Challenging times for Instacart and Checkout.com: 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 M&S, Gopuff, Temu, Zippin, Quadient, Alipay, Boxbar, EE, Lidl, and The Beatles.
35 and 206…Lidl GB has announced a switch from paper pricing tags to electronic shelf labels. This follows trials in over 35 stores, including Epsom and Tooting.
The move to ESL, which is set to be completed by the end of 2024, is estimated to save over 206 tonnes of carbon annually, while reducing ink use.
Isaac Ekpenyong, Director of Sales Organisation at Lidl GB, comments: “As a discounter, sustainability and efficiency run deep in our DNA.”
“Making changes to how we operate, no matter how big or small, allow us to enhance the overall experience for those shopping with us. In this particular case, we’re empowering colleagues by freeing up more of their time to dedicate to tasks that directly benefit our customers.”
“But our transition to ESLs is more than that; it is another step we are taking to reduce our impact on the environment by curbing paper and ink consumption.”
The retailer will gradually introduce ESL into specific sections of each and every one of its stores in the coming months, with the full roll-out expected to be completed by the end of this year.
250…Grocery delivery giant Instacart announced that it was laying off around 250 employees, or roughly 7% of its global workforce, as part of a restructuring.
CEO Fidji Simo said in a letter to investors: “This will allow us to reshape the company and flatten the organisation so we can focus on our most promising initiatives that we believe will transform our company and industry over the long-term. I am confident this will enable us to execute with even more focus and efficiency moving forward.”
In an SEC filing, Instacart said the layoffs will allow it to better align its organisational structure with current “business needs, top strategic priorities, and key growth opportunities.”
The company had a total of 3,486 employees as of June 2023, according to a regulatory filing.
Meanwhile, three of its executives, including its Chief Technology Officer and Chief Operating Officer, will be leaving for personal reasons. There are no plans to bring in a new Chief Operating Officer at this time.
£100 million…PayTech firm Checkout.com has posted a £100 million loss and blamed it on high inflation and a normalising of consumer shopping habits after the pandemic.
The company, which attracted a valuation of $40 billion in a 2022 funding round, posted a net loss of £100.6 million for 2022, compared with a $25 million loss the previous year, while revenues slipped 5% to $246.3 million.
It said it had “observed a shift in the macro environment and geopolitical backdrop in 2022, with rising inflation and reduced consumer spending/confidence having an impact on the growth of revenue.”
“As Covid lockdown restrictions have been lifted the return of customers to physical retail has also had an impact on the company’s online commerce clients.”
“Clients in the FinTech sector have also been impacted by the macroeconomic conditions, with lower trading volumes observed particularly among emerging digital currency clients.”
25%, 23% and 18%…AI powered chatbots and conversational commerce tools, such as voice and virtual assistants, are deemed by UK shoppers as the most disruptive artificial intelligence (AI) applications causing friction in their online shopping experiences.
A survey of over 1,000 UK shoppers by Intellias showed that they found AI chatbots to be the most likely cause of friction when buying online, with 25% agreeing chatbots are the area where AI most disrupts their shopping experiences, followed by automated virtual assistants (23%) and voice assistants (18%).
1,300…Violence and abuse against retail workers soared last year, with the British Retail Consortium’s crime survey revealing that the number of incidents rose to 1,300 per day in 2022/23 from almost 870 per day the year before.
This rise comes despite retailers investing heavily in crime prevention, spending £1.2 billion on measures such as CCTV, increased security personnel, and body worn cameras, up from £722 million the previous year.
The cost of theft to retailers went up to £1.8 billion from £953 million the previous year, meaning the total cost of crime to retailers stood at £3.3 billion – double the previous year.
The BRC’s annual crime survey highlights the scale of violence and abuse faced by people working in retail.
Incidents, which include racial abuse, sexual harassment, physical assault, and threats with weapons, are now on a par with the levels seen during the pandemic, when staff bore the brunt of some people’s frustration with Covid safety measures.
While the total number of incidents climbed, dissatisfaction with the police increased, with 60% of respondents describing the police response to incidents as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’.
231%…Rapid delivery big hitter, Gopuff, has released its Brand Bowl results following the 58th Super Bowl at the weekend.
The report details which commercials had an instant impact on product sales on Gopuff, what customers ordered before, during and after the game, local snacking trends in the competing cities, and more.
While many commercials during the Big Game won the hearts and minds of America, Gopuff’s Brand Bowl helps answer the question: what won their stomachs? The company tracked purchases of advertised brands in the hour following that brand’s commercial.
Landing in first place, 2024’s Brand Bowl winner is Lindor Chocolate, which saw a 231% increase in units sold in the hour after its commercial“Life is a Ball” aired.
60…In celebration of the 60th anniversary of The Beatles hitting the US for the first time, Universal Music Group’s (UMG’s) merchandise and brand management company, Bravado, has partnered with Apple Corps on The First US Visit virtual shopping experience, allowing fans to immerse themselves in the UK band’s history with exclusive merch and interactive elements.
On 7th February 1964, Beatlemania officially reached the United States when John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr stepped off of Pan Am flight 101 at John F. Kennedy airport in New York City to the reception of thousands of fans and journalists.
Two days later, Ed Sullivan took the stage at Studio 50 proclaiming, “Ladies and gentleman, The Beatles!” to a then record setting audience of 75 million Americans, which to this day remains one of the top 30 most watched US television programmes in history.
The week that followed included an overnight visit to Washington DC, two sold out shows at New York’s Carnegie Hall and another live performance on The Ed Sullivan Show from Miami.
After comparisons with all brands featured in Super Bowl LVIII, promotional products company Pens.com found Temu caused the most online attraction, beating names like Volkswagen and Disney by over 190% in searches.
-7%…2024 has gotten off to a very slow start for e-commerce sales, with online revenue falling -7% year-on-year (YoY) in January against a decline of -3.5% last year, according to the IMRG Online Retail Index, which tracks the performance of over 200 retailers.
While that is not the sharpest rate of decline in the history of the index – February 2022 was down -29.6% – the drop back then was a consequence of the huge growth recorded during the lockdowns of 2020/21, so the YoY comparison was skewed rather than it being a reflection of low demand.
In January 2024, demand felt very weak.
Since the high growth rates seen during the pandemic, e-commerce revenue declined -10% YoY in 2022 and -3% YoY in 2023, with IMRG forecasting 0% YoY growth in 2024.
As we moved into the post-Christmas period, the rates of growth have been markedly lower than those seen last year, with big declines even recorded against big declines from the previous year; the payday week (w/c 21 January) saw a decline of -9.4% YoY against -11.1% for the same week in 2023.
The -7% drop for January is the second-lowest since the skewed lockdown comparison period in early 2022, with only December 2022 (which was impacted by Royal Mail strikes) seeing lower growth (-9.3% YoY).
76%…New research from Yocuda has found that 76% of shoppers would choose a digital receipt if they knew how many trees are cut down to generate paper receipts.
20,000…Quadient reports a milestone in its parcel locker network expansion.
At the end of January, it accounted for more than 20,000 Parcel Pending by Quadient locker units in operation across North America, Europe and Asia.
Following the company’s development in Japan and the USA over the past years, partnerships were secured in France and the UK with carriers and national retail networks located in daily commuting routes.
10…The 58th Super Bowl took place on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Kansas City Chiefs made it to the Super Bowl for the second year running. They were the reigning champions, having beaten the Philadelphia Eagles last year. And they emerged victorious again in 2024, winning 25-22.
They were taking on the San Francisco 49ers this time around in a rematch of the 2020 season finale, when the Chiefs claimed a 31-20 victory over the 49ers at Miami's Hard Rock Stadium.
Taylor Swift has become a regular at Chiefs games since she started dating their player Travis Kelce last year.
And she was in attendance following her final world tour performance in Japan.
If Swift was peckish or thirsty, perhaps she tried out one of the Allegiant Stadium’s ten Zippin powered checkout free stores, which is more than any venue. In fact, over 65,000 fans were able to experience the convenience of checkout-free during the game.
1…Boxbar has launched what is pitched as the world’s first ever automated self-serve, full menu drinks solution.
This allows event organisers and venue operators to serve up to eight different beverage types all from the same terminal.
It has the ability to serve beers (including Guinness), ciders, wines, cocktails, spirit and mixers and soft drinks from a single terminal.
“Beverage sales are key to the success and profitability of businesses, yet bar service is still defined by a dwindling pool of trained staff, excessive queuing, long wait times, throttled sales and frustrated customers,” says Reshad Hossenally, Boxbar CEO and Co-Founder.
“With Boxbar we’re 360% faster, serving two drinks in 30 seconds. We’ve seen first hand how much this can affect queuing times, on average dropping by over 70%.”
“Simply put, fans enjoy a far better experience whilst operators increase efficiencies and sales, reduce overheads and boost profitability.”
600 million…Alipay reports that its AI features drew nearly 600 million interactions during its signature annual Five Fortune Chinese New Year campaign across 12 days, from 29th January to 9th February.
The campaign encourages consumers to collect digital Five Fortune cards in the Alipay app.
This year, Alipay has introduced for the first time four AI powered experiences for the Five Fortune campaign, namely "AI Theatre," "AI Fortune Hunt," "AI Photo Studio," and "AI Red Packets."
4 and 1…EE has unveiled its latest Experience store alongside former Newcastle United player Shay Given in the Metrocentre, Gateshead, one of Europe’s largest indoor mall style shopping centres.
This is the fourth of EE’s Experience stores and the first of more than ten brand new Experience and Experience Local locations set to open in the UK over the next year.
1 million…Henderson Technology installed its first electronic shelf edge labels (ESEL) into Smyth’s EUROSPAR in Ballymoney in 2019 and five years later the EPoS company has grown this to one million labels in over 220 convenience and forecourt stores, the latest of which being Filco Supermarkets.
The ESELs are integrated into Henderson Technology’s EPoS system, EDGEPoS.
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