The retail technology week in numbers

Do you like numbers? Do you like retail technology? Then this is the article for you.

£1.8 billion…”Many retailers in England are eagerly looking forward to reopening stores from 15th June in order to meet the needs of their customers,” Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive at the British Retail Consortium, said this week.

“Lockdown has cost non-food stores £1.8 billion a week in lost revenues and with sales expected to remain weak, even as shops begin to reopen, many retailers will still be in a fight for survival. Government must act to ensure that retail rents take account of the ongoing crisis in the industry. Swift action would protect jobs and businesses – helping retail to play its part in restarting the UK economy.”

2.5%…US startup Lolli has announced that its users can now earn up to 2.5% Bitcoin back when shopping online at Bose.com.

$2.1 million…Augmented reality startup Poplar has closed a $2.1 million seed investment round led by Fuel Ventures. This also involved Haatch Ventures, Ascension Ventures and Super Ventures.

13…John Lewis will begin to reopen its stores for customers from 15th June, in line with government guidelines for non-essential retailers. It will kick things off with its Poole and Kingston department stores, followed by 11 others on 18th June.

40…InPost has announced a partnership with South Western Railway (SWR) to install its e-commerce parcel lockers at 40 train stations.

165 million SEK…Dutch co-operative supermarket chain PLUS Retail has placed an order worth around 100 million SEK as a first phase to roll-out Pricer’s electronic shelf label (ESL) platform to all of its 265 stores. The total project value is set to clock in at 165 million SEK.

$80 million…Swiss mobile computer vision and augmented reality solutions specialist, Scandit, has raised $80 million in a Series C round led by G2VP, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm of former Kleiner Perkins partners.

40,000…Sainsbury’s has deployed its 40,000th in-store safety screen as part of its bid to tackle the coronavirus outbreak.

20…Dixons Carphone is now offering a contactless kerbside collection service at 20 of its Currys PC World stores in England.