Six retail technology lessons from last week — Retail Technology Innovation Hub

RTIH takes a not always serious look back at another eventful week for the retail technology space.

1. Black Friday sucks

85% of Black Friday UK deals could be found at the same price or cheaper earlier in the year, according to research by consumer group Which?

Just 1% of the items it looked at in the six months before and after Black Friday 2019 were at their cheapest price on the day itself.

2. What works in China doesn’t necessarily work in the UK

If we did this, I'd give it 14 minutes before it ended up in your local river. pic.twitter.com/8zbWmIkBdg
— KFC UK & Ireland (@KFC_UKI) November 23, 2020

3. The Pinkertons are still a thing and nowadays they’re working for Amazon

I'm not sure what is more disconcerting about this, that 1) Amazon is doing anything remotely like this is and yet is so on brand and evil 2) that the Pinkertons still exist (wow) and 3) This is so 2020 to do this during their biggest sales week of the year. https://t.co/aLdKwnfg0C
— Bradley Leimer (@leimer) November 23, 2020

4. Buy now, pay later specialist Klarna did more transactions on Black Friday 2020 than during its first four years combined

We are doing more transactions today, in a single day, than during Klarnas first 4 years combined. Regularly during the day over 100 transactions per second. So humbled over all the amazing people here who have contributed so much!
— Sebastian Siemiatkowski (@klarnaseb) November 27, 2020

5. Nearly 40% of Sainsbury’s total sales are now digital

More customers are choosing to shop online and nearly 40% of total sales are digital. With demand growing we are increasing our capacity and expect to fulfil 760,000 online orders per week by the end of the year #JSinterims $SBRY pic.twitter.com/JEEqlQV3Fo
— Sainsbury's News (@SainsburysNews) November 5, 2020

6. Inside Black Friday at Boots

A brilliant start to the day, so much going on, the collaboration on making IT ‘just’ work is so amazing, a superb team effort by this #DreamTeam. #BlackFridayDelivered pic.twitter.com/2vHIUvZOSA
— Rich Corbridge (@R1chardatron) November 27, 2020