The retail technology week in numbers

$50…Walmart is continuing to take the fight to Amazon, this time with a new concierge shopping service for busy urban families.

Headed up by Rent the Runway co-founder Jenny Fleiss, Jetblack allows shoppers to order via text message from Walmart.com and also websites of other retailers, with same or next day delivery options available. The service, which involves a monthly membership fee of $50, is the first to launch from Walmart’s technology incubator, Store No 8, where it operated in stealth as Code Eight.

5%...Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma says that the company will invest billions of dollars to build the technical backbone of a smart logistics network.

“This network is not only national, but global,” he comments. “[We want to] connect every courier, connect every warehouse, every hub, every city and every house.” The target of Cainiao Network, Alibaba’s logistics arm, is to eventually ensure single-day delivery across China and 72-hour delivery to the rest of the world. The smart network should push logistics costs, which currently comprise about 15% of China’s gross domestic product, down to under 5%. 

50,000…Planet Organic, the UK health food retailer that serves over 50,000 customers a week, has worked with itim to upgrade its retail IT systems and add new mobile technology to help staff automatically re-stock shelves and speed up orders in its cafés.

48%...UK online grocery sales will grow by 48% by 2022 and account for 7.5% of the total UK grocery market, according to research by IGD and The Consumer Goods Forum.

136…Startle has landed a contract from schuh involving background music and digital signage across its 136 stores in the UK, Ireland and Germany for the next five years.   

13.9%...UK online retail parcel delivery order volumes were up 13.9% year-on-year in April, according to the IMRG MetaPack UK Delivery Index. 

$16 billion…The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has filed a petition with the Competition Commission of India (CCI), raising objections to Walmart’s $16 billion acquisition of e-commerce venture Flipkart. 

10…The founders of 10 beauty startups participating in the 2018 Target Takeoff accelerator programme have showed off their brands and products at a Demo Day event.

10,000…The “reliably dreadful” WHSmith has been voted the worst UK High Street retailer, in a Which? survey of over 10,000 shoppers. 

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