The retail technology week in numbers
57%...Discounting is no longer confined to the traditional winter and summer events and has become a fluid and unpredictable phenomenon, with 57% of shoppers expecting regular sales. That’s according to a survey by Klarna involving 1,000 UK consumers and 500 retail decision makers.
10…RTIH recently brought you another 10 cool retail tech startups to watch in 2018, after our first listicle was a huge hit. And, shameless sequel purveyors that we are, we’re now hitting you with a third helping. Keep your eyes peeled for these 10 disruptive ventures…
£4,000…Pizza Hut Restaurants is launching a new payment app which taps Qkr! with Masterpass. Customers can pay the bill without the involvement of a waiter and split it with friends. And every time they use the Qkr! app, they can enter into a prize draw to win £4,000 worth of holiday vouchers, Champions League tickets or a chance to go to the BRIT Awards 2019.
$40 million…Blockchain payments venture, BitPay, has closed a $40 million Series B funding round, bringing its total raised capital to over $70 million.
940,000…Westfield reports that 940,000-plus shoppers visited Westfield London and Stratford City over the Easter bank holiday weekend, an overall increase of 18% on 2017.
8…Machine learning software venture, The Filter, has announced eight new client wins.
€80 billion…Households in Europe spend an estimated €80 billion a year on durable and consumable good subscriptions, like household appliances and food boxes, according to ING research.
$937.3 million…Venture capitalists are looking to capitalise on the growing demand for online retailing, especially in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, according to GlobalData. The data and analytics company attributes this to the increasing use of smartphones coupled with growing internet penetration.
Its latest report, 'Smart Money Investing in the Retail Industry in Q4 2017', states that, despite a 4% drop in the share of VC funding deals from 49% in Q3 2017, the APAC region still accounted for $420.9 million of the total investments ($937.3 million) across the globe during the reporting period.
£17 million…A new blockchain/AI group, Eligma, is set to launch in the UK during June, with the aim of disrupting the online retail sector. Eligma, whose advisory board boasts senior executives of eBay, Google and Pinterest, is raising £17 million in a crowdsale of tokens opening on 17th April.
5,000…Outdoor retailer, OLPRO, has introduced a Click and Collect service through HubBox. Free for purchases over £30 and £1 for under £30, this lets customers choose from over 5,000 locations to have their items delivered.
£700,000…The Entertainer’s flagship store in Westfield has undergone a £700,000 transformation, with a grand opening event taking place last weekend. The retailer says that the 4,500 sq. ft branch “uses the latest tech to make shopping more fun and hands on than ever before, including an augmented reality magic mirror, interactive games projected on to the floor and a touchscreen gaming station.”
