Top 10: last week’s most read retail technology articles

These are the RTIH articles that caught your fancy last week, including GoPuff, PrettyLittleThing, LG Electronics, Puma Group, Klarna, and Boots.

GoPuff hires Amazon veteran Patrick Bigatel as Vice President of Grocery

Patrick Bigatel has joined quick commerce firm Gopuff as Vice President of Grocery.

He was previously Vice President Of New Business Development at Booster.

Prior to that, he spent almost 15 years at Amazon, holding such positions as General Manager, Amazon Heavy-Bulky, Home Services and Local Selling.

PrettyLittleThing Marketplace resale app goes live

Fast fashion firm PrettyLittleThing has announced the launch of PrettyLittleThing Marketplace, an app which allows people to sell on clothes they no longer wear, or shop for something new to them.

Phase one of the platform will include functions such as PLT existing account sync, PLT and non PLT listings, wishlists, message centre, image recognition and text filtering, verified users and PayPal integration.

PLT Marketing Director, Nicki Capstick, says: “We know now more than ever that our customers are more conscious of how they shop.”

“Therefore, we wanted to be the first fashion brand to launch a resale site with the ability to integrate the customers’ previous PLT purchases into their wardrobe as well as creating new listings and selling items from other brands.”

“We’re encouraging our customers to recycle and resell unwanted garments whilst making money in return.”

LG Electronics unveils LG Art Lab NFT platform

LG Electronics has launched its own non-fungible token (NFT) platform, LG Art Lab.

Now available in the US on the company’s TVs running webOS 5.0 or later, and accessible directly from the home screen, this enables users to buy and sell digital artwork.

Puma Group hires Ian Kennedy as Global Head of Digital Experience, E-Commerce

Ian Kennedy has started a new position as Global Head of Digital Experience, E-Commerce at Puma Group.

He joins from Chelsea Football Club, where he served as Head of Digital.

Klarna boss Sebastian Siemiatkowski slams media coverage of FinTech giant

Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Co-founder and CEO at buy now pay later big hitter, Klarna, has taken to Twitter to lambast the media for its coverage of his company.

In a post, he said: “Fascinating learning in my life is the full disconnect between media's"truth" about Klarna vs actual state of Klarna.”

“Perception vs reality, sometimes benefit or not. Established incorrect "truths" impossible to correct. And tweeting some reason into it=screaming into a storm.”

Siemiatkowski didn’t reveal who exactly upset him and what they said, but, dare we suggest, it’s possibly to do with Klarna posting and operating loss of 6.17billion Swedish crowns (£497 million) for the first half of 2022, compared to 1.76billion crowns in the same period last year.

The FinTech blamed this on rapid international expansion, higher credit losses in new markets, and rising staff costs.

Rapid grocery delivery bubble bursts. Here’s why it’s no great surprise

The rapid grocery delivery sector is falling on hard times after booming during the Covid-19 outbreak.

What’s surprising is it’s only just happening now, says Jonathan Carrier, Co-Founder at ZipCharge.

In a LinkedIn post, he observed: “I find it incredible that a business built on such poor fundamentals and unit economics can raise so much money. It’s been a Ponzi scheme of growth, with heavily discounted service driving false hyper-growth metrics of new users, to fund further unsustainable growth.”

Boots preps Mirakl powered online marketplace

UK health and beauty retailer, Boots, is set to launch a new online marketplace, with the aim of welcoming third-party brands into its digital offering.

Due to launch in spring 2023, Boots Marketplace is part of the retailer’s digital strategy to rapidly extend the range of its website and explore new and diverse categories for its customers.

Marketplace products will be integrated with the existing product range on boots.com, offering customers access to hundreds of new brands across established names and new sellers.

Powered by Mirakl, customers will still enjoy a single checkout for mixed baskets and access to the likes of Boots Advantage Card points.

Balmain Paris and SharpEnd launch NFC enabled Pokémon adventure

Balmain Paris has announced a Balmain x Pokémon collaboration, an immersive digital experience enabled through NFC patches and a luxury connected jacket. 

To integrate the technology, Balmain has partnered with SharpEnd.

Here’s what happened in the retail technology space during August

RTIH takes a look back at an eventful month for the retail tech sector, including Amazon, Walmart, Co-op, Uber Eats,  Gopuff, Waitrose, and Pinterest.

kate spade new york launches first global activation in the metaverse

kate spade new york has unveiled its fall 2022 campaign, bringing the scenes of a fall townhouse to life against a backdrop of the brand’s seasonal prints - leopard, roses, oversize graphic polka dots and colourful plaids.

With photography by Nadine Ijewere, film by Grammy award winning director Alan Ferguson and styling by Nathan Klein, the campaign tells the story of residents in a New York City townhouse apartment building coming together for a Saturday afternoon open house. 

And they’re all wearing kate spade new york fall brand prints (natch).

To promote the concept, people will be able to explore the campaign and collection in an immersive and interactive virtual townhouse, kate spade new york’s first global activation in the metaverse.