The retail technology week in numbers
£500,000…The Information Commissioner's Office has hit Dixons Carphone with a £500,000 fine over a hacking that targeted millions of customer accounts.
59% of consumers who have previously visited stores with automation would be willing to shift their purchases from a retailer without such technologies, to one that offers them. And that rises to 67% for 22-36 year-olds, according to a report from the Capgemini Research Institute.
20,000…A Walmart supercenter in Salem, New Hampshire is now fully operational with the retailer’s Alphabet solution.
Developed exclusively for Walmart by startup Alert Innovation, the system operates inside a 20,000-square-foot warehouse-style space, using autonomous carts to retrieve ambient, refrigerated and frozen items ordered for online grocery. After it retrieves them, Alphabot delivers the products to a workstation, where a Walmart associate checks, bags and delivers the final order.
2.3%…Gross sales at John Lewis & Partners fell 2.3% to £1.13 billion year-on-year and declined 2% like-for-like in the seven weeks to 4th January. At Waitrose gross sales, excluding fuel, were down 1.3% to just over £1 billion – a result of shop closures – but up 0.4% like-for-like.
0.1%…2019 was the worst year on record for UK retailers and the first one to show an overall decline in sales, according to research by the BRC and KPMG. Total sales for 2019 decreased by 0.1%, compared with 1.2% growth in 2018.
400…Health experts have urged Ocado to rethink its intention to create a micro-fulfilment centre next to Yerbury Primary School in north London. They say that this would expose the school's 400 children and staff to fumes from Ocado vans, cars, HGVs and three fuel pumps just metres from the playground.
0.7%…Sainsbury’s reports that like-for-like sales in the 15 weeks before 4th January fell 0.7% year-on-year.
1.7%…Morrisons has reported a 1.7% fall in like-for-like non-fuel sales for the Christmas and New Year holiday period.
2…Amazon is circling the idea of physical stores in Germany, its second biggest market after the United States.
$12.5 million…Liquidity Capital has invested $12.5 million in Resident, a North American e-retailer that operates the furnishing brands, Nectar, DreamCloud, Level, Awara, Wovenly, Bundle and 1771 Living.
223…Clear Channel has landed a contract for 223 full motion digital advertising screens across Hammerson’s 12 flagship destinations in the UK, which include Bullring & Grand Central, Brent Cross and Cabot Circus.
£1 billion…Aldi said demand for its champagne and prosecco range helped UK sales over the festive period rise to more than £1 billion for the first time.
40…Burger King has started Bitcoin payments in the first of 40 stores in Venezuela.
