RTIH brings you its 2021 retail technology highlights
Taking in the likes of rapid delivery startups, fast fashion innovation, checkout free stores and buy now, pay later services, 2021 was a huge year for the retail systems space. Check out our highlights from a truly memorable 12 months.
January: Marc Lore, President and CEO, Walmart E-commerce US, announced his departure from the big box retailer. He said he would stay on as a consultant through to September.
February: US-based autonomous checkout solution provider, Standard Cognition, announced a $150 million Series C round led by SoftBank. This put the venture’s valuation at $1 billion+, making it tech/retail's newest unicorn.
March: German delivery startup Gorillas, which promises grocery orders within 10 minutes, raised $290 million, taking its valuation past the $1 billion mark.
Also this month, the venture launched in London, following expansion in Germany and the Netherlands.
April: Walmart backed all electric autonomous vehicles venture Cruise. It joined a previously announced funding round, bringing the total haul to $2.75 billion.
The retailer said that this would aid its work toward developing a last mile delivery ecosystem that’s fast, low cost and scalable.
May: Fast fashion e-commerce venture SHEIN moved past Amazon to become the most downloaded shopping app on iOS and Android in the US, according to data from App Annie.
June: Buy now pay later big hitter Klarna raised $639 million at a post-money valuation of $45.6 billion.
This came just three months after the Swedish company’s last mega funding round and cemented its status as Europe’s most valuable private FinTech venture.
July: Rapid grocery delivery startup Gopuff raised $1 billion, valuing it at $15 billion.
August: Amazon partnered with Affirm for its first ever buy now, pay later option on the e-commerce site.
September: Majid Al Futtaim, which owns and operates shopping malls, retail, and leisure establishments in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, announced the launch of checkout free store, Carrefour City+, powered by AiFi tech.
October: Tesco launched a rapid delivery pilot with Gorillas.
The retailer’s customers will be able to order Tesco products to their doors, within 10 minutes, via the Gorillas app.
The latter will set up micro-fulfilment sites at five large Tesco stores to handle the deliveries. The first store to be involved in the partnership is in Thornton Heath, London.
November: Sainsbury's opened a cashierless store in London, using Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology. This made it the first known customer outside the US for the tech that powers Amazon Go and Fresh stores.
December: Shameless plug time…
Metapack, Asda, Situ Live, Go Instore, Majid Al Futtaim, Standard Cognition, Personify XP, Red Ant, Hullabalook and 3DLOOK were among the companies who emerged victorious at RTIH’s 2021 Innovation Awards.
The awards, sponsored by PMC, StoreSpace, Critizr, Marxent, QVALON and Selazar, celebrate global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.
Our winners and highly commended companies were announced during an exclusive event that took place in central London in early December and was attended by retailers, members of our judging panel, and sponsors.
