Reviewing the retail technology space in October
RTIH takes a look back at the retail technology space during October and highlights the winners, losers and major developments.
Good month for…
Amazon’s third quarter revenues rose to $96.1 billion from $70 billion in the same period a year earlier.
Clothing rental venture GlamCorner announced a $12 million Series B funding round involving Treis, Airtree Ventures, Giant Leap Fund, Marshall Investments and Partners For Growth.
FreshToHome, an Indian e-commerce startup that sells fresh fish and meat, has raised $121 million in Series C funding.
Third party sellers, most of which were SMEs, surpassed $3.5 billion in sales on Amazon Prime Day 2020, a nearly 60% year-over-year increase.
Instacart raised $200 million in a new funding round involving existing investors. D1 Capital and Valiant Peregrine Fund led the round. Instacart is now worth $17.7 billion, post-money, or $17.5 billion pre-money.
US-based last mile delivery venture Onfleet raised $14 million in a Series A funding round led by Kennet Partners.
Cooler Screens announced a $80 million+ Series C funding round, involving the likes of Verizon Ventures, Microsoft’s M12 venture fund, GreatPoint Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank.
The startup, which uses interactive digital displays to replace the glass doors in store cooler aisles, has now pulled in over $100 million in funding.
Newly minted unicorn Mirakl is set to invest at least £23.5 million in the UK market over the next two years, as the Paris-based e-commerce venture looks to accelerate growth across Northern Europe.
The Very Group reported a return to profit, with full year revenue topping £2 billion for the first time.
Chiper, an e-commerce platform pitched at the Latin American corner store market, announced a $12 million Series A round featuring WIND Ventures, Monashees and Kaszek Ventures.
Geek Retreat is set to open 100 new stores on UK high streets over the next two years, creating around 600 jobs.
US-based autonomous store technology venture, AiFi, bagged additional funding from Qualcomm Ventures, existing investors Cervin Ventures and TransLink Capital, and newbie Plum Alley. This brings its total funding amount to $30 million.
Bad month for…
Customers are migrating away from cash as affinity for digital payments grows, according to research by Capgemini.
Ocado is being sued by Norwegian robotics firm AutoStore.
The latter filed lawsuits in the UK High Court and the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, claiming Ocado’s grocery picking robots infringe on its automated designs.
Waitrose also gave former partner Ocado a bloody nose as the pair started to duke it out for the hearts and minds of online shoppers
Ocado Retail, the joint venture between Ocado and Marks & Spencer, had an average of 328,000 weekly orders in the fortnight after its 1st September launch. This was down from 345,000 orders a week in the seven weeks running up to that date, according to a report by The Sunday Times.
Waitrose, meanwhile, saw weekly orders on its website grow to 190,000, a near 20% capacity increase in the space of a month.
The GMB trade union accused Amazon of being in denial about its safety record as a new report claimed that accidents increase in warehouses with robots.
The Center for Investigative Reporting said serious injuries are 50% higher for fulfilment centres that have robots than those without.
A record number of shops shut their doors during the first half of 2020 as the coronavirus lockdown hit retailers hard, research from the Local Data Company and PwC shows.
A total of 11,120 chain operator outlets closed between January and August, research from the Local Data Company and accountancy firm PwC revealed.
Also this month…
AnaCap Financial Partners entered into exclusive negotiations for the purchase of a 60% stake in Market Pay from Carrefour.
The deal, valued at around €300 million, is expected to complete in H1 2021 and would see Carrefour retaining a minority stake in the omnichannel payments platform.
Brits are set to spend around £6 billion on Black Friday this year, according to research from shopping comparison site, finder.com.
Walmart is to use four US stores as test centres in order to find solutions that help its physical locations operate as both shopping destinations and online fulfilment centres. Two are up and running and two more are in the pipeline.
Marks and Spencer is increasing capacity at its online distribution centre at Castle Donington, as it prepares for high Christmas demand during the coronavirus outbreak.
It is hiring 500 extra seasonal staff, which comes on top of the creation of 400 permanent roles in July.
PayPal customers will from early 2021 be able to use cryptocurrencies to shop at the 26 million merchants on its network.
Asda opened a new sustainability trial store in Middleton, a suburb of Leeds.
The grocery giant has partnered with the likes of PG Tips, Vimto, Kellogg’s, Radox and Persil for the initiative, which aims to help shoppers reduce, reuse and recycle with ease.
Alibaba Group is to stump up around $3.6 billion to take a controlling stake in Sun Art, one of China’s largest big box and supermarket chains. After the transaction is complete, it will own 72% of Sun Art.
Costa Coffee’s Costa Express venture will roll-out a mobile contactless ordering system across 9,000+ machines nationwide this autumn.
John Lewis Partnership Chair Sharon White set out her plans for the department store and Waitrose grocery business.
This includes the company, which has been shuttering stores in recent times, reaching profits of £200 million in the next two years and £400 million by 2025, and expansion of digital, virtual and delivery services.
Online electricals retailer AO is partnering with Tesco to launch its first ever physical retail experience.
It is working on five store-within-a-store concepts as part of a six-month pilot with the grocery giant. The first opened in Middleton on 22nd October.
Iceland is working on a same day grocery delivery service and has registered the Swift trademark with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO).
Amazon took the wraps off its first customised electric delivery van, designed and built in partnership with Rivian.
The e-commerce giant is pitching this as a major milestone on its path to get 10,000 Amazon EVs on the road by 2022 and 100,000 by 2030.
PayPal is taking on the likes of Klarna and Laybuy with the launch of Pay in 3, which allows UK shoppers to pay for purchases between £45 and £2,000 in three interest free instalments.
Retailers including Crew Clothing, French Connection, Robert Dyas and Ryman are integrating the solution.
Waitrose launched its first dedicated website overseas, Waitrose.ae.
This will offer more than 15,000 grocery products with over 2,800 delivery slots available each week, reaching 1,500+ homes across Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The website will provide same-day delivery.
Walmart announced a new store design and layout focusing on a digitally enabled shopping experience.
This will come to 200 of its 4,500 US stores over the next few months and another 800 next year. The aim is to create “seamless omnichannel experiences that save our customers time and inspire them whether in-store, online or via mobile,” an online post noted.
