The world’s first check-out free Super Bowl: 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 Co-op, John Lewis Partnership, Starship Technologies, Octup, Primark, MINISO, Lidl Ireland, Asda, and Amazon.
£100 million and 50…Primark has announced to plans to invest over £100 million in the UK high street in 2024, as it marks 50 years of having a physical presence in Great Britain.
In a LinkedIn post, it said: “We’re announcing more than £75 million of new investment in the UK this year, building on our plans announced back in November 2022.”
“This investment is made up of new stores, extensions, relocations and upgrades to existing stores within our nationwide refit programme.”
“By the end of the year, we’ll have added nearly 700 new jobs to the UK retail industry, brought our total store presence in the UK to 195 stores and grown to almost eight million sq. ft of selling space.”
It concluded: “We’ve come a long way since opening our first store in Great Britain in Derby in 1974 but have always stayed true to our long standing commitment to offer great value and work hard to ensure that great fashion is affordable and accessible for everyone.”
6.3%…A new study of retail executives has shown cautious optimism toward automation within the sector.
A significant number of the respondents are initially prioritising human-machine collaboration.
The report from wearable tech firm ProGlove includes insights from over 1,000 retail management professionals.
Findings suggest that while integrating automation technology remains a challenge for 15.6% of leaders, a similarly significant struggle is integrating mobile commerce platforms (14.6%).
The biggest challenge, however, is making sense of data and recognising patterns when running analytics. This suggests that retailers struggle to extract the insights to uncover inefficiencies throughout.
A mere 6.3% of respondents are very satisfied with their current automation initiatives. 44.2% state they are somewhat satisfied. 19.3% indicated dissatisfaction, highlighting room for growth and optimisation in the automation space.
Retail leaders project a conservative timeline for automation investments to pay off. Just 11.5% believe they will see returns within the next two years. A more significant segment of 36.5% expect the benefits to surpass the costs in two to five years.
26.6% are looking to a five to ten-year horizon, and 8.6% are preparing for a decade or more.
44%…The Co-op is installing in its supermarkets more than 200 secure till kiosks, locked cabinets for bottles of spirits and AI technology to monitor self-checkouts after a 44% surge in retail crime last year to about 1,000 incidents a day.
Matt Hood, MD of the Co-op’s food business, says: “This is not a few opportunistic shoplifters becoming more prolific. This is organised crime and looting.”
$1.5 billion…Disney has announced a $1.5 billion investment into Epic Games.
Sophie Lund-Yates, Lead Equity Analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown, says: “Disney’s hoping to cast some magic as it announces a $1.5 billion investment for an equity stake in Epic Games.”
“The Fortnite studio is a firm fan favourite and potentially unlocks a highly lucrative new revenue stream.”
“Disney’s biggest asset is its stable of well loved characters and stories, and being able to re-monetise the same intellectual property over and over again is an enviable trick up Disney’s sleeve.”
“The way in which media users are spending their time is shifting towards activities other than TV, including gaming. Streaming rival Netflix has tentatively dipped its toe into the gaming world too, but growth plans and strategy for the area are woolly.”
“The shares have also enjoyed a boost as Bob Iger is keeping the promises he was hauled out of retirement to deliver.”
“Namely, the market’s cheering news that Disney is on track to meet, or exceed, its goal of cutting costs by at least $7.5 billion by the end of the 2024 financial year. There is still work to be done to stem the full flow of losses from the direct-to-consumer business, but things do appear to be broadly moving in the right direction.”
5…Foundever has announced a five-year extension of its contract with John Lewis Partnership.
The two firms have worked together for 17 years.
With over 1,000 dedicated associates globally, Foundever provides omnichannel support for the John Lewis Partnership – which entails both the John Lewis and Waitrose brands – covering voice, email, digital channels and back office operations.
$4 million…Octup has secured $4 million in pre-seed funding from Tal Ventures as well as the founders of unicorn companies Trax and Rapyd, to broaden the roll-out of its 360-degree end-to-end discovery platform for e-commerce.
The company specialises in processing and consolidating data from various operational domains, including marketing, last mile delivery, customer support, and warehousing.
It detects anomalies, correlations, and trends to pinpoint the root causes of cost inefficiencies.
$8 million…Saleor Commerce, a specialist in the composable commerce sector, has closed an $8 million seed extension round led by Target Global, investors behind Revolut and Auto1, and e-commerce giant Zalando.
Kevin Mahaffey's SNR fund, Cherry Ventures, backers of Moss and Spryker, and TQ Ventures, investors in Groove and Current, also participated in the funding round.
Founded in Poland in 2020 by Mirek Mencel and Patryk Zawadzki, Saleor is an open source, headless, composable e-commerce platform built for taming the complexity of multimarket commerce.
In 2021, the company closed a $2.5 million seed round to build its SaaS cloud offering, which led to adoption at brands including Lush and Breitling.
$90 million…Starship Technologies, a company that puts delivery robots on streets in the US and Europe, has raised $90 million in funding, co-led by Plural and Iconical.
The new funding, which brings the total raised by Starship to $230 million since its creation in 2014, will be used to expand globally.
Starship robots are 99% autonomous and have made six million deliveries so far including takeaway orders to groceries in residential communities and on campuses.
26…Lifestyle retailer MINISO has announced the launch of its biggest ever store in the UK.
Located on Camden High Street, this will open its doors to the public on Wednesday, 14th February at noon.
Spanning across 4,110 square feet, it will mark MINISO’s 26th store in the UK and its fourth standalone high street location.
74%…Despite AI being all the rage in retail right now, 74% of UK consumers believe no matter how good it becomes at improving customer experience (CX), there will always be a role for human interaction in the sector, according to new research from Retail Technology Show, which takes place on 24th and 25th April at London’s Olympia.
A survey of over 1,000 Brits revealed that 25% agree AI is improving their shopping CX.
And a further 44% say they don’t mind if retailers use it in their buying journeys, as long as the experience is positive.
However, there are still deep reservations around the impact of the technology on consumers and the retail industry overall.
358, 179 and 88…Lidl Ireland reports significant progress in the installation of in-store solutions enabling customers to return cans and bottles.
In a LinkedIn post, Alan Barry, Chief Development Officer (CDO) at Lidl Ireland & Lidl Northern Ireland, says:
“In less than 12 months Lidl Ireland has installed 358 Re-turn machines in 179 stores, constructed 88 Deposit Return Rooms and invested tens of millions of euros.”
“Our solution puts the customer first with two Re-turn machines in every store ensuring no customer has to queue to return cans or bottles.”
He added: “Every year an estimated 1.9 billion cans and plastic bottles are consumed and by 2029 as part of the Single Use Plastics Directive, Ireland must recycle 90%.”
“With the launch of Re-turn today, we are happy to play our part in creating A Better Tomorrow. All this would not have been possible without a phenomenal effort from a hugely dedicated team.”
£2…Priced from £2, the Red Nose 2024 collection is now available on Amazon, with free one-day delivery, and in Amazon Fresh stores and Whole Foods Market from 15th February.
Money raised this Red Nose Day could help tackle poverty, provide food, essential healthcare or safe shelter for people in the UK and around the world.
This year’s collection of noses are made from plant-based materials and are fully recyclable at home.
Each one comes with a QR code that takes you to the Red Nose Day Joke Generator, in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS).
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