The five most important retail tech news stories of the week
It’s Friday, the week is nearly done, so let’s kick back and reflect on another eventful week for the retail technology space. Here's your briefing on the most important and interesting stories from the past five days.
1. Amazon Fresh grocery delivery now free to Prime customers
Amazon has fired a shot across the bow of Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Ocado et al.
The e-commerce giant is now offering its Amazon Fresh service to Prime subscribers across 300 postcodes in the South East, giving them free two-hour food delivery slots on orders of more than £40.
2. Asda tackles coronavirus outbreak with trolley wash tech
Asda says that it is the first UK supermarket to trial a permanent trolley wash facility.
Developed by The WasteCare Group, the unit is now in place at its Morley store and works by coating trolleys in fine particles containing an anti-microbial solution, leaving them clean and dry to the touch in seconds.
3. Waitrose and John Lewis go electric as online business expands
Waitrose and John Lewis have announced plans to increase the use of electric vans as they look to end the use of fossil fuels across their entire transport fleet by 2030.
The John Lewis Partnership will use two new designs of vehicle for its Waitrose.com food deliveries and for smaller John Lewis deliveries, saving over 20,000 tonnes of CO2 every year.
4. Twitter users unhappy as Argos pulls plug on print catalogue
Argos is to stop printing its catalogue after almost 50 years, with the retailer saying that digital shopping offers “greater convenience”.
5. Amazon boss Jeff Bezos grilled over powerful position
Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has appeared in front of a House committee in the US to defend himself against claims his company has too much power.
Leaders of Facebook, Google and Apple were also in attendance as they faced threats of further regulation in the US, with conservative politicians claiming the firms are biased against them and Democrats arguing they use their power and monopoly to silence competitive smaller businesses.
