Starring Deliveroo, Aldi, Amazon, Getir, and Ikea: check out RTIH’s most read retail technology articles from last week
Check out the articles on this here website that caught your fancy last week, including Getir, Gopuff, Grabango, Morrisons Media Group, Furniture Village, Amazon’s Just Walk Out offering, and the RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List .
Comment: Deliveroo losses, Getir woes, the rapid food and grocery delivery space and the unclear path to profitability
Deliveroo recently said that it recorded positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) last year, citing strong demand for takeaways and lower costs.
The company reported adjusted EBITDA of £85 million, up from a loss of £45 million in 2022. Its overall adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 1.2% from -0.7%
Sales increased three per cent, and the gross transaction value per order rose 6% to £24.3. Overall, the company’s loss for the period was £32 million, compared to £262 million last year.
Will She, Founder and CEO at Deliveroo, said: “This is great progress, but it is still early days for us in capturing the full range of opportunities we have ahead.”
“We have always been focused on developing the best hyperlocal CVP for consumers, which drives profitable consumer engagement.”
“We truly believe the key to unlocking growth in the industry is through building consumer trust, and we can do this through price integrity and building a flawless delivery experience.”
“I am very confident we will generate strong, sustainable free cash flow and accelerate GTV growth.”
“Since I started this company 11 years ago, I have never been more confident in our strategy and the team we have to deliver it. Our strategy for the coming years combines levers to drive and capture growth, with levers to increase profit.”
Whilst there are some positive takeaways from the financial results, they do also rather beg the question: will rapid food/grocery delivery brands ever become truly profitable?
If a big hitter like Deliveroo is struggling with this, and at a time when fellow big hitter Getir is said to be in make or break restricting talks, what hope for everyone else?
The 2024 RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List goes live, sponsored by 3D Cloud by Marxent
The latest edition of the RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List has arrived, sponsored by 3D Cloud by Marxent. Here are the people who made a splash in 2023 and are set for a barnstorming 2024.
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 and cost-of-living crisis have driven a seismic change in shopping habits.
We are seeing retailers taking innovative technologies like AR, AI, and spatial computing, and finding ways to use them to make customer experiences more exciting and dynamic.
Which is where the RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List comes in, presented, we should stress, in no particular order.
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.
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 via the form at the end of this article.
Many thanks to 3D Cloud by Marxent, which provides 3D product visualisation software trusted by top furniture and DIY retailers, for sponsoring it.
Download the list in pdf format here.
Or read via Issuu here.
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Rapid delivery big hitter Getir in crisis talks as it preps major 'make or break' restructuring move
Turkish ultrafast grocery delivery firm, Getir, is said to be working on a radical restructuring plan just two years after it was valued at just off $12 billion.
According to Sky News, Getir, which operates in five markets including the UK, is examining a number of options as part of talks with its leading investors.
Sky News report: “Sources said this weekend that this could involve a break-up of the rapid delivery group, an exit from a number of its remaining markets or some form of emergency restructuring mechanism.”
It added: “A source close to the company denied that any form of insolvency process was under consideration, saying that if it decided to exit a country it would do so in an orderly fashion.”
“Another insider added that the next few days were "make or break" for the company, with key decisions about Getir's future expected to be taken as early as the next fortnight.”
AlixPartners, the restructuring firm, is understood to be advising on the situation at Getir, which is backed by the likes of Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global.
It was valued at $11.8 billion when it raised more than $750 million in a funding round in 2022.
Getir did not respond to our request for comment.
Furniture Village pays tribute to Chief Information Officer Mike Broughton who passed away earlier this month
UK retailer Furniture Village has announced the passing of its Chief Information Officer, Mike Broughton.
In a LinkedIn post, it said: “Mike passed away peacefully on Friday 5th April surrounded by his family.”
“As many of you will know, Mike was a larger than life character who brought a wealth of experience, talent and good humour to our board.”
“He was an inspirational leader and mentor who always made time for his colleagues and encouraged everyone to fulfil their potential with his endless capacity for warmth, empathy and positivity. More than anything, he was a true gentleman.”
It concluded: “He leaves behind a lasting legacy and will be hugely missed by all his FV family. Our heartfelt condolences go to the Broughton family at this very sad time.”
Broughton worked at Furniture Village for just over six years. His CV also included stints at Asda (as Senior Director IS), William Hill (as Chief Information Officer), and Barclays Bank (as Change Director).
Powered by Gopuff makes its debut with 20 plus CPG partners leveraging the instant commerce platform
Gopuff has announced the launch of Powered by Gopuff, a logistics and technology platform that, according to the quick commerce big hitter, enables brands to offer affordable delivery from their owned and operated online stores in as fast as 15 minutes.
“We’ve spent the last ten years building and scaling our own hyper-local logistics network and operations to consistently meet customer demands for fast, affordable, and reliable delivery,” says Daniel Folkman, SVP of Business at Gopuff.
“As a result of this work, we've established ourselves as the face of instant commerce. Now, with the launch of Powered by Gopuff, we're also becoming the fabric of instant commerce by extending our proprietary fulfilment and logistics capabilities beyond our app for the first time."
Ikea sets targets to provide artificial intelligence literacy training to around 3,000 co-workers and 500 leaders
Ikea has announced an initiative to embed artificial intelligence (AI) literacy across its organisation.
The retailer’s training programmes aim to ensure that co-workers are not just prepared but empowered to lead into the new age of AI.
“Our vision is clear. It’s about enhancing the capabilities of co-workers through technology, ensuring that Ikea continues to be the place where innovation and compassion go hand in hand,” says Parag Parekh, Ikea Retail (Ingka Group) Chief Digital Officer.
Since FY24, Ikea has set targets to provide AI literacy training to approximately 3,000 co-workers and 500 leaders.
According to Parekh, “this effort is a testament to the Ikea belief in the power of its people to harness technology for greater creativity, efficiency, and results’’.
He adds: ‘’Our vision is clear. It’s about enhancing the capabilities of co-workers through technology, ensuring that Ikea continues to be the place where innovation and compassion go hand in hand.’’
Aldi launches Aldigo checkout-free grocery shopping experience powered by Grabango tech
In partnership with Aldi, Grabango has launched Aldigo checkout-free shopping at a Chicago area grocery store.
Aldi lays claim to being the first major US grocery retailer to deploy checkout-free technology in an existing, full size store.
“The launch of Aldigo is a pivotal moment for the grocery industry,” says Will Glaser, CEO at Grabango.
“Although more challenging, it was important to us to launch this technology in a typical store and not one purpose built for us. Aldi is one of the most innovative retailers in the world, and we are honoured to partner with them to give their shoppers an exciting new way to shop the store.”
The Grabango system was added to an existing store without the need to make any changes to its planogram or product displays.
The technology, which uses computer vision to identify and keep track of every item in the store, allows shoppers to exit the store without waiting in line or scanning items.
Morrisons Media Group ramps up retail media offering, including digital screens on Market Street food counters
Morrisons Media Group (MMG) is introducing new retail media opportunities in a bid to further connect Morrisons customers with their favourite brands.
First up, digital screens are being introduced at Morrisons Market Street food counters.
The screens provide brands the opportunity to promote products that complement the counter range on offer as well as an additional moment to interact with customers in a part of the store where their products are not stocked.
They are situated on Morrisons butcher, fishmonger, deli, pizza and oven fresh counters in over 300 Morrisons stores and the first campaigns are now live.
Meanwhile, My Points Boosters is a new feature being trialled in the More Card app which offers customers hyper-personalised challenges based on their shopping patterns. It is pitched as a first in the UK grocery market, and uses AI to personalise offers to each customer.
My Points Boosters users are given the opportunity to select up to ten leading brands from a personalised list, before being rewarded if they reach certain spend milestones within a set time frame.
The amount of More points they unlock increases as they hit bigger milestones and they can track their progress via the app.
Other new channels include trolley media which is now available in over 300 stores as well as personalised ads on Facebook and Instagram using the retailer’s first party data asset.
Payments and FinTech veteran Nikhita Hyett joins online fraud protection firm Signifyd as General Manager for EMEA
Signifyd, an e-commerce fraud protection specialist, has announced the appointment of Nikhita Hyett as General Manager for EMEA.
Hyett most recently served as Managing Director, Europe at BlueSnap.
In her new role, she will spearhead strategic growth initiatives, identify operational enhancements, nurture key partnerships, and drive the expansion of Signifyd's presence across critical markets and verticals in EMEA.
With a background spanning leadership roles at BlueSnap, Adyen, and Global Blue, Hyett brings experience from the payments and FinTech sector.
Amazon hits back at media reports that its Just Walk Out technology relies on human reviewers watching from afar
Amazon has slammed “erroneous” media reports that its Just Walk Out checkout-free stores technology relies on human reviewers watching from afar.
Said reports claimed that, though it seemed completely automated, Just Walk Out actually relied on more than 1,000 people in India watching and labelling videos to ensure accurate checkouts.
The cashiers were simply moved off-site, leaving people to be essentially spied on while they shopped.
In an online post, Amazon countered: “Most AI systems, including the underlying machine learning models behind these technologies, are continuously improved by annotating synthetic (AI generated) and real shopping data.”
“Our associates are responsible for this labeling and annotation step. Associates don’t watch live video of shoppers to generate receipts - that’s taken care of automatically by the computer vision algorithms. This is no different than any other AI system that places a high value on accuracy, where human reviewers are common.”
It concluded: “We are excited about the future of AI powered, identity and checkout solutions like Just Walk Out technology, Amazon Dash Cart, and Amazon One. The future of retail will be transformed by AI, and we are just getting started.”
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