The retail technology space during the coronavirus pandemic
Retail Technology Innovation Hub rounds up the key Covid-19 developments from last week.
Heal’s has tapped Checkout.com to serve as its payment provider as the furniture retailer looks to capitalise on a boom in e-commerce, particularly on mobile, that it’s seen since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Supermarkets and their customers will face a £3.1 billion tariff bombshell on food and drink if the UK leaves the EU customs union and single market without a free trade deal, according to the BRC.
Manufacturers selling direct-to-consumer (D2C) through the coronavirus pandemic will provide a £24 billion boost to the UK industry’s coffers by 2023, according to research from Barclays Corporate Banking.
Consumers are displaying caution in their spending this holiday season, according to research from Capgemini.
7,543 people were surveyed across the UK, US, Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark. 38% are spending less on holiday shopping than they did last year.
40% of merchants have reported a rise in friendly fraud over the past 12 months, but the majority are struggling to challenge Google Pay and Apple Pay chargebacks successfully, according to research by Ravelin.
PayPal is launching QR code payments in iZettle’s Point of Sale app, allowing UK small businesses to accept touch-free transactions from customers.
The roll-out marks the first time UK merchants can accept PayPal QR code payments in-store via a PoS solution.
Dunelm has completed an e-commerce re-platforming project with Fastly's edge cloud solution.
The retailer’s team reports a 900% increase in web page load speeds, resulting in a 23% lift in basket performance.
Health and beauty retailer, A.S. Watson Group, celebrated its 180th anniversary last week by hosting a 5G-enabled virtual cocktail event.
This gathered together CEOs of consumer goods companies and over 300 business partners and charity partners from around the world.
It also announced that it has reached the milestone of 16,000 offline and online stores.
US startup AiFi has opened what is pitched as the largest hybrid computer vision only store with a cashier option.
A joint partnership with an unnamed company, the 4,000-square foot convenience store is stocked with 2,000 SKUs ranging from fresh meats to snacks.
Named AI Go, which means love shopping in Chinese, it is located in Shanghai and is the largest of four stores in the city now powered by AiFi’s computer vision technology.
November saw the brakes put on the UK retail sales growth that had been seen over the previous three months, according to research from BRC and KPMG.
On a total basis, sales increased by 0.9% in November, against a decline of 0.9% in November 2019. This is below the three month average growth of 3.9% and above the 12 month average decline of 0.3%.
UK shopper traffic was up 193% week-on-week on Saturday, 5th December, according to ShopperTrak data from Sensormatic Solutions.
People used the first weekend after England’s national lockdown to get ahead with Christmas gift buying and pick up items they’d forgone whilst non-essential stores remained closed.
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