Amazon UK, Klarna, and Emperia: these are last week’s most read RTIH retail technology articles
These are the RTIH articles that caught your fancy last week, including Amazon UK, Klarna, Aldi, Trigo, Emperia, Żabka Group, and Dexory.
Amazon UK opens Just Walk Out tech powered Amazon Fresh store in Croydon after Dalston closure
Amazon has opened an Amazon Fresh checkout-free convenience store in Croydon.
This can be found at Unit 1, Ruskin Square, Croydon, London, CR0 2WF, and is open from 7:00 am to 11:00 pm, seven days a week.
In addition to a convenience grocery store offering, customers can also pick up items purchased on Amazon.co.uk at an Amazon Hub, and return items without needing to package the product or print a shipping label.
On Saturday, 21st January, RTIH exclusively reported that Amazon Fresh had closed its Dalston, London location, less than 18 months after opening it in a blaze of autonomous retail glory.
2022 RTIH Innovation Awards winners and highly commended entries announced
Now into their fourth year, the awards celebrate global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.
We received a record number of submissions this year across 14 categories (you can find a full rundown of the 2022 shortlists here).
Our winners and highly commended companies were announced during a sold out event that took place in central London last week and was attended by retailers, tech suppliers, members of our judging panel, and sponsors.
So, without further ado, here is the 2022 RTIH Innovation Awards hall of fame.
Congratulations to our latest entrants!
Autonomous retail tech will push things forward: Poland’s Żabka Group reviews its time at NRF 2023
Earlier this month, Żabka Group was out in force at NRF 2023 in New York.
Żabka Nano, an autonomous store concept that has been developed under the umbrella of Żabka Future for over a year and a half, was featured at the Microsoft booth.
And now Patryk Powierża, Growth Lead at Żabka Polska, has taken to LinkedIn to sum up the firm’s time at the show.
Autonomous technology will drive the retail industry, he argued.
“We have had great talks with worldwide retailers. All of them were interested in the details of approaching autonomous technology from the retailer's perspective and our plans for how to scale it up. Most of them were from Asia and North and South America,” he wrote.
He added: “The doors of our Nano store were opened about 1,200 times. Most of the visits included groups of about five to eight people.”
“We can say that a few thousand people had a chance to check the Żabka Nano store. From unofficial info, we know that the Microsoft booth was one of the most interesting during the whole event.”
Powierża concluded: “Opening the pop-up store in NYC was a challenge. I used to compare our store to Ikea Retail, but sending a store from Poland to the USA wasn’t an easy job.”
“The store was assembled in three days and it was fully functional. It only proves how flexible our technology is.”
Teaming up: Retail Technology Show and the BRC announce innovation partnership
Retail Technology Show and British Retail Consortium have announced a strategic partnership which will showcase the role of innovation in driving the future of retail.
This will see the latter lead a keynote session at Retail Technology Show, taking place at London’s Olympia on 26th-27th April, as part of a conference programme that also includes Farfetch, Alibaba, Deliveroo and Currys.
Andrew Opie, Director of Food and Sustainability at the BRC, will be discussing the key sustainability questions retailers should be asking themselves in 2023 on day one of the show.
Dr Kris Hamer, Director of Insight at the BRC, meanwhile, will join the closing keynote panel discussion, also on day one, which explores the key innovations impacting retail today and how this will evolve as we look ahead to 2028.
Autonomous robots firm Dexory announces new round of angel investors joining advisory board
AI and robotics company, Dexory, formerly known as BotsAndUs, has secured a new round of angel investors.
This follows investment in 2022, when it bagged $13 million in a seed round led by Swiss venture capital firm Lakestar.
The new investors include Paul Dodd, Martin Bysh, and Thomas Bagge.
Dodd, Chief Innovation Officer and Co-founder, Huboo, brings over 20 years of experience working with robotics and supply chain with P&G, both in the UK and worldwide.
Bysh, meanwhile, is CEO and Co-founder at Huboo.
Bagge, CEO at Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA), has worked with global supply chains for 25 years in both logistics and container shipping companies.
A large part of his career has been centred around digital transformation, process automation and deployment of new technologies.
FinTech startup Twinco Capital raises $12 million to expand supply chain finance platform
Twinco Capital, a global supply chain finance solution that covers the production cycle from purchase order to final invoice payment, has closed a $12 million equity and debt round.
The investment was led by Quona Capital, and included participation from Working Capital, as well as existing investors Mundi Ventures and Finch Capital. Zubi Capital provided the venture debt portion.
The funds will be used to accelerate the company’s expansion within the major sourcing countries and strengthen its technology and data capabilities, in particular in relation to ESG.
RTIH gets to grips with the ChatGPT phenomenon and its relevance to the retail technology space
Unless you’ve been holidaying on Mars lately, you’ll be aware that ChatGPT is so hot right now.
But what is it exactly? And how is it relevant to the retail technology space?
Emperia raises $10 million to further develop its virtual store management SaaS platform
Emperia, which creates immersive e-commerce spaces for retail brands, has raised a $10 million Series A.
This follows an $875k pre-seed in 2021 (featuring Concept Ventures, SFC Capital, Blissgrowth).
The Series A round was led by Base10 Partners and joined by investors including Daphni (via its retail fund Dastore), Sony Innovation Fund, Background Capital, Stanford Capital Partners and Concept Ventures. Angels include Blissgrowth’s Jay Radia.
Retail technology gone wrong? Jelle Prins slams 'arrogant, simplistic' Aldi Utrecht till-free store
Last year, Aldi Nord opened a Trigo powered Aldi Shop & Go store in the Dutch city of Utrecht.
This is a 3,982 square feet location where shoppers can walk in, select their items, and walk out without having to queue at the checkout lane or scan any items.
In its largest store format to date, Trigo applies its algorithms to shelf sensors and ceiling mounted cameras which analyse anonymised shoppers' movements and product choices.
Payments and receipts are settled digitally.
The store featured in one of our weekly coolest retail technology plays round ups.
And Jan Oostvogels, CEO at Aldi Holding in the Netherlands, said in a press release: "We are very proud to be able to test this innovation project in Utrecht together with our customers.”
“It fits our strategy as a discounter to make shopping as easy as possible for our customers. After all, our experience shows that our customers appreciate quick and easy processes at the checkouts. Our test shop in Utrecht fits this perfectly."
But not everybody is a fan.
Jelle Prins, who has designed apps for the likes of Uber and Booking.com, popped along to see what all the fuss was about and ended up venting spleen on Twitter.
BNPL firm Klarna research reveals household goods bucking inflation and falling in price
Buy now pay later specialist Klarna has released data from PriceRunner, which it acquired last year, showing the products which are bucking the inflationary trend this winter.
Household goods, sports equipment, and luxury items have all fallen sharply in price over the past year.
With inflation hitting 11% this month, the data indicates that shoppers will still be able to find good deals and fair prices for household products and leisure items.
For those looking to upgrade their home appliances, washing machines are now 25% cheaper and tumble dryers are now 60% cheaper than they were a year ago. The price of pressure washers and power washers has also fallen by 26%.
Meanwhile, for those looking to keep active, sports equipment has also become cheaper, with bikes 23% less expensive than they were a year ago and fitness machines costing 25% less.
People looking to invest in more luxury household items will be pleased to hear that these have dropped in price, with the cost of saunas and turntables falling by 26% and 52%, respectively.
Similarly, vehicle stereos have seen a price drop of 63% over the last 12 months.
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