The retail technology week in numbers

35%...New research by Retail Business Technology Expo (RBTE), involving over 7,500 retail professionals, reveals the top challenges faced by the sector. These include keeping up with technology advancements, identified by 35% of retailers.

87% of online shoppers will abandon their carts during the checkout process if it is too long or too complicated, according to research by Splitit involving 1,000 Americans. 55%, meanwhile, would also never return to that retailer’s site.

$16 billion…Walmart has received the all clear for its $16 billion acquisition of Indian e-commerce venture, Flipkart.

17 of Alibaba’s Hema supermarkets in Shanghaihave launched a feature that tells customers about an item’s farm-to-store journey.

INR10 billion…Ikea this week opened its first Indian store in Hyderabad. Winning customers in the country will be a challenge for the Swedish home furniture giant, but the move will accelerate a shift to organised space, according to GlobalData.

The retailer has reportedly spent INR10 billion (10% of its total investment proposal) on the approximately 400,000 square feet store. It is one of the biggest foreign investments in the Indian home market, which is largely dominated by unorganised players.

59%...Shoppers are spending more during Amazon Prime Day, but they are getting smarter and more price aware, according to new research from Periscope By McKinsey.

The company surveyed 3,000 consumers in the US, UK, France, Germany and Italy. This year every country spent more than in 2017. The biggest move was in the UK where 59% of shoppers spent ‘a bit more’ or ‘much more’; this was closely followed by France (57%) and Germany (54%). There are also signs the US is becoming more constrained in its spending as the top country where shoppers say they ‘spent the same’ at 40%.

200…Health and beauty retail venture, A.S. Watson Group, is looking to recruit around 200 new staff members for its digital business, eLab.

54…Cornish womenswear retailer, Seasalt, has partnered with Retail Assist for IT support.

The contract involves 54 shops, its distribution centre and design studios, including help desk, remote desktop support, on-site desktop and technical support, remote technical services and operations support. Retail Assist also manages third party hardware maintenance.

39% of consumers say confidence in parcels being left securely is a key factor when making an online purchase. Yet 60% of retailers allow carriers to leave goods in unsecure locations, according to Sorted research involving 2,000 UK shoppers and 50 retail leaders.

1,000…Walmart is set to hire more than 1,000 graduates for technology roles in India.

2,000…Marks & Spencer has announced yet another disruptive technologies partnership as it looks to transform into a digital first retailer. The latest tie-up is with retail and consumer investment firm, True, which will introduce it to a 2,000-strong network of technology and consumer-product businesses.

2%...Britain's tax system should be radically changed to stop pureplays like Amazon having an unfair advantage and being subsidised by the taxes of their rivals.

That’s according to Justin King, former Chief Executive of Sainsbury's, who has called for business rates to be halved, with the lost revenue replaced by a 2% increase in VAT. Another way, he believes, is a delivery tax – “you tax the channel, which is unique when you bypass retail space”.

1 million…Sweaty Betty has worked with Tryzens to launch a new e-commerce site. Tapping Salesforce Commerce Cloud, this offers a new wish list function, plus a greater focus on editorial content with educational guides, a shoppable Instagram and enhanced lookbook feature.

Sweaty Betty has 60 shops, plus concessions in Nordstrom, Selfridges, Harrods and Bloomingdales, and its digital store currently receives over a million visits a month.