The retail technology week in numbers
Do you like numbers? Do you like retail technology? Then this is the article for you.
500…Carrefour has chosen Pricer as its preferred supplier for new ESL (Electronic Shelf Label) installations and upgrading of stores that are already equipped with the venture’s tech.
Although the agreement contains no commitments with regard to volumes or amounts, the plan is to deploy the Pricer system in approximately 500 stores before the end of 2022.
$7.9 million…US online grocer Farmstead has announced a $7.9 million Series A round of funding as it looks to accelerate its national expansion and recruiting. This brings its total funding to date to $14.5 million.
90% of retailers are pinning their hopes for success over the next 12 months on Black Friday and Christmas, according to research from Ometria.
£1.1 million…Alphagreen, a London-based marketplace for CBD and alternative healthcare products, has secured £1.1 million of seed funding to help finance the roll-out of new products and services alongside expansion into the US.
66%…Retail Assist has released research around Black Friday, which will take place on 27th November.
The company surveyed over 1,200 people and found that 66% will start their Christmas shopping earlier this year.
9…M&S Food is launching the Innovation Hub, pitched as “a new specialist team that will focus on disruptive innovation to create industry leading products and address some of the biggest sector-wide challenges”.
This will go live in January and will consist of nine people spanning packaging, nutrition, product innovation and business development.
52% of US shoppers believe that large retail stores should close during the Black Friday weekend, in order to protect the public against Covid-19, according to research from Contentsquare.
£2.75 million…UK-based online marketplace, OnBuy, has reported a record breaking week with almost 1.5 million users browsing its site. This resulted in nearly £2.75 million in sales between 1st-8th November.
€12.6 million…E-commerce shipping platform venture, Sendcloud, has closed a €12.6 million Series B round.
61%…UK online retailers enjoyed a strong start to November, with sales growth up 61% during the first week, the highest year-on-year rate since June and fourth highest this year, according to IMRG research.
62%…A record 62% of UK debit card payments in August were contactless, according to trade association UK Finance.
Two-thirds of small and medium-sized enterprises in England feel more prepared for the current national coronavirus lockdown than they did for the first one in March, according to research from Barclaycard Payments.
61 UK high street bosses have signed a letter calling for the coronavirus lockdown in England to not be extended beyond 2nd December.
The likes of Steve Rowe from Marks & Spencer, Peter Cowgill from JD Sports and Alex Baldock from Dixons Carphone have stressed that non-essential retailers are losing £2 billion a week in sales for every week of lockdown.
$4.4 trillion…Transaction values for physical goods sales online will grow from $3.3 trillion in 2020 to $4.4 trillion by 2025, thanks in no small part to the coronavirus outbreak, according to Juniper Research.
Further growth will, meanwhile, be driven by increased availability of e-commerce in emerging markets over the next five years.
50…Co-op has partnered with Zoom to expand its rapid delivery service to Wales.
It will go live in more than 50 towns and cities in Wales, Shropshire and along the Welsh/English border this month.
2 million…The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is calling on the UK’s biggest retailers to make their Christmas TV adverts accessible for blind and partially sighted people.
Almost two million people with sight loss are potentially excluded from some, or all, of these ads because they aren’t produced with audio description (AD), it says.
$2 billion…Target is celebrating the one-year anniversary of its Target Circle loyalty programme.
The US retailer says that this has helped customers save nearly $2 billion in its first year and directed millions of dollars to more than 2,500 community organisations.
14…Tower Records has returned to action in the US as an online store.
The retailer closed its stores 14 years ago and declared bankruptcy.
25% of shoppers have been let down by an online order during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to research by Brightpearl.
The company surveyed 2,000 people and also found that 34% say unreliable delivery has lessened their trust in e-commerce since the start of the outbreak. 38% state that online deliveries are taking longer to arrive since social distancing restrictions were introduced in March.
