The six biggest retail technology news stories of the week
It’s Friday, 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 most important stories from the past five days, including Marks and Spencer, Ocado, Trigo, Getir, Amazon, and Walmart.
1. Marks and Spencer looks to boost Ocado grocery deliveries
Marks & Spencer's Chief Executive, Stuart Machin, is working on a blueprint to ramp up the retailer’s Ocado food delivery operation.
He is embarking on a review to improve the service, with the aim of making the business more efficient and spurring growth, according to a report by The Mail On Sunday.
M&S is looking to increase its share of the UK's food spending in stores and online by more than 25%. Hannah Gibson, the new boss of the Ocado Retail venture, is spearheading the review.
At present, 75% of the M&S food range is offered through Ocado. Plans are afoot to increase that closer to 100% in the coming months.
An ‘insider’ told The Mail On Sunday that Machin aims to grow Ocado Retail over the next five years to achieve 'a market leading national position in online food retailing and a brilliant showcase for the M&S brand and range'.
He is pushing for 700,000 orders a week, up from 367,000 at the end of the last financial year in March.
2. Autonomous stores firm Trigo announces recent $100m funding round
Checkout free stores specialist Trigo has bagged $100 million in funding, reaching a total of $204 million raised to date.
The investment was led by Singapore state investment firm Temasek (TEM.UL), and 83North.
New strategic investors include SAP and existing backers also joined the round, including Hetz Ventures, Red Dot Capital Partners, Vertex Ventures, Viola, and supermarket giant REWE Group.
3. Amazon begins Venmo payments roll-out ahead of Black Friday
Amazon is to begin offering Venmo as a new payment option for orders placed online and via its mobile app.
Venmo, owned by PayPal , allows users to send money to eachother. It has increasingly expanded beyond its peer-to-peer functionality, with more online players, such as Shopify and Lululemon, adding it to their offerings.
It will start to roll-out to select Amazon customers this week, and it will be available to US customers by Black Friday.
4. Getir to stock Co-op products in quick commerce tie up
Rapid grocery delivery firm, Getir, has announced that it will be stocking a broad range of Co-op products.
From this week, it will be piloting the new offering, consisting of around 300 Co-op lines across ambient and fresh, in select stores in London, expanding to additional locations in the coming months.
Getir will be working with Nisa Retail, the wholesale division of The Co-op Group, who will be supplying their own brand products.
A trial will take place in the Battersea, Earls Court, Seven Sisters, Balham, Tottenham and Bethnal Green stores, leveraging Getir’s network to enable delivery of groceries within minutes.
5. Walmart gets onboard with FIS Premium Payback network
Walmart is joining Premium Payback, a real-time rewards redemption network from FinTech big hitter FIS.
This will give consumers the opportunity to redeem their credit card rewards points for real-time discounts at more than 4,700 Walmart stores across the US.
Those using eligible cards will be prompted at checkout with the option to turn their card rewards currency into discounts, which will be deducted from their purchase amount.
6. Marks and Spencer enlists Happy Finish for launch of first virtual influencer
M&S has announced an expansion to its Insider programme with the arrival of five new Insiders – one of which is a virtual persona named Mira (aka Marks & Spencer, Influencer, Reality, Augmented).
This has been developed using a combination of photography, CGI and computer vision.
Mira was created in collaboration with Happy Finish.
Jeremy Yates, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Happy Finish, says: “It’s brilliant to see our latest project with M&S launch today.”
“They are real leaders when it comes to strategic use of cutting-edge technology to engage existing and new audiences. A big part of our work for M&S focuses on helping the brand unlock new ways to bring its product ranges to life and enrich customer experience.”
“Creating Mira to complement the existing Insiders team is set to do both. We look forward to many more innovative projects with the amazing team at M&S.”
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