a panel of judges and one by audience vote, and each will be awarded $25,000. Each day leading up to Shoptalk, Coresight Research will publish an overview of one of the participating startups’ technology solutions.
• In this report, we profile Flashfood, an online marketplace where grocery stores and food manufacturer scan resell their surplus food directly to consumers at discounted prices. Consumers pay through the Flashfood app and then pick up their food from dedicated Flashfood refrigerators in stores the same day.The company aims to decrease food waste and cut food costs for consumers while offering new revenue streams for vendors.
• On March 20, Weinswig will participate in “Overview of Retail and Ecommerce Innovation in China,” a session that will cover technology and business model advancements in areas such as checkout, payments, delivery, logistics, the Internet of Things (IoT) and robotics.