The five biggest retail technology news stories of the week
It’s Friday, the week is nearly done, so let’s kick back and reflect on another eventful week for the retail systems space. Here's your briefing on some of the most important and interesting stories from the past five days, including Ocado Group, Walmart, JD.com and Klarna.
1. JD.com announces strong 2021 second quarter results
Shares in Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com jumped 14.9% in Hong Kong on Tuesday after the company revealed strong revenue and user growth in the second quarter.
“We are pleased to deliver another quarter of healthy growth even compared to last year’s high base,” comments Sandy Xu, Chief Financial Officer at JD.com.
“Our consistent execution and successful 618 Grand Promotion helped us to add over 32 million new users in Q2, the largest single quarter increase in our history.”
“We are also encouraged by the continued diversification of our revenue streams, reflecting our open ecosystem strategy of empowering customers and business partners through our supply chain-based technology and infrastructure.”
2. Robotics expert Nadia Shouraboura joins Ocado Group
Ocado Group has appointed former Amazon Vice President and technology entrepreneur Nadia Shouraboura to its non-executive board.
“Ocado Group has many challenges ahead. The biggest is customer expectations changing fast and the customer having broad demands and expectations and how we meet these,” Shouraboura comments.
In addition to her time at Amazon, she founded and served as CEO of Hointer, and specialises in the field of machine learning and robotics.
What excites her about Ocado’s business are “the nearly endless opportunities for scale if we get it right”
3. Walmart GoLocal delivery as a service business goes live
Walmart has launched a white label service, Walmart GoLocal, that uses its logistics network to deliver products for other retailers.
“In an era where customers have come to expect speed and reliability, it’s more important than ever for businesses to work with a service provider that understands a merchant’s needs,” says John Furner, President and CEO, Walmart U.S.
“We have spent years building and scaling commerce capabilities that support our network of more than 4,700 stores and we look forward to helping other businesses have access to the same reliable, quality and low cost services.”
4. Klarna sees losses rise as it expands rapidly
Klarna’s losses increased significantly in the second quarter.
The Swedish buy now, pay later venture, most recently valued at $46 billion in an investment round led by Japan’s SoftBank, increased the volume of purchases it processed on behalf of retailers by two-thirds in the second quarter to $20 billion.
But its operating losses rose from $10 million a year earlier to $111 million as credit losses more than doubled in that period.
Klarna regularly posted profits during its formative years, but has been loss making since 2019 as it expanded rapidly, particularly in the US.
5. Newbies challenge big hitters in booming self-checkout market
Momentum in the self-checkout revolution kept up in 2020, with shipments booming by 25% globally, according to research from RBR.
There are more than 20 vendors present, ranging from international suppliers to local players, as well as some retailers building their own solutions.
NCR is the world’s largest self-checkout supplier, accounting for a third of shipments in 2020.
