The weekend 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 biggest stories from the past few days, including Square/Afterpay, Amazon Fresh, eBay and Alibaba Group.

1. Square to acquire BNPL venture Afterpay in $29bn deal

Square, the payments venture founded by Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, is set to acquire Australian buy now, pay later provider Afterpay in an all-stock deal worth about $29 billion.

Closing of the transaction is expected in the first quarter of calendar year 2022.

Afterpay + Square! https://t.co/4UVDOtyI8a
— jack⚡️ (@jack) August 1, 2021

2. English Football League and eBay launch Small Businesses United

The English Football League (EFL) has announced a three-year partnership ahead of the start of the 2021/22 season with eBay that will celebrate local businesses in communities around all 72 EFL clubs.

Through the launch of Small Businesses United, the tie up will see eBay donate advertising space at EFL grounds to the small businesses on its marketplace.

3. Amazon eyes sixth London-based Amazon Fresh till free store

Amazon is set to open an Amazon Fresh location in London Bankside's Blue Fin Building.

It will be the sixth such convenience store to feature Just Walk Out Shopping tech in the UK, which was pioneered at the Amazon Go offering in the States.

The other five are in Ealing, Wembley Park, White City, Camden and Canary Wharf.

4. Alibaba Group announces June quarter 2021 results

“We started the new fiscal year by delivering a healthy quarter,” says Daniel Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Alibaba Group.

“For the June quarter, global annual active consumers across the Alibaba ecosystem reached 1.18 billion, an increase of 45 million from the March quarter, which includes 912 million consumers in China.”

He adds: “We believe in the growth of the Chinese economy and long-term value creation of Alibaba, and we will continue to strengthen our technology advantage in improving the consumer experience and helping our enterprise customers to accomplish successful digital transformations.”

$BABA reports June Quarter 2021 Results: https://t.co/ELuuoxD5gA
— Alibaba Group (@AlibabaGroup) August 3, 2021

5. M&S Tech goes on software engineer recruitment drive

Marks and Spencer has kicked off a drive to recruit 70 software engineers over the next year as the retailer looks to boost its digital transformation push.

In support of this, it has launched a new bespoke careers page on its website called M&OS.