The retail tech space in September: good month/bad month
RTIH takes a look back at the retail technology space during September.
Good month for…
Swedish buy now, pay later specialist Klarna raised $650 million in an equity funding round, at a post money valuation of $10.65 billion.
Morrisons is creating 1,000 new jobs to fulfil online orders for its Amazon partnership.
Online retailer The Hut Group’s e-commerce services division, THG Ingenuity, inked a 10-year, ‘multi-million pound’, digital transformation deal with Homebase.
E-commerce platform venture, Moteefe, completed a $11 million funding round.
The value of transactions processed by smart checkout technologies will hit $387 billion in 2025, up from $2 billion in 2020, according to Juniper Research.
This will be driven by retailers seeking sustainable business models in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Reporting its unaudited results for the half year ended 25th July, John Lewis Partnership noted that Waitrose had seen a strong pick up in demand since it parted ways with Ocado on 1st September.
“Waitrose.com orders were up 9% in the first week. Waitrose.com is now a £1 billion annualised business and we will further expand capacity by around 50% to 250,000 orders a week,” Chairman Sharon White said in a letter to Partners.
European payment service provider, Mollie, closed a €90 million Series B funding round, taking the total amount raised by the company to €115 million.
A.S. Watson Group announced an exclusive franchise agreement with Al-Futtaim to launch its flagship health and beauty brand Watsons in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
Plans are afoot to open 100 stores in the region by the end of 2025, with the first one officially opening in Dubai Mall on 1st October, along with an e-commerce portal (Watsons.ae), a mobile app, Watsons UAE, and a Watsons loyalty programme.
Iceland announced the creation of more than 3,000 new jobs as it looked to meet the demand for online shopping created by the coronavirus outbreak. It will be bringing in additional delivery drivers as well as expanding the supporting in-store teams.
Mira Beauty raised $9 million in a round led by Unilever Ventures and 14W.
Amazon is recruiting 100,000 more workers, the fourth Stateside hiring spree it has announced this year as online shopping demand increases during the coronavirus outbreak.
The value of in-vehicle payments will hit $86 billion in 2025, up from $543 million in 2020, according to Juniper Research.
Paris-based e-commerce startup Mirakl closed a $300 million funding round led by Permira.
This brought total capital raised to $400 million and placed the company's valuation over $1.5 billion, making it a newly minted unicorn.
US-based PayTech venture SpotOn Transact wrapped a $60 million Series C funding round.
Whitebox, a US-based startup focused on e-commerce logistics and fulfilment, raised $18 million in Series B funding.
Aldi UK is planning to invest £1.3 billion in new stores and jobs after posting rising sales during the coronavirus pandemic.
The discounter expects to open around 100 new stores over 2020 and 2021 in line with its long-term target of 1,200 by 2025, alongside over 100 store upgrades under its Project Fresh initiative.
Other investments include new and expanded distribution centres and the roll-out of its Click and Collect service which was piloted and launched to customers during September.
Sainsbury’s said that it was on track to deliver 700,000 online grocery orders a week by the end of October.
That number, which covers home delivery and Click and Collect, means the supermarket will have doubled its online capacity since the beginning of March.
Bad month for…
Supermarkets and their customers face £3.1 billion a year of tariffs on food and drink unless a free trade deal is reached between the UK and the European Union, according to the British Retail Consortium.
Klarna (yep, them again) apologised after some customers experienced issues with the UK Xbox All Access pre-order launch.
69% of British Muslims believe supermarkets are failing to understand them, with outdated and stereotypical campaigns, especially around Ramadan and Eid, according to research by mud orange.
Also in September…
Instacart entered the convenience store space with a 7-Eleven partnership.
Its same-day delivery service will roll-out in phases to more than 7,000 7-Eleven US stores over the coming weeks. It has thus far launched in 750 locations in the Dallas, Miami, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., metropolitan markets.
Tesco said it would shortly go live with its first urban fulfilment centre (UFC) as it looked to capitalise on the coronavirus powered online shopping boom.
The Co-op partnered with startup Pinga to offer zero emission online grocery deliveries in East London.
Over 500 of the convenience retailer’s products will initially be available through Pinga’s app, serving up to one million people living close to five stores located in Hackney, Stepney and Stoke Newington.
Alibaba Group’s online marketplace AliExpress launched a money saving and social commerce initiative called Bonus Buddies.
This enables users to earn instant rewards upon getting a friend to register on AliExpress. They can withdraw these for their next purchase once they have hit the value of 20 Euros.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group’s Alibaba Cloud division unveiled an autonomous logistics robot for last mile deliveries.
Amazon introduced Amazon One, which enables people to use their palm for the likes of paying at a store, presenting a loyalty card, entering stadiums, or badging into work. Customers can now use it as an entry option at two Amazon Go locations in Seattle.
Oh, and it also opened its second Amazon Go Grocery store this month.
It is also developing its Amazon Scout vehicles for use in the UK following the coronavirus powered boom in online shopping. Work is taking place at its Cambridge centre.
UK online sales growth remains strong but is slowing down as more Brits return to physical stores during the coronavirus outbreak.
According to research by IMRG and Capgemini, online sales growth was up 43.5% YoY in August, although sales were down 4.1% MoM.
Tesco unveiled Tesco Red Door, in which the grocery giant invites those with new products, ideas or emerging technologies with the potential to cause disruption to contact its newly established Group Innovation team
Walmart rolled out its Amazon Prime competitor Walmart+ on 15th September.
This costs $98 a year or $12.95 a month and comes with a 15-day free trial period. The offering includes the likes of unlimited free deliveries of groceries and general merchandise, discounts on fuel at Walmart gas stations, and in-store use of Scan & Pay in the retailer’s app.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) launched the Shopworkers’ Protection Pledge.
