The retail technology week in numbers
28%…Footasylum reports a 28% increase in email revenue from personalised marketing communications as a result of working with artificial intelligence (AI) company, Peak. This also resulted in a 75% reduction in cost per social click during a recent trial.
£21.6 billion…The UK grocery market is set to experience 2.4% growth this Christmas, with shoppers predicted to spend £21.6 billion, according to IGD.
250…The UK’s top 250 retailers, including Topshop and Debenhams, are risking seasonal sales through failure to improve their website load speeds over the past 12 months, according to research by Visualsoft.
£70 million…Voice security and authentication specialist, Pindrop, has closed a £70 million Series D funding round led by Vitruvian Partners. This takes the company’s total funding to £163 million.
7%…Just 7% of Brits browse exclusively in-store before making a high-value purchase (defined as over £250), according to research by Divido involving 2,005 people.
£1 million…IT consulting and technology firm REPL Group has opened a new office in Warwickshire. The £1 million pound investment will create jobs for 60 new employees, with the facility acting as a testing lab for the company as it increases its R&D testing and data science capabilities.
£420…UK shoppers are set to spend an average of £420 on Christmas presents this year, according to PwC research.
5…Auchan is implementing TE-FOOD’s blockchain solution in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Senegal to improve the transparency of product history.
70%…Primark has enlarged its intu Merry Hill store by more than 70%, extending into the former BHS unit.
£2 million…Floom, a technology platform and marketplace for florists, has raised £2 million in a seed funding round led by firstminute capital.
8…Things that make you go ewwwww…Traces of faeces have been found on McDonald’s touchscreens swabbed in an investigation by metro.co.uk. Samples were taken from machines at six McDonald’s restaurants on London and two in Birmingham – every one of them had coliforms
$2.3 billion…Blockchain in retail’s market value will be 29 times higher in 2023 than 2018, rising from $80 million to more than $2.3 billion.
