November 2021: top 10 most clicked retail technology articles
These are the RTIH retail systems articles that caught your fancy during November, including Amazon’s physical retail ambitions, the booming rapid delivery space and the 2021 RTIH Innovation Awards.
Amazon Fresh store set to open in Chingford East London
Amazon is gearing up to open an Amazon Fresh checkout-free location in Chingford, London.
Amazon launches 2021 Christmas advert and online shop
Amazon has given a first look at a global Christmas campaign that tells the story of a young woman connecting with a neighbour amid the coronavirus outbreak.
To coincide with the launch, customers can browse The Amazon Christmas Shop, which opened for business on Monday, 8th November.
Currys announces London rapid delivery trial powered by Uber
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 offering.
Shopify Party reimagines the future of remote working
Canadian e-commerce platform giant Shopify has built an internal game that aims to make virtual hangouts more fun.
Shopify Party is pitched as an investment and experimentation in the future of remote work.
Rapid delivery venture GetFaster bags €7.5m in seed round
German quick commerce startup GetFaster has raised €7.5 million in seed funding.
The venture, which focuses on the soft discounter part of the delivery market, plans to use the cash for coverage expansion, customer base growth, and product range development.
Amazon UK takes on Tesco, Sainsbury's, Co-op with hundreds of grocery stores
Amazon UK is planning to open more than 260 Amazon Fresh grocery stores before the end of 2024.
Amazon Just Walk Out tech ‘makes every other grocery store obsolete’
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.
Sainsbury's opens SmartShop Pick & Go store at Holborn Circus, London
In early November, we reported that Sainsbury’s was set to open a cashierless store in London during late November, using Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology.
This, we noted at the time, would make it the first customer outside the US for the tech that powers Amazon Go and Fresh stores.
Said SmartShop Pick & Go store opens to the public on 29th November, after being tested out by Sainsbury’s staff members.
Check out the 2021 RTIH Innovation Awards shortlists
Go Instore, Trigo, Simbe Robotics, Oracle, Mercaux, Standard AI and BigCommerce are among the nominees at RTIH’s 2021 retail technology awards.
Now into their third year, the awards are sponsored by PMC, StoreSpace, Critizr, Marxent, QVALON and Selazar.
Ten retail technology firms that have powered ahead in 2021
It’s been a pretty, pretty good year for these retail tech ventures who are innovating in such areas as checkout free stores, 3D commerce, rapid grocery delivery, e-commerce fulfilment and shoppertainment platforms.
