The retail technology space during the coronavirus pandemic
Retail Technology Innovation Hub rounds up the key Covid-19 developments from last week.
Resident, a platform of direct-to-consumer brands in the home goods space, has announced a £97.5 million Series B funding round.
This was led by Ion Crossover Partners and Nexus Capital Management with participation from Baron Capital Group.
Sainsbury’s delivered 1.1 million online food orders in the ten days to Christmas, double the number of 2019.
The supermarket announced this as part of a strong Q3 and Christmas performance.
Total year-on-year UK retail footfall for 2020 fell by 43.4%, according to the BRC and ShopperTrak.
Primark says it will lose an additional £220 million in sales under new restrictions to control the spread of Covid-19 in the UK.
Its owner, Associated British Foods, expects to lose £650 million in sales in the year to September, up from the £430 million it had flagged up on 4th December.
This followed the government announcing the likes of Manchester and Birmingham must join London and the south east of England in closing non-essential stores.
The coronavirus outbreak has resulted in a remarkable acceleration of e-commerce across all demographics.
Online will continue to grow this year, but at much slower rates than in 2020, according to Martin Newman. founder of The Customer First Group and a member of the 2020 RTIH Innovation Awards judging panel.
Indian business-to-business e-commerce startup Udaan has raised $280 million.
NearSt, a British retail technology venture that aims to drive more people onto the high street, has pulled in £2 million in seed funding from international property company Grosvenor Group.
The London-based company, which was founded in 2015, has now raised £5 million in total.
UK-based online marketplace OnBuy kickstarted 2021 with a £50 million price crash event for New Year’s Day.
UK Boxing Day footfall slumped -87% YoY on Boxing Day, according to Sensormatic data from ShopperTrak.
Total footfall dropped to its lowest point since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, with high streets worst affected as shopper numbers fell to -92% compared to 2019.
Digital operations platform venture Brightpearl has announced a £25 million Series C round, led by Sage.
Sage is making a minority investment of approximately £17 million into the business and takes a seat on Brightpearl’s board.
After experiencing a Black Friday powered surge in demand in November, UK e-commerce ventures saw revenues dip during December, according to research from Wunderkind.
They fell 61% week-on-week (w/c 30.11 vs 07.12) in the first week of the month, dropping a further 26% the week after (w/c 07.12 vs 14.12).
M&S launched a new, on-the-spot payment solution to help relieve queues at the checkouts in time for Christmas.
Available at 200 of the retailer’s stores, this allows staff members to pick out customers waiting in line to pay for just a few items, and process their transaction via a handheld Honeywell1 device.
Online now accounts for 60-70% of John Lewis sales whereas before the coronavirus pandemic it was 40%.
Customers are also now shopping during the working day (11am-4pm) rather than their evenings (7pm-10pm). Those are key findings from the retailer’s Shop Live Look report.
Super Saturday, the last Saturday before Christmas, saw UK footfall drop by 40% year-on-year, according to research by Sensormatic.
Data from ShopperTrak, which captures 40 billion shopper visits each year, showed that high streets were particularly badly affected, with footfall plummeting -44% on Super Saturday compared to 2019.
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