RTIH presents the retail technology week in numbers
Do you like numbers? Do you like retail systems news? Then this is the article for you. Including Amazon, Starbucks, Alibaba Group, Zappos, Marks and Spencer, and Sainsbury’s.
1…The first Starbucks Pickup with Amazon Go location opened this week in New York City, powered by the latter’s Just Walk Out checkout free technology.
Located at 59th Street between Park & Lexington Avenues, this offers the full Starbucks menu and an assortment of food and beverages in an Amazon Go market.
RTIH first reported on this tie up in October. Starbucks and Amazon plan to open at least two more locations over the next year.
40…UK-based FinTech Mode is teaming up with over 40 merchants, including Ocado, Homebase and Boots, to offer Bitcoin cashback on purchases.
1.5%…American online shoe and clothing retailer Zappos has partnered with Bitcoin rewards startup Lolli.
Shoppers can now earn 1.5% back in free Bitcoin every time they shop with Zappos.
$20 million…Cymbio, an online marketplace and drop ship automation platform, has announced a $20 million Series B financing round led by Corner Ventures.
2,500…E-commerce delivery and returns company InPost has announced a new partnership with eBay.
eBay marketplace sellers will now have access to its 2,500 parcel lockers for the first time, enabling them to drop off items for onward delivery to buyers’ homes.
19…Amazon said UK customers would no longer be able to pay for goods using a Visa credit card.
It emailed customers on Wednesday morning to confirm the move would take effect from 19th January, blaming “a high cost of payments”.
7…Amazon has opened a 2,500 square feet, front of house, Amazon Fresh checkout-free location in East Sheen, London.
This is the seventh such convenience store to offer Just Walk Out Shopping tech in the UK.
The other six are in Camden, Ealing, Wembley Park, White City, Canary Wharf and Dalston.
Opening hours are from 7:00 am to 11:00 pm, seven days a week. Customers use the Amazon app to enter and put their phone away and shop for what they need. At the end of their visit, they can head for the exit, with no need to stand in a queue or check out.
50%, 10,000, 20% and 30%…Alibaba Cloud says that it fully migrated all of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group’s systems and operations onto the cloud ahead of the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival.
This it claims, reduced computing resources by 50% for every 10,000 transactions compared to last year.
There was also a boost of 20% in technology deployment efficiency and 30% in CPU resource utilisation.
44…The UK’s retail sector has experienced 44 cyberattacks in the last 12 months, according to new research by Keeper Security.
The company surveyed 200 UK IT decision makers. 77% believe that the number of attacks will only increase in the next 12 months.
When successful, the research found that cyber attacks against retailers have resulted in severe disruptions to partner and customer operations (34%), the supply chain (33%) and a company’s ability to trade (29%).
1… Sainsbury’s is set to open a cashierless store in London later this month, using Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology.
This will make it the first known customer outside the US for the tech.
The SmartShop Pick & Go location, situated in High Holborn on the edge of the City of London, is currently open to Sainsbury’s employees.
260…Amazon UK is planning to open more than 260 Amazon Fresh grocery stores before the end of 2024.
6…Young people are the biggest tech hoarders with an average of six unused devices in their home, according to new research from online retailer AO.
35,000…The grocery sector’s ‘Pearl Harbor Moment’ has arrived courtesy of Amazon Fresh, according to Brittain Ladd, a supply chain consultant and former Amazon executive.
In the US, the e-commerce giant has just opened a 35,000 square foot store with Just Walk Out capability. Something, Ladd argues that most, if not all of the major grocery retailers, including Walmart, didn't think would be possible for several more years.
“What Amazon has done is made every grocery store in the US, and globally, obsolete,” Ladd said in a LinkedIn post.
