Microsoft-Backed Tutch Brings In-Store Digital Platform to US Market

Tutch has appointed Microsoft veteran Greg Jones as its CEO as it expands into the U.S. market.

The company, which is backed by Microsoft and already operates in Australia, offers retail technology that provides a digital experience for consumers while they are shopping in brick-and-mortar stores, Tutch said in a Thursday (March 28) press release.

Jones, who served as global director of retail and consumer goods solutions at Microsoft, will lead Tutch as it promotes its software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform to U.S. retailers and forms new industry partnerships, according to the release.

Tutch’s solution is designed to help physical stores meet the challenges of high staff turnover, tight margins, dated in-store experiences, space limitations and inventory-carrying costs to better compete with online marketplaces, Jones said in the release.

“Tutch was designed from the ground up to help them do this, and we’re prepared to replicate the success we’ve achieved for retailers in Australia, state-side,” Jones said.

The company’s in-store digital platform, which is currently used in hundreds of stores in Australia, gives shoppers a self-service option that allows them to explore the retailer’s full catalog of products available in store, online and in marketplaces, according to the release. 

Based on the customer’s product interests and location in the store, the platform suggests relevant products, delivers custom messaging and outlines a tailored journey through the retailer’s offerings, the release said. 

The Tutch platform also enables retailers to add new revenue streams by offering drop-shipped products, providing branded opportunities to brands that want to reach shoppers at the point of purchase, and showing consumers complementary buying options through the self-service digital screens, per the release. 

“Customers can now benefit from a familiar digital experience in stores, while also touching, feeling and testing out products,” the press release said.

PYMNTS Intelligence has found that consumers are increasingly using a Click-and-Mortar™ approach to shopping, in which they use both digital tools and physical locations.

Seventy-one percent of shoppers find the physical store central to their shopping experience, and most shop with some form of digital feature assistance, according to the “2024 Global Digital Shopping Index: The Rise of the Click-and-Mortar™ Shopper and What It Means for Merchants,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and Visa Acceptance Solutions collaboration.