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 Flink, Amazon, Ocado Group, AutoStore, Netto, and OnBuy.
1…Discount grocery retailer, Netto, part of the Edeka Group, has opened its first ever Trigo powered frictionless checkout store in Munich, Germany.
The 250 square metre store underwent a retrofit to become a Pick&Go hybrid autonomous offering.
15…Amazon has opened Amazon Fresh locations in Euston, Wandsworth and Chingford, London, bringing the total number in the UK to 15.
These are powered by the e-commerce giant’s Just Walk Out technology, which was pioneered at Amazon Go in the States. and offer a selection of its private food brand, by Amazon.
Other stores can be found in the likes of 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.
£1 million…British e-commerce marketplace OnBuy, is offering all of its 100+ employees the option to have a stake in the business.
The news follows a successful month for the venture, which was founded by Cas Paton in 2016. It reports that GMV over the Black Friday weekend increased YOY by 25%. Over £1 million in granted share options will be offered to OnBuy staff.
1…Hudson, which has more than 1,000 stores in airports, commuter hubs, landmarks and tourist destinations across North America, has become the first retailer in the travel industry to offer Amazon’s palm recognition service, Amazon One.
This is now available at Hudson Nonstop – powered by Just Walk Out technology – at Dallas Love Field Airport.
40% of British shoppers are ditching websites with poor payments processes, according to research from Vyne.
4 and 5…UK-based Ocado Group has won a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Norwegian robotics firm AutoStore in the International Trade Commission (ITC).
AutoStore had filed the lawsuit last year in both the United States and the United Kingdom, claiming Ocado’s grocery picking robots infringed on its automated designs.
The ITC's Chief Administrative Law Judge held three of the four AutoStore patents were invalid while the fourth one was not infringed by Ocado. A fifth patent was abandoned by AutoStore the night before the trial.
The judge also rejected AutoStore's request for barring Ocado and its partners from making and selling the products involved, and from importing them into the United States.
20…Online grocery delivery venture Missfresh has partnered with Nanchang’s Wangjia Market Management to expand its Intelligent Fresh Market business to 20 cities across China.
The two companies will operate Intelligent Fresh Markets together in Yingtan and Shangrao, two cities in China’s Jiangxi province.
$5.5 billion, $725 million and $200 million…Symbotic, an AI and robotics powered platform for the supply chain, has announced plans to go public via SPAC, courtesy of a merger with Softbank Investment Advisers’ SVF Investment Corp. 3.
This gives it a pro forma equity value of around $5.5 billion, while raising upwards of $725 million in gross proceeds, including $200 million from Softbank.
$5.4 million…Fashion rental marketplace, HURR, has raised $5.4 million in seed funding.
10…bp is integrating automated checkouts into Amoco and ampm stores across the US.
It has teamed with Grabango to retrofit 10 convenience locations, Grabango's largest multi-store roll-out thus far.
$6 million…Sympl, a buy now, pay later platform based in Egypt, has raised $6 million following its soft launch last month.
17 and 35…Majid Al Futtaim has inaugurated a 17 megawatt solar park which will provide power to 35 Carrefour stores across Jordan, allowing each to operate entirely on clean energy.
30…Fashion retailer KOOKAÏ says that it has cut inventory counts from a few days to 30 minutes as a result of implementing radio frequency identification (RFID) from Avery Dennison at its manufacturing facilities in Fiji and Sri Lanka.
$750 million…Berlin-based rapid grocery delivery startup Flink has raised $750 million, a Series B round of funding led by a DoorDash, made at a pre-money valuation of $2.1 billion ($2.85 billion post-money).
