The retail tech space in July: good month/bad month

RTIH takes a look at the retail technology space during July and rounds up the winners and losers.

Good month for…

Walmart Marketplace has surpassed 50,000 sellers, doubling in size from July 2019. A partnership with Shopify, announced last month, has accelerated its growth, bringing over 5,000 new sellers during the six weeks since, according to Marketplace Pulse.

Misfits Market, an e-commerce platform that sells ugly, but otherwise edible fruits and vegetables, closed an $85 million Series B financing round.

Asos sales rose sharply during the early months of the coronavirus outbreak.

The fast fashion pureplay said revenues grew by 10% to £1 billion in the four months ending June, with a significant acceleration following a sales decline of up to 25% when lockdown measures came into play during March.

Wagestream, which gives workers early access to their earned pay when they need it, raised £20 million as part of a Series B funding round.

Dutch startup Crobox emerged as the winner of the LVMH Innovation Award 2020.

Sainsbury’s paid tribute to the strength and flexibility of its digital and technology platforms during the coronavirus outbreak.

The grocery giant said that total first quarter sales increased by 8.5% as it beat expectations despite the pandemic. Although it was forecasting a £500 million profit hit due to crisis-related costs, stronger grocery sales and business rates relief would offset the shortfall, it added.

Chinese startup Pudu Robotics announced a $15 million Series B round, with Beijing food services group, Meituan as the sole investor.

UK-based online marketplace OnBuy closed a £5 million Series A funding round.

This involved VC firm Fuel Ventures and also Nathalie Gaveau, the co-founder of Priceminister, a French marketplace that was acquired by Rakuten.

UK-based eco-friendly detergent subscription service smol bagged £8 million in a Series A funding led by Balderton Capital and also including JamJar Investments.

Computer vision platform provider, Advertima, closed a €15 million Series A investment round led by existing shareholder Swiss real estate company, Fortimo Group.

Bad month for…

Without further government action, retailers in London’s West End are facing £5 billion sales losses and 50,000 job cuts.

That’s according to New West End Company, which represents 600 businesses across Oxford Street, Bond Street, Regent Street and Mayfair. Its research shows that in the first full month of non-essential retail reopening, the West End welcomed 5.1 million visitors since 15th June, down 73% year-on-year.

Also in July…

Argos is to stop printing its catalogue after almost 50 years, with the retailer saying that digital shopping offers “greater convenience”.

Pets at Home announced plans to open a new national storage and distribution centre in Staffordshire.

The retailer has signed a conditional agreement for a 20-year lease of a proposed 670,000 sq ft development on a 52-acre site at Redhill Business Park, Stafford, close to Jct 14 of the M6. An additional 100,000 sq ft of expansion land will also be available.

Waitrose and John Lewis 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.

Sainsbury’s started to test out a virtual queuing system in five of its stores: Uxbridge, Pimlico, Dome Roundabout in Watford, Leicester North and Newham Royal Wharf.

Asda became 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.

Amazon unveiled a six-wheel delivery robot, Scout, last year and has been slowly expanding its field tests.

After launching in a single neighbourhood in Snohomish County, Washington and then adding a larger site in Irvine, California last August, Scout is now undergoing trials in Atlanta, Georgia and Franklin, Tennessee, Amazon has announced.

Poundland announced “the biggest transformation programme in its history”, including investing in new back office technology, through its Oracle/ERP programme and making Wi-Fi available in every store.

It will also pilot a poundland.co.uk home delivery service early next year from a new online fulfilment centre in Cannock.

A number of retailers, including Asos, George at Asda, M&S, Matalan, Missguided, Next, River Island and The Very Group, called on the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, to take urgent action to prevent the exploitation of garment factory workers in the UK

Controversial Chinese tech giant Huawei unveiled plans to launch three stores in the UK.

John Lewis said that its Click & Collect delivery and returns service would be available in over 500 Co-op food stores by the end of the summer.

Ant Group, which operates the Alipay mobile payment platform for Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, kicked off preparations for a concurrent listing of its shares on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges.

Marks and Spencer increased its Mobile Pay Go network from 100 to 310 stores.

The service enables customers to buy their groceries (up to the value of £30) without visiting a till, using the M&S mobile app.

Covid-19 is accelerating retailers’ digital transformation efforts, GlobalData said.

Walmart is converting 160 of its US store parking lots into drive-in cinemas.

Walmart has also unveiled a new subscription service.

Called Walmart+, the Amazon Prime competitor will cost $98 a year and include perks like same-day delivery of groceries and general merchandise, discounts on fuel at Walmart gas stations, and early access to product deals.

20 retailers, including Amazon, Boots UK, Ikea, Next, M&S and Ocado, signed a declaration to tackle the causes of climate change.

M&S wrote to its seven million Sparks members to let them know the loyalty scheme will now be ‘digital first’.

Uber is to acquire food delivery rival Postmates in a $2.65 billion, all-stock deal.

Amazon has developed a smart shopping cart that lets customers check-out without a cashier. The Dash Cart is coming to Amazon’s Woodland Hills, California grocery store in 2020.

Alibaba Group introduced the Starbucks in-store pickup feature, Starbucks Now, across some of its most popular apps.

Spice Girl turned entrepreneur Victoria Beckham launched her eponymous beauty line on Alibaba Group’s Tmall Global platform this week, marking the brand’s first foray into the China market.

India’s Flipkart launched a hyperlocal service, Flipkart Quick, in suburbs of Bangalore, four years after the Walmart-owned e-commerce giant pulled the plug on a previous foray into this space.

This leverages its supply chain infrastructure and a new location mapping technology framework to deliver more than 2,000 products across grocery, perishables, smartphones, electronics accessories, and stationary items within 90 minutes to customers.