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 Instacart, Nuro, Klarna, Marks and Spencer, Buyk, AO, Selazar, and Amazon.
30…Currys has partnered with Uber on a London-based delivery trial that gets small tech products from stores to shoppers in as little as 30 minutes.
Launching the week of 15th November, this is Uber’s biggest UK retailer partnership to date and builds on Currys’ online and delivery proposition, which includes the ShopLive 24/7 video shopping service and its one-hour Order & Collect service.
700…Azteco reports that Brits can now purchase Bitcoin from over 700 retailers across the UK and Ireland.
To do so, they can download a “Wallet of Satoshi'' app on the App Store and Google Play, go to one of the aforementioned retailers and ask for an Azteco Bitcoin voucher at checkout. They then redeem the voucher and, hey presto, they have their cryptocurrency.
7…Amazon is gearing up to open an Amazon Fresh location in Holborn, London.
No news on the exact launch date. But we can reveal that this will be the e-commerce giant’s seventh such UK convenience store to feature Just Walk Out Shopping tech, which was pioneered at the Amazon Go offering in the States.
The other six are in Camden, Ealing, Wembley Park, White City, Canary Wharf and Dalston.
£20 million…E-commerce fulfilment startup Selazar has announced a £20 million investment that, it says, will significantly increase its valuation, enhance its UK network and fund expansion into Europe, the US, and Latin America.
4…Online electricals retailer AO has opened its fourth warehouse in Crewe, UK, creating over 80 new jobs and adding over 300,000 sqft of new distribution space to its logistics network.
5%…Black Friday 2020 was a huge success, thanks in no small part to various coronavirus restrictions, and this year it is set to be even bigger.
According to research from Mention Me, consumers are expected to set a new record, spending 5% more on Black Friday this year compared to last.
6…Checkout-free technology venture, Grabango, has announced a roll-out across six Circle K stores in Arizona, USA.
15 and 20…Buyk, a startup that promises grocery delivery from dark store to doorstep within 15 minutes, has announced a Stateside expansion into Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, following a launch in Manhattan during September.
Buyk was founded by Slava Bocharov and Rodion Shishkov. The pair also co-founded Samokat, Russia’s largest grocery delivery company, in 2018 before selling their stake to fund Buyk.
Its latest move brings the company’s total number of dark stores to 20.
$600 million…Autonomous vehicle company Nuro has announced a $600 million round of funding led by Tiger Global Management.
1, £1.6 million and 480…Bookshop.org, pitched as the ethical book buying alternative to Amazon, is celebrating the first anniversary since it launched in the UK.
It says that, during this time, customers buying through it have generated over £1.6 million for the 480 independent bookshops on the platform.
Only a third of UK consumers stayed loyal to brands during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to research from antuit.ai. The company surveyed over 2,000 Brits for this.
Consumers who switched were more likely to have traded down on grocery retailers during the pandemic than those who traded up from own brand to brands.
50%…M.Video-Eldorado Group, Russia’s largest consumer electronics retailer, has expanded its capacity for express delivery from stores and increased its courier delivery capacity by 50%.
M.Video and Eldorado stores will continue to operate in line with new region specific Covid restrictions, while focusing on online services. They offer customers various delivery options ranging from one to two hours.
7,000…Instacart and Dollar Tree have expanded their partnership to offer same-day delivery in as fast as one hour from nearly 7,000 of the latter’s US stores.
