Top 10: last week’s most popular retail technology articles
These are the RTIH articles that caught your fancy last week, including Zapp, Jiffy, Sensei, Galp, Getir, Co-op, Netto, and Ikea.
Zapp teams with Jiffy to offer rapid delivery for Londoners
Quick commerce firm Jiffy recently shifted from grocery delivery to providing software for other delivery apps.
And it has now inked an exclusive partnership with Zapp as it looks to provide continuity to its customers in London.
Zapp will become the official choice for Jiffy customers wishing to continue ordering essentials for delivery within minutes. The agreement will also include customer and product analytics, and key supplier partnerships.
Sensei tech powers autonomous petrol station convenience store
Sensei is providing an autonomous retail experience for petrol station customers following a tie up with Galp in the Iberian Peninsula.
Sensei has created a 323 square foot checkout-free convenience store at a Galp location in Lisbon.
This offers a number of non-perishable goods, food, snacks and beverages to customers and includes a network of cameras mounted in the ceiling and sensors in shelves to detect the items people pick or leave.
The autonomous software creates and keeps track of each person’s virtual shopping bag and charges them automatically via an app, with credit card payments soon to follow, upon exiting the shop.
The store open to customers from 8am until midnight every day with 24/7 access becoming available in the next month.
The rapid grocery delivery apocalypse is upon us. Here’s how to survive it
These are challenging times for the rapid grocery delivery space.
Gorillas is laying off 300 staff and exiting Italy, Spain, Denmark and Belgium.
Gopuff cut 400 staff in March.
Avo slashed its workforce by a third, then ceased Israel and New York operations.
And Jiffy has shifted from grocery delivery to providing software for other delivery apps.
So, is the sky falling? No, it's just an adjustment, argues Viv Craske, Founder of Geeky Foody, a consultancy working with FoodTech and retail tech startups at seed, Series A and B stages.
Quick commerce firm Getir set to axe staff and rein in expansion plans
Turkish rapid grocery delivery big hitter Getir is gearing up to cut 14% of its staff globally.
The company employs some 32,000 people in the nine markets where it operates, which works out to 4,480 people impacted by the downsizing, according to a report by TechCrunch.
boohoo group taps Akeneo PIM solution
Fashion pureplay retailer, boohoo group, says that it has improved operational efficiency and speed to market, with a product information management solution from Akeneo.
Co-op preps new Lab Store launch in Salford Media City
Co-op has opened its fourth Lab Store, where it will test ideas in real situations, get feedback, analyse results and adapt for future roll-out.
The other three stores are in Codshall, Marsh and York.
Netto deploys Imagr smart shopping cart in Denmark
Netto is testing out a shopping cart from Imagr that scans items and handles payment, enabling shoppers to skip checkout queues.
This is currently live at Kirkegårdsvej in Copenhagen, and it will shortly also be found at Kongelundsvej in Copenhagen, Runevej in Aarhus, Bybuen in Skovlunde and Virum.
The shopper’s smartphone is connected to the shopping cart via the Netto+ app. When the cart is filled with goods, these are automatically registered with the user receiving a digital receipt.
The trial is set to run until July.
Ikea launches first omnichannel centric city store in Canada
Ingka Group, the largest Ikea retailer, will today open the first Ikea city store in Canada, as part of its commitment to get closer to its customers.
Ikea Toronto Downtown is the retailer’s 15th store in the country.
Ingka Group’s recent investments in Canada include a new distribution centre in Beauharnois, new planning studios (known as Ikea Plan and order points in Canada) and new pick-up points, as well as the redevelopment of its Ottawa location to ship customer orders directly from the store.
Bolt Executive Chairman Ryan Breslow slams New York Times ‘hit piece’
Ryan Breslow, founder of online checkout technology startup, Bolt, has taken to Twitter to address a recent New York Times article about his company.
Said piece claims that Bolt often overstated its technological capability and misrepresented the number of merchants using its service in a rush to show growth.
Breslow labelled the article a hit piece and laid out a number of reasons why he believes Bolt will succeed in a Commerce 3.0. world.
Bidnamic bags $5m Series A funding from Gresham House Ventures
Google Shopping e-commerce marketing platform Bidnamic has completed a $5 million Series A funding round led by Gresham House Ventures.
This marks the UK-based venture’s first institutional investment.
The round also included existing angel investors, such as Marin Mayer, co-founder of Booking.com, Chris Forrest, board advisor to Net-A-Porter, and Luke Judge, former CEO at Incubeta.
The Series A cash will fuel R&D projects and expansion into the US market.
