Black Friday arrives. Here’s what happened in the retail technology space during November
RTIH takes a look back at an eventful month for the retail systems sector, including Locus Robotics, Aldi Nord, Trigo, DoorDash, Shopify, and a certain 2022 Innovation Awards.
Good month for…
Locus Robotics, a specialist in autonomous mobile robots for fulfilment and distribution warehouses, secured more than $117 million in Series F funding, led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management and G2 Venture Partners.
As part of this, Mark Midle, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs, and Zach Barasz, Partner, G2 Venture Partners, will join the Locus board of directors.
The funding round brought its valuation close to $2 billion.
Shopify announced a record setting Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend, with sales of $7.5 billion from independent businesses worldwide.
That’s a 19% increase in sales from the $6.3 billion during the same weekend in 2021 (21% on a constant currency basis).
“This year, Black Friday/Cyber Monday showed us once again that consumers are voting with their wallets to support the independent brands they love,” said Harley Finkelstein, President at Shopify.
“We saw record level shopping happening across all channels this weekend, proving businesses that meet their customers where they are, whether that’s online or in-person, will earn their loyalty in return.”
Bad month for…
Rapid delivery big hitter, DoorDash, announced it was laying off 1,250 people as it looked to rein in costs.
CEO Tony Xu said in a message to employees: “This is the most difficult change to DoorDash that I’ve had to announce in our almost 10-year history.”
“Today, we are reducing our corporate headcount by approximately 1,250 people and saying goodbye to many talented teammates. If you are among those impacted, I am truly sorry and I apologise to have some of you wake up to this news as opposed to reading it during more normal hours.”
Also this month…
RTIH announced the shortlists for its 2022 Innovation Awards.
Check them out here.
Winners will be announced at an event in Central London on Tuesday, 6th December.
Aldi Nord announced a partnership with Trigo.
This builds on a tie up in Utrecht with Aldi Nederland where the pair are working on a checkout-free test store, Aldi Shop & Go.
"To successfully lead discount retail into the future, technology and business must go hand in hand," said Sinanudin Omerhodzic, Chief Technology Officer at Aldi Nord.
"Our close partnership with Trigo unites exactly that and brings together two true experts in their field.”
“The cooperation in Utrecht has shown that we share the right values and that together we can develop quick solutions with an eye for essentials, always focusing on customer benefits."
Omerhodzic added: "We don't have final reports yet, but the initial results of Aldi Shop & Go are promising.”
Marks and Spencer bought the intellectual property of Thread, the fashion personalisation website which recently went into administration.
The pre-pack deal includes Thread’s source codes and algorithms that will be integrated into the M&S site.
The retailer will also hire 30 of Thread’s staff, including founders Kieran O’Neill and Ben Phillips.
Uber Eats and Zapp agreed a quick commerce partnership.
Customers across central London using Uber Eats will now be able to order from Zapp’s catalogue of around 2,000 products.
Each order will be picked and packed from the nearest ‘Zappstore’ for delivery within as little as 20 minutes, 24/7.
Zapp says that this makes it one of the only convenience retailers available on Uber Eats night and day.
Alibaba Group concluded its 14th annual 11.11 Global Shopping Festival and delivered results in line with last year’s GMV performance as it deployed robots, virtual influencers, and doubled down on cloud computing clean energy.
Last year, Alibaba said it generated GMV of RMB540.3 billion ($84.54 billion at the time).
1.11 pre-sales kicked off on 24th October at 8:00pm China Standard Time, versus 20th October last year, and sales ran from 8:00pm on 31st October to 10th November 11:59pm, climaxing on Friday with 17 million products on offer to over one billion consumers in China.
Just Eat Takeaway.com partnered with rapid delivery company Getir across Europe.
As part of this, the latter’s entire product portfolio will be integrated into Just Eat Takeaway.com's marketplace and will be delivered directly by Getir couriers.
The partnership kicked off in Germany, with approximately 2.000 items ready for customers to buy online from all Getir stores, through Lieferando’s app and website.
It will be rolled out to other European markets including the UK, Spain, Italy and France, in the coming weeks.
Canadian discount store chain, Giant Tiger, launched a new website and an end to end tech stack replacement.
In a LinkedIn post, Simon Rodrigue, SVP & Chief Digital Officer at Giant Tiger, said: “Excited to be working with Shopify on the Shopify Plus platform building out an experience to help Canadians save with a smile.”
He added: “Thanks to all of the teams at Giant Tiger, our lead development partners at Diff and our technology partners at Algolia, Contentful, Segment, ShipHero, Akeneo, Sitation, 6 River Systems, Alumworks, Noibu, Yotpo, Klaviyo, Gorgias, Plobal Apps - it takes a powerful team, dedicated to a cause to make it happen.”
In a Twitter post, Aaron Rubin, Founder and CEO at ShipHero, described the project as “the biggest Shopify ecosystem news you haven’t heard”.
Sensei said that Muffato had adopted its AI platform for what was pitched as Brazil's first autonomous supermarket.
The Muffato Go store is situated in Curitiba, Paraná, comes without queues, self-scanning or any form of physical checkout, and is the first deployment of Portugal-based Sensei's technology outside of Europe.
Shoppers download Muffato’s app, which generates a QR code that enables them to enter the store, pick up their items and leave.
A network of sensors provides the input Sensei's AI needs to keep track of the items each customer selects and returns throughout the 250 square metre location.
Off the back of a pilot in Canberra, Australia earlier this year, Coles Group is expanding its drone delivery programme with operator Wing to its Gold Coast customers.
It says that it will be the first major supermarket to launch a store to door drone delivery concept in Australia.
Customers in the Gold Coast suburbs of Ormeau, Ormeau Hills, and Yatala will be able to the try out the new model, directly from the Coles store at Ormeau Village Shopping Centre.
The service will gradually expand to include other nearby suburbs, delivering 500 of the most popular Coles grocery items including bread, fresh produce, convenience meals, snacks, health care items, and household essentials.
These will be delivered to customers’ home within 10 minutes on average.
Coles team members will process and pack orders, and Wing staff will load the drones and oversee operation of the delivery service.
Continue reading…