NEWS CUSTOMER CONVERSATION 6 FEBRUARY 2018 NEWS SNIPS A second business operating Wellington’s Habitual Fix on Featherston Street in Wellington has been placed into liquidation in the space of a year, with its location still impacted by the November 2016 earthquakes Rangatira Investments’ 50% shareholding acquisition in West Auckland biscuit manufacturer Mrs Higgins has helped to fund a new state-of-theart manufacturing plant due to be opened this month GE Free NZ is calling on the Minister for Food Safety Damien O’Connor to request that Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) review the draft of their GM rice approval Alcohol Healthwatch and Maori public health provider Hapai te Hauora strongly support the new Government’s commitment to addressing the growing needs and inequities surrounding mental health and addictions. An innovative solution that gives food retailers new insight into individual shopping experiences is now available for the New Zealand food retail sector. Manhattan Associates' ground-breaking customer engagement platform connects customer conversations on social media spaces like Facebook and Twitter to provide a complete and accurate picture of each customer’s buying journey. Chief executive Eddie Capel says every customer comes with a different set of needs and desires. “By being the first to connect order and customer data, Manhattan’s new customer engagement solution delivers the industry’s only actionable insight into the what, why and how of omni-channel shopping so that retailers can truly personalise and optimise the entire buyer journey.” The company’s product is the first solution that combines unstructured data from customer conversations with structured order information, to allow retailers to make instant service improvements. This single, comprehensive view of the customer eliminates multiple applications and simplifies the process of analysing each customer’s buying journey, Capel says. The different platforms predict and identify potential issues and automatically create cases to correct them before they become problems. Capel says digitally-savvy consumers are demanding a more personalised shopping experience from retailers, with nearly 90% of US-based organisations focused on personalising customer experiences. Yet only 40% of shoppers say that information they get from retailers is relevant to their tastes and interests. Manhattan Associates is a technology leader in supply chain and omni-channel commerce. www.manh.com. ANTARCTIC IN TROUBLE Microplastic particles have been found in the oceans close to Antarctica in groundbreaking data collected during the Volvo Ocean Race. The information comes from the race’s science programme, which has analysed water samples gathered at points between Lisbon, Cape Town and Melbourne by race team Turn the Tide on Plastic. Microplastics, which break down into tiny particles from larger pieces such as single-use water bottles and food storage containers, have been found close to the Antarctic Ice Exclusion Zone and confirm that there are not only consistently high levels in the ocean generally but alarming statistics in unique places. Volvo’s NZ general manager Coby Duggan says the new data will help inform scientists around the world. “Little is known about the levels of microplastic pollution in our oceans but already this data is helping the scientific community around the
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