The five most important retail tech news stories of the week

It’s Friday, the week is nearly done, so let’s kick back and reflect on another eventful week for the retail technology space. Here's your briefing on some of the most important and interesting stories from the past five days.

1. End of an era as Jack Ma departs Alibaba

Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma has stepped down from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group.

2. Waitrose bins online deal with Today Development Partners

Waitrose has parted ways with AI platform venture Today Development Partners, just four months into a deal that was supposed to help treble the size of its online business over the next three years.

3. Apprente deal: McDonald’s makes another tech acquisition

McDonald’s is buying Apprente, a US-based startup that specialises in conversational voice-based technology. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

4. Shopify buys warehouse automation venture 6 River Systems

Shopify, the e-commerce platform provider that has emerged as the anti-Amazon, has announced the $450 million acquisition of warehouse automation and management technology developer, 6 River Systems.

5. Nuala O'Connor joins Walmart in new Digital Citizenship role

Walmart has appointed Nuala O’Connor to a new Senior Vice President and Chief Counsel of Digital Citizenship role.

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