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 Gymshark, ICA Gruppen, Ocado Group, Jokr, Yango Deli UK, Sainsbury’s, and Shopify.
$260 million and $1.2 billion…Rapid delivery venture, Jokr, has landed $260 million in Series B funding and ventured into unicorn territory with a valuation of $1.2 billion.
10 and 25…Vyne’s Open Banking powered account-to-account payment method has gone live on the online checkouts of 10 THG (aka The Hut Group) brands, including Myprotein, Glossybox, ESPA and Zavvi.
It’s the first step in a partnership that will see Vyne’s solution offered as a payment method for 25 THG brands in total. Consumers will be able to pay from their banking app, eliminating the need for card details.
1…Gymshark has announced plans for its first permanent physical store. The fit-out of the three-storey building, situated in Regent Street, London, starts soon.
2,500…Online delivery and returns company, InPost, has launched a campaign - Secret Senda - in partnership with homelessness charity Shelter.
The initiative, which runs until 31st December, enables people to use any one of InPost’s 2,500 lockers across the UK, to send charitable donations to Shelter for free.
32,000…ICA Gruppen has gone live with an automated warehouse in Brunna, outside Stockholm, powered by Ocado Group technology.
ICA says that it is the first retailer in Sweden to open a facility that features an automated solution for online groceries. The warehouse has a total area of 32,000 square metres. An e-commerce operation in Jordbro will be gradually transferred to the new facility.
45% and 72%…The rapid delivery space, which has exploded during the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns, is exposing retailers to risk around sales of age restricted goods, according to research from Serve Legal.
In the last 12 months, more than 2,600 of its young mystery shoppers have made test purchases using online or app-based rapid delivery services.
Just 45% were asked to show proof of age when their order was delivered, despite it containing alcohol, cigarettes and other age restricted products. Standard home delivery services fared better with 72% of mystery shoppers asked for age identification on delivery.
14.3% and 30%…With no Covid-19 lockdown yet enacted this autumn, UK online retail sales for Black Friday were down -14.3% year-on-year, according to the IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index.
Last year’s YoY results (+30%) made for a tough comparison, as the nation was told to stay at home and consumers had no choice but to shop online.
£48 million…Mobile payments startup Mr Yum has announced a £48 million Series A round, led by Tiger Global.
15…Yango Deli UK, the rapid grocery delivery arm of Russian tech giant Yandex, is offering Christmas trees along with its usual mix of groceries and household staples.
The 5ft Norway spruce trees will be delivered within 15 minutes. They are supplied by Pines and Needles, which was founded by brothers Josh and Sam Lyle in Scotland and made headlines when they provided a tree for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2016.
1…Last month, 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 opened to the public this week, after being tested out by Sainsbury’s staff members.
$2.9 billion …Canadian e-commerce platform giant Shopify has announced a record setting Black Friday with sales of nearly $2.9 billion from the start of Black Friday in New Zealand through the end of the event in California.
35%…Black Friday UK high street shopper traffic saw a +35% uplift week-on-week, but early festive footfall failed to drive numbers to pre-pandemic levels, which were down -23% compared to 2019, according to Sensormatic Solutions.
$4.4 million…Bestseller owner and CEO Anders Hoch Povlsen’s holding company, Heartland, is investing $4.4 million in Touchtech, a venture whose tech brings digital experiences to shoppers in physical spaces.
31,000…Starship Technologies and Co-op have boosted their partnership in Northampton, with an additional 31,000 households in the town now able to access grocery delivery via a fleet of the former’s robots.
