Flagship stores and funding feats: 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 Sports Direct, inurface media, Panera, Amazon One, Ikea, Vue Storefront, and Neubility.
Two convenience oriented foodservice outlets are now open at Globe Life Field, home of the Texas Rangers – and they are the first in a Dallas area sports and entertainment venue equipped with Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology and Amazon One.
The outlets, which are branded Express Grill and operated by Delaware North, are located near sections 108 and 124.
Offerings include cheeseburgers, hot dogs, bratwurst, sausage and corn dogs, along with an assortment of packaged beer, spiked seltzers, soda, bottled water, chips, candies and sundries.
Those visiting the stores can insert their credit card or hover their palm at the entry gates to shop.
50…RTIH is pleased to announce the launch of its first ever Retail Technology Innovations Report, sponsored by Metapack.
Available for download here, free of charge, this highlights the top 50 retail tech plays of 2022 as decided by our Editor, Scott Thompson, and an independent advisory panel.
5…Sports Direct has opened a five floor Manchester flagship store, featuring inurface media’s AV solutions.
Said installation features 104 individual displays - 29 LCD and 68 LED displays, including the largest fixed indoor screen within a retail store in Manchester.
The store also contains 181 sqm of LEDs, which is almost enough to fill an entire singles tennis court, as well as five interactive tablets, two projectors, and interactive jump booths.
A 22.5sqm COB LED archway welcomes consumers into the location, followed by LED rafts and tickers - the displays comprise 35,841,664 LED pixels.
The jump booths will play on users' sporting competitiveness and measure just how high they can jump using body recognition technology. This then creates a slow motion playback and allows individuals to cement their positions on a leader board and take the content away with them.
Hang tough, meanwhile, is a bespoke unit that captures how long customers can hang, with displays featuring a countdown timer, personal score and a leadership board for all to see.
£750,000…BlackCurve has secured £750,000 in new funding from investors including Nauta Capital and ACF Investors, bringing its total raised to £3.7 million.
Founded in 2017, BlackCurve’s technology enables retailers to evaluate and optimise their product pricing decisions.
They can tap its platform to set rules that automatically change prices in reaction to competitor behaviour, similar to the systems used by the likes of Amazon.
1…Panera is boosting its MyPanera programme with palm recognition service Amazon One’s newly launched loyalty linking capability.
Panera is the first restaurant chain to offer this.
Those who choose to enrol in Amazon One and link their MyPanera account hover their palm over the Amazon One device, and a Panera associate will be able to welcome them by name. Guests can choose to use the service for loyalty linking, payment, or both.
This is launching at two Panera bakery-cafes in the St. Louis area (Town and Country and Bridgeton locations), and will become available at additional locations in the coming months.
43,000…Two years ago, Ikea Retail Sweden opened its first secondhand store as a test at the Retuna Recycling mall in Eskilstuna.
During FY22, sales more than doubled at the location, by giving around 43 000 products a second life instead of going for waste. This made the business profitable.
“Based on the insights during those two years, we are now taking the next step by keeping the store until August 2025. At the same time, we are transferring the learnings into our 21 Ikea stores in Sweden,” says Reza Shomali Country Business Development & Transformation Manager in Ikea Retail Sweden.
3 billion won…Neubility, a South Korea-based autonomous robot services company, has received three billion won in funding from Samsung Venture Investment.
That takes it total funding to date to approximately 30 billion won.
Neubility was selected by C-Lab Outside, Samsung Electronics’ startup acceleration programme, in 2021.
It has since expanded into overseas markets, such as Japan, Europe, and the United States, and is building a production base in Southeast Asia.
€1.5 million…AssetFloow has closed a €1.5 million investment round.
The startup has developed artificial intelligence technology capable of describing consumer behaviour inside a store without the need for cameras or sensors.
With the aforementioned investment from GED Ventures, it aims to triple its R&D team in Portugal, accelerate expansion in Europe and South America, and consolidate its position in the behavioural analytics market.
$2 million…Appbrew has announced a $2 million seed funding led by Accel with participation from Riversde Ventures and angel investors.
Launched in 2022, Appbrew is a no-code platform that enables brands to quickly create native mobile apps for iOS and Android devices.
Founders Abhijeet Singh (CEO), Mayank Agarwal (CTO) and Sharat Chandra (CPO) have a background in building e-commerce tech stacks for Fortune 500 companies and startups at Walmart, United Health Group, Samsung, and Zopsmart, Zupee, Udaan and Otipy.com.
$20 million…Poland-based Vue Storefront has raised $20 million of equity with Felix Capital, backer of the likes of Mirakl, Travelperk, Moonbug and Farfetch, leading the round and additional funds coming from Philippe Corrot, Founder and CEO at Mirakl, and Nagi Letaifa, Head of Engineering at Mirakl.
In the last 12 months, the company has added customers like Berlin Brand Group, Zenith Watches and Zadig & Voltaire with more than 50% of its pipeline coming from the US enterprise market.
Julien Codorniou, who joined Felix Capital last year from Facebook, will be added to Vue Storefront’s board of directors.
Existing investors Creandum, Earlybird and SquareOne, also participated in the round.
20 million and 40 million…Volumental has hit a milestone in scanning 20 million consumers’ feet, yielding 40 million individual scans.
On 18th February, meanwhile, the company achieved its all time record of 47,502 shoppers scanned.
The data derived from all of this helps consumers find the shoes that feel the best while also enabling footwear manufacturers to improve fit, comfort, and performance.
Volumental’s AI powered foot scanners can be found in the likes of New Balance, Red Wing, Fleet Feet, The Athlete’s Foot, Hoka, Wintersteiger, and Intersport.
26% of Brits have switched from a brand they were once loyal to due to the introduction of paid returns, according to research from SAP Emarsys involving 2,000+ people.
18% of those surveyed describe the introduction of such charges as “unfair”; 13% have even thrown away an unwanted item after failing to return it.
49% of shoppers abandoned a brand they were once loyal to due to cost considerations, and 24% are keen to see retailers prioritise changes to return policies.
So far in 2023, 27% of retailers identify prioritising investment in their delivery processes. A third are also prioritising in more sustainable packaging.
35% and 10%…UK consumers are increasingly turning to alternative payment offerings, including digital wallets, as they look to better manage their finances amidst the cost-of-living crisis, according to new research.
The Worldpay from FIS Global Payments Report 2023 examines how consumers pay today, both in-store and online across 40 global markets.
In the UK, digital wallets are the leading payment method among consumers shopping online, accounting for 35% of e-commerce transaction value in 2022, while they increased their share of PoS transaction value to 10% in 2022.
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