The five biggest retail technology news stories of the week
It’s Thursday, Christmas is almost upon us, so let’s kick back and reflect on another eventful week for the retail systems space. Here's your briefing on the most important stories from the past five days, including Just Eat, Asda, Amazon, Barclays, and Marks and Spencer.
1. Just Eat teams with Asda to launch rapid grocery delivery partnership in UK
Just Eat has announced a partnership with Asda, marking its first tie-up with a major grocer in the UK.
From January, Just Eat customers will be able to shop from five Asda stores, with the exact locations to be announced in the near future.
This builds on an existing relationship, which sees Just Eat delivering pizzas and meal deals from Asda Kitchen. The service runs across 42 locations nationwide.
2. Amazon teams with Barclays for UK buy now pay later product
Amazon has announced a tie up with Barclays that will see it tap into the booming buy now, pay later UK market.
The e-commerce giant is launching a new product in partnership with the bank called Instalments.
This will allow its customers to spread the cost of £100+ purchases over several instalments between three and 48 months.
Amazon and Barclays first launched this in Germany last year.
3. Veho secures unicorn status with a $125 million Series A round
Veho, a startup that enables personalised next-day package delivery, has announced a $125 million Series A raise led by General Catalyst at a $1 billion valuation.
The cash will be used to grow its team, expand from 14 to 50 US markets by the end of 2022, and improve the consumer experience through technology advancement.
Powered by a crowdsourced driver marketplace, Veho's technology matches demand for package delivery with driver partners.
4. adidas Originals enters the metaverse with debut NFT collection
adidas Originals has landed in the world of Web3 with what it calls “one of the most widely distributed NFT drops in history”.
Last weekend, the company pulled in over $22 million after its NFT pieces were minted within minutes of going live on sale.
Each of these were priced at ETH 0.2, which converts to $769. Out of the 30,000 NFTs that were made available, 29,620 have been sold while Adidas Originals’ partners kept 380 pieces for future events.
There were, however, some technical snags. Shortly after the early access minting began and the first 20,000 NFTs went live, Mutant Ape Yacht Club owners complained of not being able to mint the pieces.
5. Krista Nordlund takes on Chief Digital Product Officer role at Marks and Spencer
M&S has bolstered its Digital & Data team with the appointment of Krista Nordlund as Chief Digital Product Officer.
The newly created role will see Nordlund driving further improvements to the retailer’s customer experience for all digital touchpoints across the business, including the M&S app and M&S.com.
Nordlund is currently Chief Product Officer at US digital rental marketplace RentPath. She will take on her new role in January and report into Chief Digital & Data Officer Jeremy Pee.
Pee comments: "Krista will play a huge part in helping us build our digital capabilities as we shape the future of M&S."
