RTIH presents the retail technology week in numbers
Do you like numbers? Do you like retail systems news? Then this is the article for you. Including Retail Technology Show, Walmart, Ikea, Starbucks, and Amazon Fresh.
6,850…Retail Technology Show, which took place in late April at London Olympia, saw over 6,850 retail professionals attend the two day event.
They joined 200+ technology exhibitors on the show floor and 90+ industry luminaries who spoke on the conference programme.
80% of the UK's top 25 retailers and brands were in attendance, including Amazon, Asos, B&Q, Dunelm, Tesco, Next and Boots.
30…Panasonic has worked with the convenience store of a German team energie GmbH & Company fuel station to deploy electronic shelf labels (ESLs).
The solution provides a wireless connection to a centralised PoS system to automatically update the price displays in-store - enabling marketing campaigns, reducing pricing errors and saving staff up to 30 minutes a day.
1,000…Walmart has expanded its use of the Wrike work management platform outside of Walmart Canada.
It now encompasses more than 1,000 new users across international teams, including Global Tax, Product, Walmart Health, and Walmart Realty.
$67 million and. $100 million…Nexite, whose Bluetooth tag and SaaS merchandise platform delivers real-time in-store sales intelligence aligned to customer behaviour, has raised $67 million in a Series C round of funding, and $100 million overall.
€3 billion…Ingka Group, the largest Ikea retailer, is to invest more than €3 billion in new and existing stores by the end of next year.
“More than ever before, we want to optimise our network of stores in order to cater for an inspiring shopping experience – no matter how or where our customers choose to engage with us,” says Tolga Öncü, Retail Operations Manager, Ingka Group.
“With this investment we aim to secure the long-term viability of our business by making Ikea more accessible, more affordable and more sustainable.”
The company will focus its expansion investments in new physical stores – such as the one opening this week in Nice – as well as in revamping existing ones for a more immersive experience and to support increasing demand for home deliveries.
Recently a store in Kuopio, Finland, was rebuilt to also fulfil customer online orders, allowing customers to get their orders in half the time and with 40% reduced cost of delivery for pick-up parcels.
-12%…UK online retail sales fell -12% year-on-year (YoY) in April, according to the latest IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index, which tracks the performance of over 200 brands.
A £1 million Bring It Back Fund launched this week by Hubbub in partnership with Starbucks aims to increase reuse and remove barriers to reusable packaging in the food and beverage industry.
The aim is to enable innovative new ideas for systems that make it easier for customers to use alternatives to single-use packaging.
The Bring It Back Fund will support pilot projects that help shift people’s habits through behaviour change, incentives, research projects, new technology, innovative applications of existing technology, expansion of existing successful reuse systems, or developing entirely new service models.
40…Studenac, Croatia’s largest retailer by number of stores, has organised a cleanup day that removed 40 cubic metres of waste from the sea floor on the country's Adriatic coast.
Fifty employees joined members of the Mihurić Diving Center in Crikvenica for the fourth time to remove plastic, metal, rubber, glass and other types of waste from Slana Bay.
60%…A new report from Metapack highlights the effect of negative delivery experience on consumer shopping behaviours.
Research was undertaken across the UK, France and Germany, with more than 3,000 consumers taking part.
Metapack found that over 60% of UK consumers have shared negative delivery experiences with friends and family.
700 and 34…Made, an online retailer which designs and sells homewares and furniture, has announced the acquisition of Trouva.
The latter is a platform to discover independent boutiques and brands, offering customers a curated range of homewares, lifestyle and fashion products.
Launched in 2015, Trouva has its HQ in London. The company has relationships with over 700 boutiques across Europe and has delivered to 34 countries worldwide this year.
10 robots are helping Bilka Odense shop floor stuff with physical and time consuming Click and Collect tasks.
This is the result of a collaboration between the Danish supermarket retailer and startup Coalescent Mobile Robotics (CMR).
1…It’s official! Sevenoaks in Kent will host the UK’s first Amazon Fresh checkout-free store outside of London.
On Sunday, we reported on rumours that this would be situated in the former Baby Gap outlet in Bligh's Meadow.
Council planning documents, we noted, showed that permission had been granted for both interior and exterior work on the site.
And job listings had also been posted for retail associates at a Sevenoaks store powered by Just Walk Out technology.
Now an Amazon spokesperson has told RTIH: “We’re delighted to serve customers in the Sevenoaks area and look forward to opening more stores in the future.”
