Top 10: last week’s most popular retail technology articles
These are the RTIH articles that caught your fancy last week, including Gopuff, Domino’s, Netflix, Marks and Spencer, Zara, buymie, and GreyOrange.
Thought goes live with Shopify integration thanks to Clekt tie up
Sustainable fashion brand Thought has gone live on Shopify as part of its digital transformation programme in partnership with data optimisation specialist Clekt.
Thought invested into the Enterprise Data Hub from Clekt to integrate to multiple systems, centralise business data and put data driven processes at the heart of their business transformation agenda.
Domino’s and Netflix launch mind ordering app ahead of Stranger Things season four
Domino’s is teaming with Netflix to launch an immersive mind ordering app experience which places “test subjects” inside Hawkins National Lab in Hawkins, Indiana – transporting them to the centre of the hit show Stranger Things in 1986.
buymie bags €7 million in funding for grocery delivery platform
Same-day grocery delivery firm, buymie, has completed a €7 million funding round.
With total funding to date now standing at €18.2 million, this latest investment was led by the company’s largest backers including Grosvenor Food & AgTech, Act Venture Capital, Sure Valley Ventures, Haatch Ventures, and HBAN.
Can Gopuff succeed with its current business model?
Could US-based rapid delivery big hitter Gopuff be the next WeWork?
Brittain Ladd, a former Amazon exec and supply chain consultant, certainly sees some similarities between the two.
Marks and Spencer wraps digital and data solutions hackathon
Across two days last week, M&S hosted its fifth 24 hour hackathon, where 18 teams of over 200 colleagues developed digital and data solutions to opportunities on offer to the retailer.
The event takes place every six months and was powered by the BEAM Academy, the home of all things digital and data learning at M&S.
Shakeeb Masri steps down from e-commerce role at Carrefour Majid Al Futtaim
Shakeeb Masri has departed Carrefour Majid Al Futtaim where he held the position of Vice President E-commerce.
Reality bites as Zara charges for online returns
A challenge online retailers have recently faced, while scaling aggressively during the Covid-19 outbreak, is how to deliver a customer experience that includes fast shipping and free returns.
The growing volume of returns, the associated environmental impact and abuse, the latter including practices such as wardrobing or purchasing multiple items and returning the majority, is negatively hitting margins and reputations to the extent that companies feel the only choice is put a charge in place.
Zara has followed Next and Uniqlo in doing this, and more retailers will likely follow suit.
Made.com appoints Patrick Lewis as Chief Financial Officer
Made, an online retailer which designs and sells homewares and furniture, has announced the appointment of Patrick Lewis as Chief Financial Officer with effect from 27th June.
Forget offline vs online. The big word in retail is hybrid
Too much time has been wasted on the offline vs online debate.
The reality is that both are hugely important to forward thinking retailers. The big word right now is hybrid, that is, the blurring of online and offline and the pursuit of one customer experience.
GreyOrange bags $110 million for automated fulfilment platform
Blackrock Capital Group and Mithril Capital Management Group have announced a $110 million investment in robotic fulfilment and inventory optimisation software firm GreyOrange.
GreyOrange, which works with the likes of Walmart and H&M, says it will use the cash to “accelerate the company’s technology leadership, continue our global expansion and further support the adoption of our platform in warehouses, distribution centres and retail stores”.
