Social success stories and Alibaba turns a corner: 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 Target, Currys, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Alibaba, Tesco and Pacsun.

38…DoorDash and Aldi have partnered to bring on-demand grocery delivery to nearly all the latter’s locations across 38 US states.

“By partnering with DoorDash, we can conveniently bring our award-winning, fresh and affordable groceries to even more of our customers’ doors with the click of a button,” says Scott Patton, Vice President of National Buying at Aldi.

“Whether shopping for a weekly grocery haul or in need of a few extra ingredients for tonight’s dinner, our customers now have another way to shop Aldi for all their grocery needs.”

$16 millionE-commerce tech startup, Nosto, has announced the closure of a $16 million funding round, from Mandatum Asset Management’s Growth Equity team (MAM GE).

Since its founding in 2011, Nosto’s technology has been tapped by over 2,500 brands such as Paul Smith, Kylie Cosmetics, Muji, Dermalogica, Centric Brands, and Princess Polly.

$100 million…This week, Target announced that it is investing $100 million into supply chain hubs to speed up e-commerce deliveries, projecting to deliver around 50 million packages this year, nearly double the amount in 2022.

This, according to Brittain Ladd, a supply chain consultant and former Amazon exec, is a good example of Target entering into what he refers to as Target 2.0, whereby the retailer pivots in ways most analysts and consumers aren't expecting.

8.7 million…Currys recently posted a Airfryer Pancakes TikTok video.

It went viral and, yada yada yada, the electrical retailer is understandably rather happy about it

Ryan Todd, Senior Social Media & PR Manager at Currys, said on LinkedIn: “Flippin' heck. Incredible results from our viral video: 8.7 million views on TikTok alone; 44 pieces of PR coverage, including almost blanket national coverage.”

He added: “Amazing work from Amneet Atwal (Social Media Manager at Currys).”

71%A new Emplifi study shows that 71% of online shoppers believe “authentic” positive customer ratings/reviews make a real difference in purchasing decisions. 

The company surveyed more than 2,000 US and UK consumers. It discovered that not all reviews are equal in the eyes of the customer.

According to the study, 87% of respondents said that real life customer reviews/ratings have a greater impact on purchasing decisions compared to influencer/celebrity reviews (50%). 

58% place a high value on product pictures or videos posted by real life customers when researching products online. When researching products online, customer reviews/ratings are the most influential factor in purchasing decisions – outranking price, return policy, and shipping costs.  

10 and 9…TikTok has outpaced Instagram and Facebook to become the UK’s most shopped social channel, according to new research from Retail Technology Show, which will take place on 26th and 27 April at London’s Olympia. 

Its survey of 1,000+ UK shoppers reveals that the average consumer now makes 10 purchases on TikTok each year. 

On Instagram and Facebook, they make nine purchases a year on both the platforms. 

And this indexes even higher when it comes to Gen Z, with the poll showing this demographic makes an average of 19 purchases through the TikTok platform every year – almost double that made by the average UK shopper. 

This compares to 18 purchases on Instagram and 15 purchases this demographic makes on Facebook.

62% and 44%Whilst online store accounts can be a good way for retailers to create lifetime customers, according to new research from checkout technology company Bolt, shoppers are frustrated by having to keep track of their login information for different stores.

The firm surveyed 994 Americans and found that 62% would prefer to sign up for one store account they can use to shop online everywhere.

Consumers' irritation levels are so high that 44% said they'd rather sit in the middle seat of an airplane than keep track of all their online shopping accounts and passwords.

67% of B2B buyers want to conduct their online buying via an avatar in the metaverse, according to research by Wunderman Thompson Commerce & Technology.

2Pacsun has launched its second virtual experience Pacsun Los Angeles Tycoon on Roblox.

The experience pays homage to the brand’s Southern California roots by offering the community the opportunity to build their own map of SoCal, including initial builds in Downtown LA, Santa Monica and Hollywood, with future expansions to come.

It comes almost a year after the release of PacWorld, Pacsun's interactive mall experience.

$35.92 billionChinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba, reports that revenue rose 2% to $35.92 billion for its fiscal third quarter to 31st December, beating expectations.

CEO Daniel Zhang said that merchants were eager to get back in business in a post-Covid world and he expected the recovery to continue.

Alibaba will continue to invest in a large scale pretraining model for AI, he added.

Susannah Streeter, Head of Money and Markets, Hargreaves Lansdown, comments: ‘’Alibaba is starting to turn a corner as consumer confidence slowly returns after China’s onerous zero-Covid crackdown, but it’s going to take time before its powering on all cylinders again.”

“Revenues rose 2% during the quarter when restrictions were finally eased. It’s little surprise it’s been slow going given that 2022 marked one of China’s sluggish years of economic growth in decades. Chinese consumers have also had to deal with rising infections as lockdowns were lifted.”

“Demand was still suppressed in January and February as Covid spread and the New Year celebrations also disrupted sales. But now that cases have subsided, consumer sentiment has risen and the desire to spend is snapping back, which combined with a readiness of online merchants to deal with demand bodes well for Alibaba’s continued recovery.”

Streeter adds: “As the world’s largest e-commerce company, it has 1.3 billion active yearly customers which gives it vast mines of information to use to optimise the virtual shopping experience. It’s little wonder the company has announced it is continuing to invest in a large scale AI deep learning model which can be trained on large datasets.”

“Not only will this help power its e-commerce arm, but this technology can also be used be to cross-fertilise growth in its cloud business, which lags many of the big global competitors. Investors may still be wary of just how this expansion will be managed, given how Alibaba has already been subject to intense regulatory scrutiny.’’

$2.8 billionThe global electronic shelf labels market will reach $2.8 billion by 2028 from $1.5 billion in 2023, at a CAGR of 13.8% according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets.

The growing trend of retail automation, the benefits offered by ESLs, the ability of ESLs to facilitate reduced labour efforts, high demand for price optimisation from retailers, and the advent of 5G are the major factors contributing to this growth.

63% and 58%…Nfinite, a specialist in visualisation and e-commerce merchandising, has announced the findings of Coresight Research's report CGI and 3D Product Imagery: The Future of Visual Merchandising in E-Commerce.

This finds that retailers are bolstering e-commerce shopping capabilities with CGI and AI to deliver more personalised and visually engaging online shopping experiences

A survey found that 63% of brands and retailers currently use lifestyle product photos/images for e-commerce, and 58% tap interactive images, putting these types of product visuals among the top three most used.