The retail technology year in review: January 2021
The year kicked off with Marc Lore, President and CEO, Walmart E-commerce US, announcing his departure from the big box retailer, Labour MP Stella Creasy labelling buy now pay later schemes “a financial scandal waiting to happen”, and the Covid-19 pandemic hitting bricks and mortar players hard.
Good month for…
Online fashion retailer Asos said it would begin automation of its US fulfilment centre this year.
It also signed a lease for a fourth fulfilment centre, situated in Lichfield, UK.
Asos made the announcements as it reported a surge in sales during the four months ending in December.
Starship Technologies raised $17 million and completed one million autonomous deliveries.
Pureplay Very.co.uk increased retail sales by 25.2% year-on-year in the seven weeks up to and including 25th December to record its best ever Christmas trading period.
Tesco delivered over seven million online grocery orders, containing more than 400 million individual items, over the Christmas period.
It made the announcement whilst reporting its 3Q and Christmas 2020/21 results.
NearSt, a British retail technology venture that aims to drive more people onto the high street, pulled in £2 million in seed funding from international property company Grosvenor Group.
Sainsbury’s delivered 1.1 million online food orders in the ten days to Christmas, double the number of 2019.
The supermarket announced this as part of a strong Q3 and Christmas performance.
Beauty tech solutions provider, Perfect Corp., closed a $50 million Series C round led by Goldman Sachs.
Indian business-to-business e-commerce startup Udaan raised $280 million.
Resident, a platform of direct-to-consumer brands in the home goods space, announced a £97.5 million Series B funding round.
Jumbotail, an India-based online wholesale marketplace for grocery and food items, raised an additional $14.2 million.
Tesco’s Pay+ mobile payment app, which launched in 2017, surpassed £1 billion in payments shortly before Christmas 2020.
London-based PayTech venture Curve announced a $95 million Series C round.
Whilst another PayTech venture, Rapyd, was basking in the glow of a $300 million Series D financing round led by Coatue.
Bloom & Wild, a London-based flower and gift delivery startup, secured £75 million in Series D funding.
French buy now, pay later venture Alma closed a €49 million Series B financing round involving Idinvest, Cathay Innovation, the French Public Investment Bank (Bpifrance), Seaya Ventures and Picus Capital.
E-commerce specialist Bloomreach acquired customer data and experience platform Exponea. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. It also announced an investment of $150 million from Sixth Street Growth.
A new BearingPoint study ranked retail the top UK industry sector for digital maturity.
Retailers took nine of the top ten spots, with Ocado nabbing first place, Curry’s PC World (Dixons Carphone) second, Asos third, M&S fourth and Argos fifth.
Italy headquartered buy now and pay later venture, Scalapay, raised a $48 million seed round led by Fasanara Capital and also including Baleen Capital, and Italian Family Office Ithaca Investments.
Bad month for…
Bllush, a Tel Aviv-based startup that matched e-commerce brands with user generated product images, went out of business.
Primark said it would lose an additional £220 million in sales under new restrictions to control the spread of Covid-19 in the UK.
Its owner, Associated British Foods, expected to lose £650 million in sales in the year to September, up from the £430 million it had flagged up on 4th December.
This followed the government announcing the likes of Manchester and Birmingham must join London and the south east of England in closing non-essential stores.
Also this month…
Labour MP Stella Creasy called on fashion retailers such as boohoo and Missguided to temporarily halt buy now pay later schemes, labelling them a “financial scandal waiting to happen”.
The UK contactless payment limit for a single transaction was set to be raised to £100.
In 2020, it went up from £30 to £45 during the coronavirus outbreak.
"Recognising changing behaviour in how people pay, as part of a wider consultation, we will shortly be seeking views on amending our rules to allow for a possible increase in the contactless limit to £100," the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said in an online post.
Marc Lore, President and CEO, Walmart E-commerce US, announced his departure from the big box retailer. He said he would stay on as a consultant through to September.
Amazon purchased 11 Boeing 767-300 aircraft as it looked to speed up delivery times for US customers.
The e-commerce giant bought seven aircraft from Delta and four from WestJet, which will join its Amazon Air cargo network in 2021 and 2022.
Kingfisher Data Director Tom Betts set out his vision for the home improvement retailer.
Waitrose became the first national UK supermarket to integrate unpacked items into regular aisles at its store in Wallingford Oxfordshire.
Amazon said it would expand its Boston Tech Hub in the US and create more than 3,000 new corporate and technology jobs over the next several years.
The roles will support teams across the company, including Alexa, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon Robotics, and Amazon Pharmacy.
