Influencers to the left of me, influencers to the right: 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 Amazon Fresh, OnBuy, Klarna, Coach, Ingka Group, Ikea, and the RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List.
100…The latest edition of the RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List has arrived!
Here are the people who made a splash in 2022 and are set for a barnstorming 2023.
RTIH has scoured the retail technology world to find the most influential figures for this comprehensive list of people and trends that shape the industry and help drive it forward.
We’re living in unprecedented times.
The Covid-19 outbreak has driven a seismic change in shopping habits, with checkout free stores, automation in the supply chain, rapid delivery services, and the metaverse making waves.
Such disruption requires new ways of problem solving and thought leaders who can both evangelise and execute on the likes of digital transformation and omnichannel success.
Which is where the RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List comes in, presented, we should stress, in no particular order.
We hope you enjoy reading through it and, as always, if you would like to give feedback or believe that there are some glaring omissions, please feel free to get in touch here.
Download the list in pdf format here.
Or read via Issuu.
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$12 million…Rally, a composable checkout platform for e-commerce merchants, has announced a $12 million Series A investment, led by March Capital, with additional participation from Felix Capital, Commerce Ventures, Afore Capital, Alumni Ventures, and Kraken Ventures.
This follows a $6 million seed funding round in 2021.
The cash will help Rally strengthen its team, penetrate enterprise and international markets, and expand integrations beyond Swell and BigCommerce with other commerce platforms such as Salesforce Commerce Cloud and commercetools and payment methods such as Affirm and AfterPay.
$6.4 million…Floodlight, which is pitched as a smart business account for e-commerce firms, has raised a $6.4 million seed funding round.
This was led by Aleph, and 83 North, with contributions from former Shutterfly CEO and Amazon UK Managing Director, Yuval Samet, CEO of RiseUp and former CPO of Klarna, and Juan Lobato, Founder and CEO of Ebury.
Floodlight allows e-commerce SMEs to connect a plethora of financial platforms to one dashboard to effectively manage their finances and grow their businesses.
Users can connect the likes of their Shopify store, bank accounts, PayPal, etc. to tap into relevant data that strengthens their personalised insights.
Beyond tech, Floodlight clients have 24/7 access to human support, including financial coaching. Customers can also utilise Floodlight Debit Mastercards with unlimited 1% cash back.
80%…Faced with soaring inflation, 80% of consumers in the UK now regularly use their smartphones to access stored loyalty cards and coupons while shopping in physical stores, compared to 79% for the US, 73% for France and 72% for Germany.
A report commissioned by Airship, and conducted in partnership with Sapio Research, surveyed more than 11,000 people globally.
Among ten ways consumers use smartphones while shopping in physical stores, it was their use of the retailer’s app that saw the most year-over-year growth, going from 65% to 74% of respondents.
50%…Half of UK consumers would support an online delivery tax, levied to offset carbon emissions associated with order fulfilment, according to research from Retail Technology Show.
Its research of over 1,000 Brits revealed that 76% believe retailers could do more to be sustainable.
67% said making fulfilment carbon-neutral was one of the main ways retailers could improve green retailing, with 50% now in support of online retailers being taxed to offset carbon emissions generated from deliveries, rising to 56% of Gen Z consumers.
At the same time, however, 68% flagged speed of delivery as their top consideration, followed by the cost of delivery not being too expensive (53%) or being free (51%).
This follows recent research by Asendia that showed while 48% would pay more for faster fulfilment, fewer (23%) would pay more for 100% carbon-neutral deliveries.
$2.2 billion…Ingka Group, the largest Ikea retailer, has announced an investment of more than $2.2 billion in omnichannel growth in the United States over the next three years.
Marking its largest investment in almost four decades of operating in the country, the company will open new stores and locations, strengthen its fulfilment network, and boost its product offering.
The aim is to get closer to customers both physically and digitally.
In the first phase, the plan is to open eight new stores and nine plan and order points, creating over 2,000 jobs. Ikea US has also announced new locations in San Francisco, California and Arlington, Virginia, set to open this summer.
200 and 19…Amazon Fresh UK has dropped the prices of over 200 products across all 19 of its stores.
Amazon says that it is “helping customers save on their home essentials at a time when many are feeling the pressure on their pockets”.
1…Coach has opened a Coach Play store in Singapore.
This is the first Asia location in a new series of immersive concept stores. It lines up alongside launches in Tokyo's Harajuku and Salt Lake City’s City Creek, with more to come.
In a LinkedIn post, Giovanni Zaccariello, SVP Global Visual Experience at Coach, said: “Coach opens Coach Play Singapore in a traditional Shophouse. This is the third in a series of concept stores leaning into localisation and community.”
“This immersive experience includes a bespoke facade, a digital immersive room celebrating our heritage, our first Coach cafe, a local craftsmanship bar featuring a vintage shop and a unique sonic and smell identity.”
35 million…OnBuy has launched Klarna Pay Now, Pay in 30 Days and Pay in 3 across 35 million+ products.
The e-commerce firm says that this is a response to increased consumer demand for a wider range of payment options.
A recent survey conducted by the online marketplace showed that one in three people choose to shop with a retailer because they offer their preferred payment method.
30…The top 30 visionaries driving change in retail have been named in the inaugural Disruptors & Innovators 2023 report, brought to you by the good people at Retail Technology Show.
Huel’s CEO, James McMaster, took top spot, followed by Ianina Lucca, depop’s Chief Growth Officer, in second place, and Pete Butler, Co-Founder and CEO at Dishpatch, in third.
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