Ocado struggles while M&S innovates: 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 Ocado, Marks and Spencer, Amazon, Prada, AiFi, Spreetail, and Quadient.
$20.5 million…Israel-based Hexa, a 3D asset visualisation and management platform specialist whose customers include Amazon, Macy's, Logitech, and Crate and Barrel, has announced a $20.5 million Series A funding round, bringing total funding to date to $27.2 million.
$20 million…Hectare says that it has raised $20 million in Series A funding.
The round was led by existing and private investors.
The investment will be used to support Hectare’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) inventory, trading, logistics and market insights product development, and expansion into new international markets.
Since its launch in 2015, the startup has facilitated over $1 billion in commodities trading through its technologies, which generate insights – from animal health to market price benchmarking – so agri businesses can make better informed decisions while increasing their sustainability, productivity and profitability.
£501 million…Losses at Ocado rose to half a billion pounds as the UK grocery retail and technology group went big on international expansion and shoppers tightened their belts amid a cost-of-living crisis in its home market.
Pre-tax loss rose to £501 million in the year to last November, up from £177 million the previous year.
Sophie Lund-Yates, Lead Equity Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, says “Ocado Retail has seen losses mushroom. Despite a 13% increase in active customers, volumes haven’t followed suit, meaning the cost to serve all those online orders has become a burden.”
“Ocado is in the eye of the cost-of-living storm because its offering isn’t synonymous with being the best value, it’s a higher-end option, without the same benefits of enticing people in with tangible, physical goods like M&S or Waitrose can.”
She adds: “Ocado’s proposition and brand means it could struggle to compete in this bargain hunting environment, but for now market share is at least moving in the right direction according to Kantar. Online overall fell by 0.9% in the 12 weeks to 19th February, but Ocado sales were up 11.3% in that time.”
“This was likely buoyed by Valentine’s Day, where the sale of more lucrative dinners, including steak and sparkling wine flourished. As we move away from that tailwind, it will be clearer to spot how well Ocado’s market position is doing.”
“Over the medium term it’s possible we’ll see its unique selling point of being online-only being chipped away at, as other supermarkets massively up their game in this arena.”
She concludes: “This does have some benefits for Ocado though. Its future engine driver is its Solutions business, which charges third party retailers to use Ocado's robotic systems.”
“Hundreds of thousands of orders are processed each week, with the help of automated 'bots' scurrying around the trademarked grid systems. As online shopping settles at a permanently higher base post-pandemic, this is an excellent product in Ocado’s armoury.”
10 million and 251…M&S says that it is the first major retailer to green light a reduced packaging initiative for Click & Collect orders following a customer trial.
It is rolling out a new BYOB – Bring Your Own Bag – offering to 251 of its stores.
This takes away the need for the traditional plastic carrier across online orders that are picked and packed at the collection store by asking customers to, yep, you’ve guessed it, bring their own bag.
M&S says the move will save 10 million units of plastic annually.
During the aforementioned trial, which took place at 16 M&S stores, customers were reminded at point of checkout to bring their own bag when coming into store to collect an order placed online.
They were then reminded again when notified that their order was ready to collect. Over the course of seven months, 39,347 orders were fulfilled this way, removing over 109 thousand units of plastic.
2…Retail Assist has welcomed two new brands, Hobbs and Phase Eight, part of TFG Brands (London), to its client roster.
The womenswear specialists will be supported with its 1st Line Help Desk service, acting as a single point of contact for 266 stores across the UK.
Having supported Whistles since 2010, Retail Assist says it was well positioned to roll-out its support model to two more TFG brands.
Previously, Hobbs and Phase Eight received IT support from their internal shared IT services team.
£1 million…ZIPZERO has raised over £1 million in seed funding.
The startup has developed an app that allows users to receive cash rewards by sharing receipts from their everyday purchases, which are then used to pay household utility bills.
It raised the cash from angel investors, one of which includes serial FinTech investor and founder of Global Processing Services, Craig Dewar.
ZIPZERO, which lays claim to more than 100,000 users in the UK, will use the funding for the likes of growing its platform, and securing new partnerships with retailers and brands.
It says that more than 30,000 new users signed up to use the app in January alone, with consumers searching for ways to combat record high energy bills and double digit inflation.
Partner retailers include Asda, Boots, Ebay and Sainsbury’s.
10…Prada has announced the tenth instalment of its Timecapsule NFT Collection.
The drop on 2nd March, which is the final release in a three-part series of shirts, features special prints by Italian photographer Enzo Ragazzini from his archives of the 1960s and 1970s.
Titled INTERFERENZA OTTICA ART PRINT BY ENZO RAGAZZINI, 1969, the March shirt will feature a design made in 1969 for the Enzo Ragazzini exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London (ICA) with the optical interference technique, using mechanical devices of his own invention (the "rotating plane" for the circular patterns and the "rotating drum" for horizontal ones).
This work was then digitised in 2017.
1…SES-imagotag has announced the opening of the UK’s first VUSION 360 powered store.
Leveraging the firm’s VUSION Retail IoT Cloud platform, Kavanagh’s location in Belsize Park, London taps various retail applications to improve its daily operations, providing a 360° view on all store activities and delivering data and feedback on actions in-store.
The store features automated price and promotion execution with real-time shelf visibility, helping to both drive sales and prioritise replenishment of high value and margin products.
100…Autonomous retail firm, AiFi, has hit an active stores milestone.
In a LinkedIn post, the company said: “The launch of our store with Żabka Polska in Poland marks our 100th active store worldwide, a testament that autonomous retail isn’t just a trend; it’s here to stay”
“In cooperation with AiFi, we have created an innovative concept of Żabka Nano, which on a global scale, makes a revolutionary change in the perception of consumer experience,” says Tomasz Blicharski, Managing Director at Żabka Future.
“The idea of an autonomous store makes shopping the most convenient experience ever, since it only requires taking a product from the shelf and paying for it at the checkout without scanning.”
$208 million…Spreetail, a specialist in e-commerce logistics and channel management, has closed a funding round bringing in $208 million.
The round was supported by McCarthy Capital, internal management, and other investors. The cash will be used to help the company enhance technology efficiencies and support brand partner growth.
Founded in 2006, Spreetail operates seven fulfilment centres across the US and expanded internationally in 2018.
It serves over 500 brands, enabling them to accelerate their e-commerce sales across marketplaces such as Amazon, Target.com, Wayfair, Walmart.com, and eBay.
26% and 24%…Storyblok has released a survey of 6,000 consumers and 500 business leaders at medium sized e-commerce businesses across Europe and the US on the website features that influence their purchasing decisions.
The research revealed a divide in what businesses think consumers want and the website experience they actually demand.
The largest divergence in opinion was in relation to chatbots. 70% of UK businesses said chatbots enhanced the customer experience - only 22% of consumers said they saw a benefit.
When asked what the most important future trends were in marketing for enhancing the consumer experience, 26% of UK businesses ranked AR and VR as the most important.
However, consumers were more sceptical with only 32% agreeing it would encourage them to make a purchase, with 24% saying they ‘didn’t know’. Americans were much more enthusiastic with 57% of consumers saying it would help them make a purchasing decision.
Other important trends cited by business leaders were, personalisation (21%), AI generated content (24%), and automation (17%).
2...Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology and Amazon One solutions have touched down at Kansas City International Airport in the US.
Two &GO stores deploying these offerings can be found in the new Terminal B and baggage claim area.
The new terminal officially opened for business yesterday. It replaces a 50 year old facility and cost $1.5 billion.
10,000 and 18,000…Quadient reports that it has more than 10,000 parcel locker units in operation in the United States and Canada and a total of 18,000 units globally.
It puts this down to continued demand for Parcel Pending by Quadient smart lockers in major higher education and residential campuses, and also the steady expansion of Lowe’s installations in now nearly 2,000 stores in the United States and Canada.
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