Including Flying Tiger Copenhagen, Instacart, and refurbed: RTIH presents the retail technology week in numbers

Do you like numbers? Do you like retail systems news? Then this is the article for you. Including MishiPay, Zelig, FIGS, Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology, Asda, and Instacart.

€3.5 millionGreyScout, a SaaS platform for online brand protection, has announced a €3.5 million seed investment, bringing the total raised to €4.5 million.

The round was jointly led by Act VC and Tribal, with participation from Furthr VC, Enterprise Ireland, and HBAN.

Founded in 2020 by John Killian and Chris McCauley, GreyScout is designed to programmatically monitor e-commerce channels, identifying potential intellectual property infringements and grey market activity, with the company catching the attention of the likes of Nestle, Bayer, Netgear, Mayborn, and Dorel Maxi-Cosi.

$57 millionrefurbed, a marketplace for refurbished and upgraded electronics, has announced a $57 million Series C investment led by existing backers Evli, C4 and Speedinvest, with participation from All Iron and several newcomers.

This brings the total investment since the company's inception in 2017 to $130 million, following seeding in 2018 at just under $2 million, a Series A in 2020 ($17 million), and Series B in 2021 ($54 million).

“This milestone not only marks a significant achievement for us, but also signals the wider market's shift towards embracing sustainability in consumer choices,” says Peter Windischhofer, cC-founder and CEO at refurbed.

“Our scalable business model enables us to both grow profitably and make consumption more sustainable. A win-win for us and our planet.”

56Flying Tiger Copenhagen has announced the deployment of MishiPay's suite of transaction solutions across 56 UK stores.

Since the end of September, the chain has been operating exclusively on MishiPay for all transactions.

Already a user of MishiPay's Scan & Go solution, Flying Tiger Copenhagen has expanded its partnership to include cash desk and self-checkout kiosks. It has further plans to introduce the company’s mobile Point of Sale (mPOS) solution to its roster.

£24.1 billionUK consumers are set to spend £24.1 billion online this holiday season (1st November to 31st December), representing a 2.7% increase on the £23.5 billion splashed out online in the same period in 2022, according to Adobe.

The forecast, which is based on Adobe Analytics data from hundreds of billions of actual online transactions and the prices of 100 million SKUs since 2019, also reveals the level of discounting on offer across 18 retail categories.

While overall spend will increase, consumers will be making greater use of deep discounts on offer during Cyber Weekend (24th – 27th November) and flexible payment services such as buy now pay later (BNPL) to spread the cost of holiday gift buying. 

400Sprouts Farmers Market, a specialty retailer of fresh, natural, and organic food in the United States, and Instacart have announced a new partnership to launch FoodStorm, the latter’s order management system (OMS), across all of Sprouts’ 400+ locations.

Sprouts is now accepting pre-orders for the holiday season through its website, app and in-store with FoodStorm’s OMS.

It is known for its online holiday catering options, and the addition of FoodStorm's technology makes it easier for team members to process orders for turkeys, meats, fully prepared meals, party platters and more.

$15 millionZelig has secured $15 million in Series A funding to support the launch of its AI powered virtual try-on and styling technology.

Hilco Global led the funding round, joined by Bezikian Zareh, which brings the company to a $100 million valuation.

It was launched by MadaLuxe Group co-founders Sandy Sholl and Adam Freede, who have privately funding Zelig’s development for three years.

£40 million and 80,000Parcel delivery company DPD has officially opened a new £40 million eco-regional sortation centre in Bromley-By-Bow that will enable the firm to deliver up to 80,000 ‘green' parcels into London each day. 

The facility, which is the size of 8.5 football pitches, will create 650 new jobs when fully operational early in the new year and will mean that DPD's delivery service within London's north and south circular area will be all electric.  

It is a hybrid eco-sortation and distribution facility. In addition to the parcel delivery operation, which will be DPD's greenest in the UK, the 430 metre long conveyor system will automatically sort all intra-London parcels for next-day delivery on-site, instead of them being trunked to the Midlands and back for sorting, as is currently the case.   

As part of being a diesel free operation, the site has solar panels on the parking canopy to help charge the 500 electric delivery vans and a 40,000 litre HVO tank to enable the fleet of LGVs and 7.5T trucks to fill-up with the renewable biofuel. 

The plan also includes the installation of solar panels on the main roof in the new year, which could generate up to 1 million kwh per annum to help power the entire building. 

Docklands will also see DPD achieve its pledge to deliver to 30 of the largest towns and cities in the UK with zero and low emission final mile delivery vehicles. 

1FIGS, a direct-to-consumer healthcare apparel and lifestyle brand, reports that its first permanent physical retail space - its Community Hub - officially opened on 3rd November.

FIGS generated more than $500 million in net revenues in 2022, almost exclusively online.

By expanding into physical retail, its says that it is responding to “the overwhelming desire of its community to experience FIGS both online and in-person, as seen through the strong reaction to our retail pop-ups and other community activations”.

A key aim is to drive increased revenues across the entire platform, particularly since those who shop across multiple channels typically generate significantly more revenue than digital only customers.

100,000More than 100,000 Asda retail workers will work ‘for free’ from this week when compared with their colleagues in depots, according to the GMB union.

6th November, dubbed ‘Asda Equal Pay Day’ by the union, is the day the predominantly male workforce in distribution will have already earned what the predominantly female retail workforce will take home for the entire year.

This means retail staff face 39 working days before Christmas where they will effectively be paid nothing, compared to their distribution colleagues, the GMB claims. 

Asda is currently facing the largest ever private sector equal pay claim, with approximately 50,000 current and former workers suing the company. A hearing takes place in September.

1Georgia Southern University has opened a newly renovated Gus Mart convenience store – now featuring Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology – in the Fielding D. Russell Union on its Statesboro campus.

Georgia Southern is the first university in its state to feature the Just Walk Out offering. The store will operate with extended hours, allowing guests to better shop when it’s easiest for them. 

“At Georgia Southern, we’re constantly looking for new ways to innovate and improve experiences for our students and the university community,” says Ron Stalnaker, Vice President for Business and Finance.

Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology brings a new level of convenience and simplicity to the shopping experience, allowing customers to shop in a fast, frictionless manner and get back to their classes, games and other campus events.” 

1,000 and 2,000A2Z Smart Technologies Corp. reports that HaStok, a specialist in Israel's home design and household essentials retail sector, has reached an agreement with A2Z Cust2Mate to order an additional 1,000 smart carts.

This will take HaStok's total smart cart deployment to 2,000 units.

The agreement encompasses an initial upfront payment, a guaranteed monthly subscription fee, and a revenue sharing agreement, primarily revolving around value added solutions, including advertising services.