The retail technology year at a glance: December 2020
RTIH takes a look back at the retail technology space during December and rounds up the winners, losers and major developments.
Good month for…
Asda, Amazon, Co-op, Mercaux and MishiPay were among the winners at the 2020 RTIH Innovation Awards.
Co-op started using its first electric vehicles for online home delivery this month. It aims to replace its fleet of fossil fuel powered vans by 2025.
The convenience retailer kicked things off with stores in Hebden Bridge, Holmfirth and Hove, followed by Ryde, Isle of Wight and Whitby which will take delivery of electric vehicles early this year for groceries ordered through Co-op’s own online shop.
Digital operations platform venture Brightpearl announced a £25 million Series C round, led by Sage.
Frictionless shopping outfit, Trigo, announced a $60 million Series B funding round led by 83North.
US-based online grocer Farmstead will bring its service to Nashville, TN, in late Q1 2021.
The venture got its start in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is now also live in North Carolina. It is planning to expand to at least 14 more markets in 2021.
GoCardless, a UK FinTech venture that specialises in recurring payments, announced a Series F funding round of $95 million, led by Bain Capital Ventures.
It is now valued at over $970 million. The company will use the funding to accelerate its Open Banking strategy, which will include expanding its offering into the e-commerce market.
Bad month for…
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.
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).
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned an Instagram campaign by Klarna for encouraging customers to take on debt during the coronavirus pandemic.
Also this month…
Majid Al Futtaim, which owns and operates shopping malls, retail, and leisure establishments in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, opened its first Carrefour store in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
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.
Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com became the first online platform to accept Beijing’s homegrown digital currency.
Its FinTech arm, JD Digits, accepted digital yuan as payment for some products on its online mall, as part of a giveaway of the token to citizens of Suzhou, near Shanghai.
Health and beauty retailer, A.S. Watson Group, celebrated its 180th anniversary this month 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 had reached the milestone of 16,000 offline and online stores.
The UK’s first electric forecourt, situated near Braintree, Essex, opened for business.
The site is the first of around 100 being built by GRIDSERVE over the next five years. It will be able to charge up to 36 electric vehicles simultaneously at speeds of up to 350kW.
New research from Klarna showed how shopping behaviour has changed over the past 12 months.
The company surveyed over 4,000 consumers across Europe, the UK, the USA and Australia and identified five key shopper tribes and subtle differences between the priorities and preferences of each.
Online furniture retailer Made said it would give its staff a stake in the business.
All 650 employees, apart from senior management, will receive the same number of share options vesting in equal tranches over the next three years. The move is in recognition of their work during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Latest opened a new experiential retail store in Berlin, featuring Cegid tech. Plans are afoot to launch further stores in the UK and China.
The 260 sq. m store features up to a hundred curated products, from manufacturers and brands around the world, ranging from hi-tech face masks to electric delivery bikes.
