The six biggest retail technology news stories of the week
It’s Friday, the weekend is almost upon us, so let’s kick back and reflect on another eventful week for the retail systems space. Here's your briefing on the most important stories from the past five days, including Walgreens Boots Alliance, Starbucks, Aldi UK, and Wegmans.
1. Walgreens Boots Alliance announces Hsiao Wang as new CIO
Walgreens Boots Alliance has appointed Hsiao Wang as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer.
The company’s board of directors says that it has also formed a finance and technology committee to give “even greater focus to this critical function”.
“We are making tremendous progress on our strategic priorities, including transforming and aligning our core business and building our next growth engine with consumer centric healthcare solutions. With this announcement, we are entering our next phase of execution and elevating our capabilities even further,” says Roz Brewer, CEO, WBA.
“We want to welcome Hsiao to our executive leadership team. He is an incredibly talented leader and technologist.”
“Together with our board’s new finance and technology committee, he will be instrumental to achieving our goals and truly differentiating Walgreens Boots Alliance in how we deliver the healthcare of the future.”
2. Starbucks taps Web3 technology for Odyssey experience
Starbucks has officially announced Starbucks Odyssey. Launching later this year, this is the coffee chain’s first shot at building with Web3 technology.
It combines the Starbucks Rewards loyalty programme with an NFT platform, allowing its customers to both earn and purchase digital assets that unlock exclusive experiences and rewards.
The company had previously teased the initiative to investors.
Starbucks brought in Adam Brotman, the architect of its Mobile Order & Pay system and the Starbucks app, to serve as a special advisor.
Now the co-founder of Forum3, a Web3 loyalty startup, Brotman’s team worked on Starbucks Odyssey alongside the retailer’s own marketing, loyalty, and technology teams.
3. Wegmans flags losses as it bins in-store scan and go mobile app
American supermarket chain, Wegmans, is pulling its in-store scan and go app this Sunday, 16th September.
The company told customers about the move in an email.
“SCAN users have told us they love the app and the convenience it offers. We love it too and have tried many adjustments to keep it,” said CEO Colleen Wegman (pictured above).
“Unfortunately, the losses we are experiencing from this programme prevent us from continuing to make it available in its current state.”
“We’ve learned a lot and we will continue to introduce new digital solutions to streamline your shopping experience for the future.”
4. Twilio lays off staff as it looks to attain profitability
Customer engagement platform firm, Twilio, is laying off 11% of its workforce - between 800 and 900 people across its staff of 7,800+, as it faces up to the dangers of rapid growth.
In a message to staff, CEO Jeff Lawson said: “Over the years, we’ve made lots of changes to the way Twilio operates and is organised, but none harder than what I’m sharing today.”
“I’m not going to sugarcoat things. A layoff is the last thing we want to do, but I believe it's wise and necessary. Twilio has grown at an astonishing rate over the past couple years.”
“It was too fast, and without enough focus on our most important company priorities. I take responsibility for those decisions, as well as the difficult decision to do this layoff.”
5. Shopify boosts international selling with Translate & Adapt launch
Shopify is globally launching Shopify Translate & Adapt, the aim of which is to make cross-border commerce even easier for its merchants. For instance, by translating merchant stores into different languages with both manual and machine translations.
The product update builds on the global commerce hub, Shopify Markets, which, the company says, has helped over 175,000 merchants across the world launch their international businesses.
Alongside this, Shopify is also rolling out Shopify Markets Pro in the US, a new solution powered by its partnership with Global-e.
Shopify Markets Pro will help merchants manage the many new complexities they are faced with when selling internationally, like tax, duties, shipping, pricing and payments, and is now available in early access to US merchants.
6. Aldi agrees parcelLab operations experience management tie up
Aldi, which recently overtook Morrisons to become the UK’s fourth largest supermarket, has announced a partnership with delivery operations experience management firm parcelLab.
It will use parcelLab’s platform for its pre-dispatch and outbound communications.
parcelLab’s technology ensures customers will receive Aldi branded communications about deliveries and returns direct from the retailer for non-grocery related online purchases.
In turn, Aldi will be able to use these messages to surface more of its range to customers, while using delivery data to improve overall order efficiency.
