September, good month/bad month
Retail Technology Innovation Hub takes a look at the retail technology space during September and rounds up the winners and losers
Good month for…
Chinese retailer, JD.com, reports that over 10 million customers have joined its premium membership programme, JD Plus.
The Hut Group has in the last few months rejected a string of investment and takeover offers valuing it at nearly £4 billion.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout dominated the weekend box office in China during early September, raking in $77 million over three days. The movie was helped by support from Alibaba, who teamed up with Paramount Pictures as an investor and official promotional partner for the Tom Cruise vehicle.
Alibaba has nabbed the top spot, ahead of tech giant IBM, on a new iPR Daily list that ranks global organisations by the number of blockchain-related patents they’ve filed.
Retail finance platform venture, Divido, has raised $15 million in a Series A round.
E-commerce personalisation and AI venture, Nosto, has closed a funding round totalling $7.4 million led by European investment companies Tesi, Open Ocean and Idinvest
Farfetch, a technology platform for the luxury fashion industry, reports that its US IPO raised $885 million.
Bad month for…
Amazon’s bricks and mortar rivals…The e-commerce giant could be looking to open of as many as 3,000 Amazon Go cashierless stores in the next few years, according to a report by Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.
The UK’s High Streets are in freefall, according to new research. Close Brothers Asset Finance surveyed 900 SME owners across the UK and RoI and found that 85% believe the High Street is in decline.
The GMB union has hit out at XPO Logistics and Mike Ashley's Sports Direct following the news that a House of Fraser depot in Milton Keynes is set to close.
Debenhams rushed out a statement to try to reassure investors over its finances, but said annual profits would be below June's downgraded forecast.
John Lewis came under fire for spending millions on a commercial promoting a rebranding exercise whilst also axing up to 270 jobs in its department stores.
The jury’s out on…
Patrick Byrne, the CEO of US online retailer Overstock, has sold 10% of his shares.
Tesco has announced to the world its strategy on meeting the challenge of the discounters. It is launching its owncut-price chain, Jack’s, named after founder Jack Cohen, with the first store opening in the small Cambridgeshire town of Chatteris.