The retail technology space during the Covid outbreak
Retail Technology Innovation Hub rounds up the key Covid-19 developments from last week.
E-commerce fulfilment technology company, Nimble Robotics, has announced a $50 million Series A round.
Cleveron has launched a space efficient indoor parcel robot pitched at PUDOs, kiosks and small stores.
A pilot is currently underway in Europe.
Safepoint has been appointed by the East of England Co-op to offer a solution that protects its growing fleet of lone delivery drivers.
Each one is now equipped with a wearable alert button, allowing them to request emergency help.
Conversational commerce tech venture Heyday AI has extended its seed round by $6.5 million CAD ($5.1 million USD).
This was led by returning investors Innovobot and Desjardins Capital. The startup has raised approximately $8.5 million CAD to date.
Heyday has also been selected by Lacoste as its global chat and customer messaging provider. Other clients include Decathlon and Bestseller (Jack & Jones, Vero Moda, Bestseller).
Karen Reeves, Customer Experience & Retail Transformation Manager, John Lewis & Partners, recently talked to RTIH about the retailer’s 3D commerce journey and its trial and roll-out of Marxent technology.
UK luxury watch and jewellery retailer, Goldsmiths, will later this year begin rolling out a new store design concept.
This will include in-store and digital browsing tools.
The concept, conceived in partnership with Quadrant Design, will initially launch in major retail hubs, including Manchester’s Trafford Centre, Cribbs Causeway in Bristol, Meadowhall in Sheffield, Canterbury, Reading and Leicester.
Russian food retailer, X5 Retail Group, has partnered with Sberbank and Visa to launch a ‘pay with a glance’ service at self-service checkout terminals.
Currently available at 52 Perekrestok supermarkets, this uses biometric identification based on X5's innovation lab technology and VisionLabs solutions.
Digital retailer The Very Group has refurbished its Liverpool HQ with an emphasis on hybrid working.
Former political aide Alastair Campbell is to headline a virtual event being run by retailTRUST to champion the health and wellbeing of retail workers.
This will take place on 10th and 11th May and will also include Morrison’s Chief Executive David Potts, Asos’s CEO Nick Beighton and British Retail Consortium’s Chief Executive Helen Dickinson.
Appointedd has launched an Open In Style solution to enable hairdressers, barbers and beauticians to fill their appointment books in anticipation of reopening next month as coronavirus lockdown restrictions are eased.
This taps the same tools as used by Charlotte Tilbury and Space NK for their beauty bookings
Marks and Spencer’s Marble Arch store (one of its largest locations in London) is to be redeveloped.
The new 10-storey building will include just two and a half floors of store space with several floors of offices and potentially leisure space such as a gym. It will have an arcade through its centre and space for 4,000 office workers on the higher floors.
Global commerce search and discovery platform, Empathy.co, has reported record growth and a new hiring spree, with revenue increasing 124% over the last 12 months.
Pandora has partnered with Go Instore to launch a live video service.
The Remote Shopping Assistant offering enables store staff to guide customers through their buying journey from the comfort of their own homes.
With a coronavirus lockdown still in place, and non essential physical retailers closed, UK e-commerce sales rose by 69.5% YoY in February, according to research from IMRG and Capgemini.
M&S has launched 46 flagship websites in new markets, expanding its online reach to over 100 countries.
The launch is part of the retailer’s Never the Same Again transformation programme, and nearly doubles the number of international markets where it has a pureplay presence.
After a bleak January sales performance and as the national coronavirus lockdown continued, February saw the mildest of upturns for the UK retail sector.
There was just 1% YoY total sales growth as high street stores across the country kept their doors closed, according to BRC/KPMG research.
Tax free shopping specialist Global Blue has acquired e-commerce returns management platform ZigZag Global.
The company, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, has raised $70 million via a private placement of common stock issued to new institutional investors to fully fund the deal.
