Brexit blues, shuttered stores and dark doubles: RTIH rustles up the retail technology week in numbers
Do you like numbers? Do you like retail systems news? Then this is the article for you. Including Checkout.com, HIVED, Deliveroo, wilko, Wayvee Analytics, Primark, Sam’s Club, Ocado Group, Coles Group, and Pricer.
2…Home furnishing retailer JYSK is launching dark stores as part of its “Seamless and Closer to the Customer” strategy.
The first one will open in Dublin, Ireland, in November, and a second is planned for Casablanca, Morocco, in spring 2025.
“When we are present in a country, and we want to shorten the delivery time, a dark store is a great option for us. This helps us to attract new customers and create a more seamless experience,” says Ole Thomsen, Executive Vice President, Logistics.
1…There is only one week left to submit your entries for the 2024 RTIH Innovation Awards.
Deadline for submissions is Friday, 25th October.
The awards, sponsored by Scala, CADS, 3D Cloud, Brightpearl by Sage’s Lightning 50, Retail Technology Show 2025, and Business France celebrate global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.
It's free to enter and you can do so across multiple categories.
Download our handy guide to entering the 2024 RTIH Innovation Awards.
Key 2024 dates:
Friday, 25th October: Award entry deadline
Tuesday, 29th October: 2024 shortlist revealed
30th October-6th November: Judging days
Thursday, 21st November: Winners announced at the 2024 RTIH Innovation Awards ceremony, to be held at RIBA’s 66 Portland Place HQ in Central London.
For all entry related queries, please email our Editor and Founder, Scott Thompson: scott.thompson@retailtechinnovationhub.com
27% and 29%…A global study released by PayTech firm, Checkout.com, highlights the consumer buying behaviour which is powering today’s digital economy. The research, conducted across the UK (2,000 people), US (2,000), UAE (1,000) and China (2,000), reveals a number of trends, including the growing spending power of Generation Alpha.
Children aged 8-15 years old (Generation Alpha) are driving 27% of their household’s monthly spend, rising to nearly a third of monthly spend for digital purchases, as 29% of Millennial parents take responsibility for purchasing digital products each month for their children. This comes as digital products and services make up 21% of the average global household spend.
$17 million …Autone, an AI powered platform helping retailers with inventory management, has raised a $17 million Series A funding round led by General Catalyst.
All existing investors from its seed round also reinvested in the Series A. This includes Speedinvest, YCombinator, Seedcamp, 2100VC, Motier, Financière Saint James, and business angels from LVMH, Sephora and Moncler.
The funding will be used to accelerate product development and continue Autone's expansion and hiring across the US and Europe.
CEO Adil Bouhdadi and CTO Harry Glucksmann-Cheslaw met at Alexander McQueen in 2016 where they created a data driven inventory decision platform..
Founded in 2021, Autone is used by more than 50 global brands like Courreges, Roberto Cavalli, Stussy, and Zadig & Voltaire to help them accurately forecast demand, accelerate sales, while minimising waste and cutting time spent on manual tasks.
The latest funding round takes the total raised by the company to more than $20 million and comes less than a year after the company’s seed round.
1,000+ Brits polled by Pricer showed that now typically consumers find 18% of the items in their weekly food shop unavailable on shelf when they shop in-store, rising +1 percentage point year-on-year. Instances of out-of-stocks were higher when buying groceries online, with 28% reporting food shop items were out-of-stock, prompting them to be missing or substituted in their orders, a rise of +6% year-on-year.
Brexit was the top reason UK shoppers believed was contributing to the shelf-gaps they were experiencing in-store, with 40% of respondents citing complications with border checks and additional paperwork making it harder to import food goods into the UK.
23 million…Zopa Bank has partnered with John Lewis Money, the financial services arm of UK retailer John Lewis Partnership, to offer personal loans to its 23 million customers.
The tie up will see the UK FinTech embed in the John Lewis Money website its digital first personal loan product.
According to a press release, “customers can get a personalised loan quote in three minutes with no impact to their credit score, with most customers accessing their money in under two hours once their loan has been approved.”
Available loans will range from £1,000 to £35,000 with a term ranging from one through to seven years.
100,000 and 600,000…Klarna, an AI powered payments network and shopping assistant, reported a milestone this week: over 100,000 retail partners added since August 2023, expanding its total network to over 600,000 merchants.
Brands that have joined the company’s retail network in the last 12 months include Uber, Stitchfix, Away, Stubhub, New Balance, Electronic Arts, and SKIMS. One in four of the top 100 merchants across the US have chosen Klarna, including adidas and Airbnb.
“The goal is to make Klarna ubiquitous, with Klarna at every checkout so we can provide consumers everywhere with a more flexible and fair payment option. This growth reflects the trust both merchants and consumers continue to place in us to deliver seamless, flexible payment options,” says David Sykes, Chief Commercial Officer at Klarna.
“I can only call this a win-win: the more merchants we have on board, the more accessible our services are to customers, and the more customers using our services, the more beneficial it is for merchants.“
1.2 million…It’s been over a year since Lidl opened its largest ever regional distribution centre (RDC) in Luton, UK - its most ambitious construction project to date, spanning 1.2 million square feet and half a kilometre in length.
The retailer reports that, during that time, the facility has:
Launched its first delivery fleet powered entirely by biogas generated from food waste.
Picked 61 million cases.
Recycled 264 tonnes of cardboard and 240 tonnes of mixed plastic.
Shipped 850,000 pallets to Lidl stores.
Employed more than 650 new colleagues thus far.
£2 million…HIVED, an electric delivery company, has announced a new partnership and investment from Japanese firm Yamato.
The agreement will see both companies collaborate to leverage their respective expertise and knowledge, with the aim of advancing sustainable and tech driven logistics across both in the UK and Japan. As part of this, Yamato will invest £2 million in HIVED.
Founded in 2021 by Co-CEOs Murvah Iqbal and Mathias Krieger, HIVED counts as customers the likes of Nespresso, Zara, John Lewis and Uniqlo.
Yamato commands 47% of Japan’s logistics market and handles over 2.3 billion parcels annually.
Iqbal says: “This partnership represents a game changing moment for HIVED. As a world-leader in logistics, Yamato brings a wealth of knowledge and experience that will accelerate our growth and improve our operations. We are excited about what the future holds as, together, we seek to push the boundaries of what modern delivery services can offer.”
300…The Co-op Media Network (CMN) is set to install 300 new front-of-store digital media screens to boost its retail media offering, taking the total number of screens to over 9,000 across its store estate.
In partnership with SMG, the move will expand CMN’s digital capabilities and enable FMCG brands to deepen their engagement across Co-op’s stores, which see over 16 million transactions each week.
The roll-out – in collaboration with installation partners, Commercial, and software partners, Grassfish – will see digital screens introduced to 300 of Co-op’s highest footfall, urban locations, including Greater London (12%), Greater Manchester (5%) and North Yorkshire (2.5%), with 24 stores planned to go live each week until January 2025.
This will take the total number of digital screens across Co-op’s 2,400 stores to over 9,300 – including its current kiosk and customer facing screens at manned tills – providing multiple opportunities for brands to work with CMN on their in-store campaigns, focusing on key missions such as food-to-go, food-for-later and treat occasions.
25 and 3,000…Deliveroo and wilko, a home and garden retailer, are teaming up to give customers access to delivery of the latter’s products directly to their doors in as little as 25 minutes.
As the 90-year-old retailer continues its return to the high street, following a collapse into administration last year, with new stores across the country, the tie up will see more than 3,000 products made available on the platform spanning garden, home, kitchen, DIY, cleaning, petcare and storage.
Initially launching across ten wilko hub locations this month - Edinburgh, Bristol, Nottingham, Bournemouth, Eccles, Manchester, Bedford, Harlow, Plymouth and Leeds - this will be the first time the retailer has offered an on-demand, rapid delivery service.
The partnership will be expanded to a further 50 locations across the country by the end of the year.
1,000 people were surveyed for this.
While the UK has famously been described as a ‘nation of shopkeepers’, it’s not far from the truth, as nearly three-quarters of people with a side hustle (72%) are selling online - equivalent to 19 million Brits.
E-commerce activities include selling general goods (50%), self-crafted items (13%) and drop-shipping (9%). Drop-shipping in particular has boomed since the Pandemic, as budding entrepreneurs looked to make money from the rise in online shopping.
$5 million…Wayvee Analytics has emerged from stealth with $5 million in pre-seed funding led by Tetrad.vc.
By uniting radio frequency (RF) waves with proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, Wayvee’s technology anonymously analyses emotional responses based on physiological signals in real-time, evaluating customer satisfaction score (C-SAT) and key performance metrics for retailers.
After leading product development and launching several augmented reality (AR) campaigns for Shazam’s Eastern European division, CEO and founder Alex Ovcharov leveraged his neuroscience background in collaboration with developers and former CERN physicists to engineer an algorithm capable of detecting breathing rate and micro-movements using a standard WiFi router, ultimately leading to the development of a proprietary 4D radar device.
Wayvee not only measures C-SAT and other key engagement metrics instantly, it also identifies sources of dissatisfaction and offers actionable recommendations for improvement.
The technology analyses emotional responses based on physiological signals such as breathing, heart rate, and micro-movements, and directly correlates this data with customer satisfaction.
1, 11 and 452…Primark has opened a new store in Montijo, Portugal, its first in the country to feature self-service checkouts.
In a LinkedIn post, Stephen Regan, Group Board Executive at Primark, dated Friday, 11th October, said: “Wrapping up the week in a very special way by celebrating the opening of our brand new store in Montijo, Portugal. This is a very special moment for the Primark Portugal team as it's the first new store in the Portuguese market in seven years, the 11th store in Portugal, and the 452nd globally.”
“It's also the first Portuguese store to offer self-service checkouts and the first to open as part of our €40 million investment announcement in the market.”
He added: “I was delighted to visit the store yesterday and it looks amazing. I am sure our customers will love the modern aesthetic and the immersive shopping experience they will have in Montijo, which includes a distinct scent and curated soundtrack.”
“The team has done a fantastic job, so huge congratulations and a big well done to everyone who supported with this opening. An incredible achievement for everyone involved and our business. Best of luck to the Montijo team with their opening weekend!”
3…Amazon has closed three of its Amazon Go locations in New York City.
The leases for these locations were due for renewal and the online retail giant decided that the associated costs were too high. At the same time, however, Amazon Go recently opened a new store in Bellevue, Washington.
"When a lease comes up for renewal, it is standard business practice for retailers to evaluate their store portfolio and decide if it is best to renew or to close the location,” an Amazon spokesperson says.
“In this case, while these three stores were performing well, we couldn't make the economics work with the lease cost, so we've decided not to renew and have closed these locations.”
The aforementioned stores, which featured the Just Walk Out checkout-free solution, were located at 11 West 42nd St., One Liberty and 30 Rockefeller Center.
Amazon Go has 17 stores in operation in the US.
2…Ocado’s second customer fulfilment centre (CFC) for Coles Group in Australia has officially opened.
This taps a blend of artificial intelligence, robotics and automation to improve the way orders are picked, packed and delivered.
Delivery times will also be improved, with Ocado’s technology giving Coles the ability to calculate the most efficient routes based on real-time conditions and tonnage of the home delivery vans.
Coles CEO Leah Weckert says: "This launch marks a significant transformation of our online grocery delivery service for New South Wales.”
“Across Victoria and New South Wales, we have already delivered more than 120,000 orders, the equivalent of 5.5 million products, with our customers getting near perfect orders with zero substitutions. This is an incredible result for our customers, and a testament to the world class Ocado technology."
1…Sam’s Club is gearing up to open a pilot frictionless store in Grapevine, Texas, its first activity in this space. Customers will shop and pay for purchases using Scan & Go, a feature of the Walmart owned retailer’s app.
This lets member use their mobile devices to scan items as they shop, complete payment and skip the checkout line. Sam’s Club has also been testing frictionless shopping via its Scan & Go app in an innovation lab store called Sam’s Club Now since 2018.
In place of checkouts, it will display large items with QR codes which customers can scan to obtain more information or purchase online for home delivery.
The store will also fulfill curbside and home delivery orders.
“It’s kind of the physical manifestation of a journey we’re trying to go on as a company,” Sam’s Club CEO Chris Nicholas told CNBC. “The idea is that over time, we will be 100% digital engagement as a business and you’ve got to prove that things work before you scale them.”
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