The five most important retail tech news stories of the week
It’s Friday, so let’s kick back and reflect on another eventful week for the retail technology space. Here's your briefing on the most important and interesting stories from the past few days.
1. Amazon Fresh automated store opens in Ealing West London
Amazon has opened a convenience grocery store in Ealing, West London, its first physical outlet outside of North America.
UK shoppers will for the first time be able to use the e-commerce giant’s Just Walk Out tech, which was pioneered at the Amazon Go offering in the States.
2. Instacart valued at $39bn after mega funding round
US grocery delivery venture Instacart has raised $265 million from its existing investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and D1 Capital Partners.
This values the company at $39 billion, up from $17.8 billion at the time of its previous fundraise, which closed in November last year.
3. Pinterest Presents gives exclusive look at Pinterest’s latest ad product for retailers
RTIH gets the low down on Pinterest’s first ever advertiser summit Pinterest Presents, and the company’s journey to become a place to shop, not just a place to buy.
4. Majid Al Futtaim enlists Takeoff Technologies for micro fulfilment centre launch
Majid Al Futtaim, which owns and operates shopping malls, retail, and leisure establishments in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, has worked with Takeoff Technologies to launch a micro fulfilment centre at its Carrefour store in Ibn Battuta Mall.
Two further centres, implementing artificial intelligence technology and autonomous robots, will follow in the first half of 2021.
5. Waitrose opens third dark store amid online sales boom
Waitrose has opened a new customer fulfilment centre in Greenford, West London.
When fully running later in the year, this will deliver 25,000 weekly e-commerce orders, helping to offer five times more online slots each week in London than before the coronavirus pandemic.
