RTIH brings you the retail technology week in numbers
Do you like numbers? Do you like retail systems news? Then this is the article for you. Including Prime Day 2022, drone deliveries, checkout-free stores, quick commerce services, and the UK grocery market.
20 and 250…Checkout-free stores are now live in 20 countries across the world, according to research from RBR.
The number of stores across the world using checkout-free technology increased threefold during 2021 to over 250.
48…Amazon’s annual Prime Day event is back.
The 48-hour shopping extravaganza kicks off on 12th July at 3 a.m. EDT and runs through to 13th July for Prime members in Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, the UK, the US, and for the first time ever in Poland and Sweden.
Later this summer, Prime Day deals events will be held in India, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as in Egypt for the first time.
52%…Small businesses are receiving much needed support from their customer base, according to new research from American Express, released to coincide with its summer Shop Small campaign.
The research, conducted by Opinium and involving 1,008 SME senior decision makers, found that 52% of small businesses believe customers are choosing to shop with them to provide support during the current challenging trading environment, brought about by a range of cost and supply chain pressures.
$3.55 million…Gen Z and Millennial consumer insights startup, Knit, has announced an oversubscribed seed funding round of $3.55 million.
The round was led by Silicon Road Ventures with participation from Bread and Butter Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Bootstrappers.mn, Operate Studio, and TiE Global Angels.
Knit’s technology enables customers to tap into Gen Z and Millennial consumers to gather video feedback and quantitative data.
Brands working with the company include NASCAR, WNBA, Harman International (JBL Speakers), and Moët Hennessey.
2%…Less than 2% of US adults are willing to pay a premium fee for ultrafast delivery, according to research by stor.ai.
120 million…Walmart has begun a push to bring UK exporters to its US Walmart Marketplace, an online offering where third-party sellers serve a base of more than 120 million shoppers each month.
Approved sellers will be offered the services of a dedicated onboarding team, as well as access to tools and services to help them rapidly scale up across the Atlantic.
18…Amazon has opened an Amazon Fresh checkout-free store in Hoxton, London, its 18th such location in the UK.
Powered by Just Walk Out technology, the store can be found at Unit 10, 3A Rosewood Building, Shoreditch Exchange, 97-137 Hackney Road, E2 8GY.
3,500…The 3,500 residents of Lockeford, a rural San Joaquin County town in California, will be among the first to have drones deliver their Amazon Prime packages.
“Lockeford residents will play an important role in defining the future,” Amazon said in an online post.
“Their feedback about Prime Air, with drones delivering packages in their backyards, will help us create a service that will safely scale to meet the needs of customers everywhere, while adding another innovation milestone to the town’s aviation history.”
£15 million…Peckwater Brands has secured £15 million in a Series A seed funding round.
This follows a £3 million seed round in October 2021, bringing the firm’s post-money valuation to £65 million.
Founded in 2019, Peckwater Brands builds delivery only food brands, driven by data led customer insight, for restaurants in the UK. The orders are cooked and delivered from existing kitchens alongside their day-to-day operations.
The business operates a mix of licensed brands spanning several categories including chicken (Seoul Chikin, Flip the Bird, Wham Bam Wings, Katsu), burgers (Dukes, Proper Tasty) and has also run shared brands with partners such as Unilever, Buzzfeed, and Heinz.
£12.4 billion…UK tech companies have raised more venture capital funding in the first five months of 2022 than in the whole of 2020.
This puts the country second to the US globally when it comes to startup investment and means that UK startups are outperforming those in China, France and India, when it comes to attracting funding, according to data by Dealroom analysed for the UK’s Digital Economy Council.
So far, more than 950 UK tech startups and scaleups have raised £12.4 billion in 2022, compared to £12 billion for the whole of 2020.
£241.3 billion …The UK grocery market is set to grow by 11.3% – from £216.8 billion to £241.3 billion – between 2022 and 2027, according to IGD.
While inflation will underpin the majority of growth in 2022, with a 3.5% value increase predicted, this will moderate from 2023 onwards.
With the war in Ukraine impacting the UK supply chain and food prices expected to increase by 8.9% in 2022, IGD anticipates shoppers will respond to this and the spike in general inflation by making real terms cuts in food expenditure.
