The retail technology week in numbers
$39 billion…Alibaba’s Jack Ma leads the way in the annual Hurun China Rich List, which covers those with a net worth over two billion yuan ($209 million).
The listicle notes that Ma, 54, climbed back to the position of richest man in China, just weeks after announcing his retirement from Alibaba. “The US$10 billion growth in his wealth to US$39 billion was mainly due to a new round of investment in Alipay’s mothership, Ant Financial. Jack Ma founded two of China’s most valuable companies.”
90%...Walmart and PayPal are collaborating on financial services and products, including new PayPal cash in and cash out services at Walmart stores (for a fee of $3 per service), as well as the ability for PayPal cash Mastercard customers to access their cash balance in-store at service desks, ATMs and cash registers.
“We are committed to expanding access to financial services products that are convenient, easy to use and available for everyday low prices. With 90% of Americans living within 10 miles of a Walmart store, we know that offering PayPal cash in and cash out money services for an exclusive low fee is going to provide great value to the many people who rely on Walmart and PayPal to help manage and move their money,” says Daniel Eckert, Senior Vice President, Walmart Services & Digital Acceleration, Walmart.
70%...More than 70% of consumers in the UK, US, Germany and Canada are aware of Black Friday and plan to take part in 2018. And they are set to shop across multiple channels, according to Periscope By McKinsey research.
Four…Gap has chosen Adyen to manage its in-store and online payments across Europe.
Adyen’s tech will be rolled out in over 150 stores across four countries – UK, France, Italy and Ireland. The online business for both Gap and Banana Republic will also use its payments platform.
90%...Retailers failing to engage in digital transformation won’t be around by 2024, according to 90% of senior decision makers within the retail industry. In fact, a quarter believe that those steadfastly clinging to more traditional ways of doing business won’t exist three years from now.
642…Asda has rolled out Tyco Retail Solutions’ Google Cloud-based Sensormatic Shrink Management as a Service (SMaaS), which is delivering visibility into Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) and loss prevention systems for all its 642 stores in the UK.
Six…Goldacre, an investor in real estate technology businesses, has announced the six startups selected for its inaugural RElab accelerator programme.
£1.5 billion…The UK non-food retail sector has become reliant on the demise of weaker operators to maintain growth for the survivors, according to GlobalData.
The company estimates at least £1.5 billion will be released by failing businesses in 2018 with just three of this year’s casualties, Maplin, Toys R Us, and Poundworld, freeing up around £1.4 billion of consumer spending for competitors to grab. And this does not take account of sales from store closures such as House of Fraser’s shrinking portfolio.
38% of UK shoppers discard carts sometimes or all the time, mainly because shipping costs are higher than expected (62%).
SAP Customer Experience surveyed 1,000 Brits and found that they also drop-out because they are only using them to compare prices of similar products (41%), or because the items they are interested in purchasing are out of stock (38%).
4,000 sq ft and 5,000 sq ft…Amazon is eyeing a significant number of retail sites between 4,000 sq ft and 5,000 sq ft as it works towards bringing its Amazon Go cashierless stores to the UK, according to a report by The Sunday Times.
14…H&M is forming a global payments partnership with Klarna and also making an undisclosed equity investment in the company.
The team up will include frictionless in-store, mobile and online payments, simplified deliveries and returns and the flexibility to decide how and when to pay including the try before you buy Pay later service. All of these will be integrated into the next generation of the H&M app and H&M Club programme. This will be rolled out across 14 markets, with the UK and Sweden in the first phase, expected to go live in 2019.
100…Waitrose is trying out a service which will allow drivers to let themselves into customers’ homes while they are out and put their groceries away. The retailer will initially test demand for the ‘While You’re Away’ offering with 100 customers located within the delivery area of its dotcom fulfilment centre in Coulsdon, south London.
