Computer vision powered bars for football fans: 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 Worldline, Groupe Les Mousquetaires, Instacart, Foodcellar Market, JOKR, and Metapack.
£18.2 billion…UK non-food retail sales values are expected to hit £249 billion in 2023, but the 2.6% increase, or additional £18.2 billion of spending on the previous year, will be driven by rising consumer prices.
The E-commerce Delivery Benchmark Report 2023, commissioned by Metapack’s operating company, Auctane, in partnership with economics consultancy, Retail Economics, included a survey of over 730 retail businesses across eight international markets.
It found that 80% were planning to increase the price of products, with 40% suggesting rising costs will be the biggest challenge in 2023.
700…Worldline has implemented an updated ATM fleet roll-out for French retailer Groupe Les Mousquetaires (GLM).
This involved the migration of more than 700 ATMs as part of a one-year project. GLM is one of the first French retailers to upgrade its entire ATM fleet.
1…Instacart has announced the launch of Scan & Pay in partnership with Long Island City grocer, Foodcellar Market.
The retailer is the first to fully debut this technology for in-store shopping.
Foodcellar can now allow customers to scan the barcodes of their items – including produce – while shopping and pay directly through their phones. This means no more waiting in line.
Scan & Pay links items bought in-store to customers’ online Instacart account, making it easier to shop their preferred items from Foodcellar.
30…The University of Notre Dame, Grubhub and Starship Technologies have introduced robot delivery via the latter’s fleet on campus.
During the initial launch, up to 30 on-demand robots will deliver from six campus eateries: Au Bon Pain, Garbanzo, The Gilded Bean, Hagerty Family Cafe, Modern Market and Taco Bell.
The University’s more than 17,000 students, faculty and staff can now use the Grubhub app (iOS and Android) to order food and drinks from on-campus retailers to be delivered nearly anywhere on campus, within minutes.
The service also works in conjunction with students’ meal plans. By spring, the robot fleet will reach 50 and will service additional Campus Dining eateries.
2…Compass Group has opened a second checkout-free location in a UK stadium.
Situated at Premier League football club Aston Villa, this is a self-service bar powered by AiFi technology.
The first bar can be found at Leicester City F.C.
In a LinkedIn post, dated 4th February, Peter Waugh, Digital & Data Director, UK/I, at Compass Group said: “I hate Q’ing, I don’t want to queue behind someone buying food and drink if I just want a drink, I want to maximise the time with my mates, just make it easy, half time is only 15 mins…”.
He added: “OK, no problem…Compass’ second computer vision bar in UK stadia, this time Aston Villa, launched today.”
“Tap your card, enter, pick your drink or food, and walk out. Plus if you want to order your beers and food for half time time, you can, with self-serve kiosks…no waiting. And if you fancy pouring your own - the Holte stand offers that as well.”
$50 million and $1.3 billion…Rapid grocery delivery company JOKR has raised $50 million in a Series C investment on a $1.3 billion post-money valuation.
This follows a $260 million raise announced in November 2021.
G Squared lead the Series C round, with GGV Capital, Tiger Global Management and HV Capital participating. In total, JOKR, which was founded in 2021, has to date raised $480 million in equity and debt.
$25 million…US-based startup, Triple Whale, has announced a $25 million Series B round from NFX and Elephant, with participation from Shopify.
This builds on a 2022 $24 million Series A round (led by Elephant) and a $2.7 million seed round (led by NFX).
Triple Whale's analytics platform equips Shopify brands with an all in one tool to help them locate key metrics and derive instant insights into the performance of their advertising campaigns.
It integrates merchants' data from Shopify, Facebook, Google, TikTok, and other popular apps.
40…UK same day distribution company, CitySprint, has announced the expansion of its electric vehicle (EV) fleet with the acquisition of 40 new vans from Maxus.
The vehicles have a range of up to 213 miles/ 344 kilometres on a full battery.
They have been deployed across the UK with the aim of helping to reduce pollution levels in key cities in which CitySprint operates, including London, Leeds, Bristol, Manchester, Southampton and Birmingham.
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