The retail technology year at a glance: July 2020
RTIH takes a look at the retail technology space during July 2020 and rounds up the winners, losers and major developments.
Good month for…
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.
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.
Computer vision platform provider, Advertima, closed a €15 million Series A investment round led by existing shareholder Swiss real estate company, Fortimo Group.
Sainsbury’s paid tribute to the strength and flexibility of its digital and technology platforms during the coronavirus outbreak.
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.
Bad month for…
Without further government action around the coronavirus outbreak, retailers in London’s West End were facing £5 billion sales losses and 50,000 job cuts, according to New West End Company.
Also in July…
Argos said it would stop printing its catalogue after almost 50 years, with the retailer stating that digital shopping offered “greater convenience”.
Pets at Home announced plans to open a new national storage and distribution centre in Staffordshire.
Waitrose and John Lewis increased the use of electric vans as they looked to end the use of fossil fuels across their entire transport fleet by 2030.
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.
Walmart started to convert 160 of its US store parking lots into drive-in cinemas.
Walmart also unveiled a new subscription service.
Called Walmart+, the Amazon Prime competitor would 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.
Asda became the first UK supermarket to trial a permanent trolley wash facility.
Amazon unveiled a six-wheel delivery robot, Scout in 2019.
After launching in a single neighbourhood in Snohomish County, Washington and then adding a larger site in Irvine, California, Scout was now undergoing trials in Atlanta, Georgia and Franklin, Tennessee, Amazon 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 also planned to pilot a poundland.co.uk home delivery service from a new online fulfilment centre in Cannock.
A number of UK 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.
Covid-19 was accelerating retailers’ digital transformation efforts, GlobalData said.
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 would now be ‘digital first’.
Uber was set to acquire food delivery rival Postmates in a $2.65 billion, all-stock deal.
Amazon developed a smart shopping cart that lets customers check-out without a cashier. The Dash Cart was set to come 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, 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.
