Shein shines, Secret Sales swoops, Blue Yonder buys: 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 Pricer, Co-op, Retail Technology Show 2024, Kingfisher, Virtualstock, Nickelytics, Amazon, Starship Technologies, GlobalData, Coach, and dress-for-less.
1…Coach has opened its first Coachtopia store in China, located at Haitang Bay Sanya (Hainan).
Coachtopia is a sub-brand launched in 2023 and focused on circular craft and collaborative creativity.
In a LinkedIn post, Giovanni Zaccariello, SVP Global Visual Experience at Coach, said: “The installation is fully circular from all the materials used to make the structure, to the neons, to the artist furniture, to the hangers and the Bustforms. Congrats team Coach!”
1,000…Amazon's much hyped Just Walk Out technology secretly relied on Indian human workers, according to media reports this week.
Approximately 1,000 people were tasked with reviewing what customers picked up, set down, and ultimately walked out with from Just Walk Out powered stores.
$17 trillion…The value of global PoS terminal transactions will reach $17 trillion by the end of 2024, and grow by 25% to 2028, according to Juniper Research.
This growth comes despite the recent PoS outages in some retail store chains across the globe, forcing a number of temporary store closures. Significant financial and security risks were exposed during these faults, continuing the demand for smart PoS terminals to replace outdated legacy systems.
PoS terminal providers are expanding their offerings to provide capabilities beyond payments.
Smart PoS offers enhanced functions over traditional PoS, such as staff management, loyalty cards processing, inventory management and shop synchronisation with other outlets in the same chain.
Juniper Research’s Daniel Bedford comments: “Despite the higher cost of implementation in comparison to traditional PoS, embracing Smart PoS will secure a return on investment for retailers; preventing system failures alongside enhanced business integrations.”
6…Secret Sales, a marketplace for off-price retail in fashion, sportswear and beauty, has announced the acquisition of German online retailer, dress-for-less.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Pitched as the natural next step on an aggressive merger and acquisition (M&A) strategy, this deal aims to boost Secret Sales’ positioning in Europe, with a presence across six European territories.
Dress-for-less, which specialises in discount fashion and beauty, had a turnover of 100 million euros in 2023 and counts brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and Marc O’Polo as part of its product portfolio.
Acquiring the company will provide Secret Sales’ partner brands and retailers with access to an increased market share and millions of customers across Europe.
Dress-for-less will be powered by Secret Sales’ backend technology platform, but keeps its brand name, look and feel, and with a significantly increased inventory of in excess of three billion euros made available to its customers.
47%…Millennials are the most likely shopper demographic to have their buying decisions influenced by retail media ads at the shelf-edge, according to research from Retail Technology Show 2024, which is taking place on 24th and 25th April at London’s Olympia.
A survey of over 1,000 UK adults showed that 47% of Millennial consumers would be influenced to buy a new product having been served immersive, digital ads in-store, compared to 35% of average UK shoppers.
A further 49% said that retail media ads delivered in-store helped validate their buying decisions when shopping brands they already buy from, helping retailers drive greater brand engagement and loyalty amongst existing shoppers.
$45 billion…Shein continues to achieve impressive growth, with its gross merchandise value reportedly rising to around $45 billion in 2023, up from reportedly $30 billion in 2022, while its profits more than doubled to $2 billion, as its extensive and affordable product offering maintained high appeal among consumers in last year’s tough economic climate.
GlobalData predicts that Shein will have overtaken Zara to become the world’s largest apparel retailer in 2023, which is even more impressive considering it has no presence in its lucrative home market of China.
Louise Deglise-Favre, Apparel Analyst at GlobalData, says: “The retailer’s strength partially resides in its ability to release thousands of new items daily, ensuring it responds to trends in record time.”
“It has also successfully leveraged the power of social media, benefitting from both influencer marketing and organic user-generated content, such as “hauls”, helping it to be top of mind for Gen Z shoppers.”
“Shein’s growth will also have been driven by the expansion of its marketplace, which stocks third-party brands such as Romwe and Emery Rose, as well as Forever 21, which Shein partially acquired in August 2023.”
“Shein has also been expanding categories such as homewares and beauty, increasing its destination appeal. Whilst Shein’s IPO location has yet to be determined, it will likely be the largest IPO of 2024.”
“Becoming a public company will force Shein to be more transparent about its finances, operations and supply chain practices, the latter of which will prove challenging for the retailer following the many criticisms against its ethical standards.”
“Its growth is also bound to slow down in the coming years as it becomes even more established, and faces rising competition from other ultra-fast Chinese rivals such as Temu, Cider and Rihoas.”
1…Co-op has become the first UK convenience retailer to have its net zero targets validated by the globally recognised Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
SBTi - a body that assesses corporate climate targets - has given the thumbs up to its near-term and overall targets to become net zero across its own operations by 2035, and entire value chain by 2040.
Co-op, which operates 2,400 food stores across the UK, also lays claim to being one of the first companies in the UK to set science-based targets for its forest, land and agriculture (FLAG) emissions.
The ratified targets include stretching commitments to reduce the absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions from its own operations by 66% and absolute Scope 3 emissions from energy and industrial sources by 58.8% by 2030 from a 2016 baseline year.
$839 million…Blue Yonder has announced the signing of an agreement to acquire One Network Enterprises for approximately $839 million.
The latter is known for its autonomous and resilience services and is a provider of intelligent control towers.
“Supply chains have become more complex, and as more and more companies reduce risk by diversifying sourcing of products globally, there is an increased demand for the sharing of information and resources across the whole value chain,” says Duncan Angove, CEO, Blue Yonder.
“This, along with increased disruptions and geopolitical risks, have put the pressure on organisations to build more resilient and robust supply chains.”
“Combined with One Network’s capabilities, Blue Yonder will establish itself as a leading supply chain solutions company that can offer a unified, end-to-end supply chain ecosystem that is resilient enough to withstand today’s challenges, and synthesised with innovative, future focused technologies.”
3…Kingfisher, the owner of B&Q and Screwfix, is renewing its retail technology partnership with Virtualstock, a dropshipping and curated marketplace SaaS platform whose other clients include Aldi, John Lewis, and Argos.
It has inked a three-year contract, with Virtualstock’s tech being used to support 1,100 B&Q stores across eight different countries in Europe.
Paul White, Commercial Director at B&Q, says: “Virtualstock technology wraps around our existing IT infrastructure enabling us to scale our online offer at pace, introducing new products, ranges, and markets.”
“Dropship is a route that enables us to build a broad portfolio of products giving our customers both choice and accessibility. We look forward to continuing to work in partnership with Virtualstock as we continue to expand our offer and grow our online business.”
2…Nickelytics, a B2B AdTech startup, has announced a partnership with Starship Technologies, a provider of autonomous delivery services.
This involves an advertising campaign on two campuses where Starship operates, the University of Utah and UCLA.
Brands and advertisers will be able to connect directly with the student population, with the goal of expanding to all 50 campuses that Starship serves. The company operates at 80 global locations and has completed more than six million deliveries.
To pilot the partnership, Nickelytics and Starship are supporting the national “Love, Your Mind” campaign with a six-week deployment of autonomous delivery vehicles, beginning 25th March.
This was developed by Huntsman Mental Health Institute and the Ad Council with the aim of creating a society that is more open, accepting, and proactive when it comes to mental health.
The campaign PSAs (public service advertisements) remind everyone to nurture their relationship with their mind, and direct to LoveYourMindToday.org for free mental health resources.
50 MSEK…East of England Co-operative Society, one of the largest regional co-operatives in the UK, has signed an agreement with Pricer for an installation worth 50 MSEK in all 120+ of its food stores and involving the cloud-based platform Pricer Plaza and digital labels.
It has selected Pricer’s in-store automation and communication solution and the latest four colour electronic shelf labels.
The project will start in June and the plan is to have all installations finalised during spring 2025.
Pricer Plaza provides a cloud-based software solution that enables retailers to centrally manage and control pricing, product information, and promotions across all electronic shelf labels in all connected stores.
It eliminates the need for manual updates and reduces the risk of errors, helping with accuracy and efficiency in operations and overall store efficiency by enabling colleagues to focus on other more value-adding tasks.
Continue reading…