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 Walmart, Roblox, Naver, Poshmark, Gopuff, and Target.
1. Walmart preps Electric Fest music festival experience in the metaverse
Walmart has announced Electric Fest, building on last week’s Roblox metaverse announcement.
This weekend, users can jump back into Walmart Land’s Electric Island, which was inspired by the world’s greatest music festivals.
For the first time on Roblox, the retailer will be hosting a festival experience, featuring Madison Beer, Kane Brown and YUNGBLUD, for people to enjoy from the comfort of their own homes.
Electric Fest is a motion capture concert that aims to “celebrate self-expression through music”.
It will be available in Walmart Land on Roblox from Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 7 pm EST each evening
Check out a behind the scenes look at how this all came to life.
👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻
2. Naver announces plans to acquire Poshmark
South Korean search giant, Naver, is set to acquire secondhand apparel marketplace Poshmark for $1.2 billion in cash.
The pair expect the deal to close by Q1 2023, subject to approval by Poshmark stockholders and “the satisfaction of certain other customary closing conditions.”
Poshmark will become a standalone subsidiary of Naver, led by CEO Manish Chandra and the current management team. It’ll continue to operate under its existing brand, and maintain its staff, user base and headquarters in Redwood City, California.
3. Made.com notches up a social commerce first with Pinterest campaign
Furniture and homewares retailer Made.com has launched its first Idea Ads with Paid Partnership campaign on Pinterest, making it the first brand to do so in the UK.
To support its Never Ordinary campaign, the company’s collaboration with two creators on the platform (Kerry Lockwood and Little Big Bell) aims to inspire Pinners to style unique spaces in their houses with bright and colourful touches.
Pinterest recently launched Idea Ads with Paid Partnership to enable businesses to collaborate with a creator to produce “immersive, interactive branded content that consists of images and videos to tell a story and inspire the creator’s audience to action”.
It also provides companies the ability to scale collaborative content beyond the creator’s audiences by promoting it to their target audiences and measuring performance on Pinterest’s ad platform.
4. Gopuff SVP Daniel Folkman is right to predict tough times for quick commerce rivals
The majority if not all of Gopuff's direct rapid delivery competitors will be extinct within the next 6 to 12 months.
So said the company’s Senior Vice President, Business, Daniel Folkman, in a recent interview.
“When money grows on trees, there’s an opportunity to do anything,” he commented.
However, when profit becomes “the pure focus […] if you don’t have a structurally sound core business, it is going to be very hard to endure especially when you have astronomical cash deployment rates,” Folkman added.
He’s right to say this, according to Brittain Ladd, a supply chain consultant and former Amazon exec.
5. Target hires Prat Vemana as it looks to grow digital business
Target has appointed Prat Vemana as Executive Vice President, Chief Digital and Product Officer.
Vemana will join the retailer on 31st October, reporting to Chief Guest Experience Officer Cara Sylvester.
In this role, he will oversee Target's digital business, including site merchandising, user experience, digital operations and product, and Target+, an online third-party marketplace.
Additionally, Vemana will provide key support for the product teams.
6. Click and Collect economy booms amid rise in hybrid shopping
Click and Collect transactions will be worth £42.4 billion in 2022 – 8.4% of the UK’s total retail spending, according to research from Barclaycard.
The company’s study – ‘What’s in store for retail?’ – focuses on retail businesses with over ten employees, and looks at the rise of ‘hybrid’ shopping.
Barclaycard surveyed 2,006 UK consumers and 600 UK senior managers in retail businesses who have at least one physical store.
Click and Collect now accounts for 40% of sales for retailers who offer the service, up from 37% a year ago.
The popularity of the service grew during the Covid-19 pandemic but, unlike pure online sales which peaked during that period, it has continued to grow post the lifting of lockdown restrictions.
