A new wave of savvy Tech Thrifters: presenting the retail technology week in numbers
Do you like numbers? Do you like retail technology news? Then this is the article for you. Including EE, Tesco, Auror, PwC, Unbox Robotics, M&S, Wing, Walmart, Amazon, Robert Dyas, Pattern Group, Kroger, Shopify, and Statusphere.
4%...Shopify has announced that ChatGPT transactions now come with a 4% fee. On the surface, that looks small. Indeed, its a fraction of Amazon’s 8–15% referral fees. But it’s also a sharp reminder that channel exposure without margin literacy could bite businesses on the bottom line, says e-commerce specialist Suzannah Cranwell.
In a LinkedIn post, she said: "I’m sense checking marketing strategies that have been pulled together by agencies that are great at the glossy side of things and even SEO… but they have zero “in-house e-comm” experience and zero understanding of the commercial impact on the client."
"What I’m seeing are strategies that are being built like early Google Ads. Optimise for presence first, worry about net contribution later. The risk is that brands blindly implement the device and find that ads and platform fees stack. Sure, the gross revenue can look exciting. But it’s net contribution that keeps businesses alive."
She added: "I’m pro AI and I love that brands will have to be a lot more intentional about product utility and end user needs/desires (for more context you can search my earlier posts). However… I’m against chasing exposure without making sure the numbers add up."
"Because I’ve worked inside e-commerce businesses - from startup to enterprise - I don’t evaluate channels in isolation. I look at the full margin impact, team capacity, and customer experience. Visibility isn’t free when the platform owns both discovery and checkout. And if strategy doesn’t reflect economics, what looks like growth quietly erodes margin."
She concluded: "AI is incredible. But the way we adopt it - without modelling unit economics - will decide whether it fuels sustainable growth or just vanity metrics. Remember channel exposure isn’t the goal - healthy net contribution and cash in the bank is."
67%...EE has announced the launch of its new range of pre-owned smartphones with airtime.
Available on ee.co.uk, EE’s offering features Apple and Samsung smartphones, priced from £31 per month, available on up to 36 month Flex Pay agreements. Every phone is checked, tested and backed by EE’s extended warranty.
Students who take out a Flex Pay plan will receive a 40% discount on their airtime when taking a refurbished smartphone. For example, this means students could make savings of up to £12 per month on refurbished device plans like the Samsung Galaxy S24, saving around nearly £300 over the length of the plan.
The launch comes as research identifies a new wave of tech savvy, eco-conscious Tech Thrifters, the 18-24 year olds who see refurbished is no longer second best, but rather a status symbol for a smart financial choice and a desirable lifestyle trend.
67% of young adults actively look for ways to be thriftier when buying technology; 57% say they prefer to reuse or buy refurbished technology as it is better for the environment; 63% say they buy refurbished technology as it feels like a positive lifestyle choice.
Buying refurbished is increasingly seen as a badge of honour and consumers are actively seeking our second-hand technology. 55% of 18-24 year olds say they feel proud to reuse or buy pre-owned items. While 63% would rather spend less and get a refurbished device than pay full price for a brand new model.
40 and 10...Tesco will next week start testing out a new crime reporting platform across 40 of its stores.
The ten-week trial will be conducted across Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire, with the aim of driving down retail crime, protecting colleagues and increasing collaboration with the police and the wider retail industry.
The Auror platform, which is already used by several retailers and UK police forces, aims to make it easier and quicker for colleagues to report security incidents. By bringing all the data and information into a single source, this simplifies the process for retailers and the police to build, manage, track, and resolve cases faster.
124,000...High street retailer Robert Dyas is set to launch Random Acts of Cleanliness Day as part of its spring cleaning campaign, in collaboration with influencers the Maka Twins. This will take place on 17th February, alongside Random Acts of Kindness Day.
The duo will clean a children’s playground and signs in Bromley while they and Robert Dyas encourage the nation to join in with their own acts of guerilla cleaning. Followers will be asked to post their photos and videos on Instagram with the hashtags #RandomActsofCleanliness and #FeelGoodCleaning.
The Maka Twins are identical twin brothers who went viral as ‘guerilla cleaners’ for voluntarily cleaning neglected public spaces such as train carriages and bins. Bagging 124,000 Instagram followers and a feature with the BBC, they aim to restore pride in local communities via their cleaning business, Makagroup Services.
76%...AI powered search and shopping agents are rapidly reshaping e-commerce economics, according to research from Pattern Group.
The company’s study, which involves a survey of 1,000 senior business leaders across the US, UK, Germany, and the UAE, finds that 76% of e-commerce organisations have reduced customer acquisition costs as consumers increasingly rely on AI driven tools to discover and purchase products. One in three have already deployed AI powered shopping agents.
“AI agents aren’t a future interface - they’re a new operating layer for commerce,” says Ryan Byrd, Chief Technology Officer at Pattern. “Brands that treat agentic AI like just another marketing channel will fall behind. This shift rewards accuracy, availability, and trust, favoring brands built on clean data, real-time operations, and real customer value.”
9 and 18...Josie Smith is stepping down as Marks and Spencer's Chief Technology Officer nine months after a major cyber attack hit the retailer hard.
The departure of Smith, who only joined M&S 18 months ago, was disclosed internally this week in a memo.
She previously worked at BT Group and Vodafone and will be replaced by Darren Gibson, the fashion, home and beauty Technology Transformation Director. This comes four months after Rachel Higham, M&S's Chief Digital and Technology Officer, also headed for the exit.
Conducted by a group called Scattered Spider, the aforementioned cyber attack brought the retailer’s online operations to a halt and resulted in empty shelves in stores..
A former WPP and BT Group executive, Higham was appointed by M&S in 2014. In an internal memo, it said she was "stepping back from her role…Rachel has been a steady hand and calm head at an extraordinary time for the business, and we wish her well for the future.”
$28 million...Unbox Robotics has raised $28 million in a funding round led by ICICI Venture, with participation from RedStart Labs, a subsidiary of InfoEdge, F-Prime, 3one4 Capital, Navam Capital, Force Ventures, and existing investors.
A warehouse automation specialist, it works with companies in the e-commerce, retail, and logistics space across India, Europe, and the USA.
In a LinkedIn post, the company said: “Over the past few years, we’ve scaled rapidly with strong year-on-year growth, achieving profitability, and growing adoption of our swarm intelligence powered robotic systems across Europe, India and the US.”
It added: “This milestone fuels the next phase of our journey: Expanding our presence across key regions globally; Accelerating new product development; Strengthening leadership, business and engineering teams. We’re deeply grateful to our investors, customers, partners, and the entire Unbox team for helping us reach this milestone. Onward and upward.”
81%...CEOs are entering 2026 united by an urgent priority: implementing technology and AI to transform their organisations to compete in an increasingly volatile environment, according to PwC research. But while investment intent is high, the ability to translate that into material outcomes remains uneven.
PwC surveyed 4,454 CEOs in 95 countries and territories. Technology investment has shifted from important to indispensable for UK CEOs, it found. 81% of UK CEOs say technology, AI and data investment is their top priority for 2026, a steep rise from 60% in 2025. 52% are already investing in tech to drive growth and competitive advantage, while 43% say these investments are focused on delivering efficiency and cost saving.
At the same time, internal organisational blockers risk undermining momentum for rapid tech enabled transformation. Exactly half of UK CEOs surveyed worry their organisation isn’t transforming fast enough to keep pace with AI and emerging technologies.
A further 33% say bureaucracy is holding back performance, whilst 29% acknowledge technological constraints are actively slowing the business. Adding to this concern, only 25% of UK chief executives believe they can attract high quality AI talent - compared to 42% of CEOs globally.
$18 million...Statusphere, an AI marketing platform that works with retailers and consumer brands in the micro-influencers space, has secured $18 million in Series A funding, bringing its total funding to date to $27 million. Volition Capital led the round, with participation from HearstLab, 1984 Ventures, and How Women Invest.
Brands such as Parlux, Kendo Brands, Express, and LG H&H use Statusphere. It will use the cash to expand its social SEO, generative engine optimisation (GEO) and reporting capabilities to improve product discovery across AI powered search for brands while also building next-generation tools for creators.
“Human generated content is quickly becoming the most valuable driver of brand discovery, but influencer marketing solutions weren’t built to scale for the enterprise,” says Kristen Wiley, CEO and Founder at Statusphere.
“After years of testing different platforms, I built Statusphere to solve that challenge by giving brands a smarter, more automated way to activate creators at scale without sacrificing authenticity. As discovery moves toward AI driven and agentic search, Statusphere is built for this moment. Our Series A positions us to accelerate what’s next.”
This comes as the company announces the winners of the third year of the ‘Realising the Remarkable’ programme - a £30,000 grant initiative in partnership with Enterprise Nation, aimed at supporting small business growth with six independent high street businesses bagging grants of £5,000.
This year, over 1,100 small businesses from across the UK participated in the programme. From these applicants, 23 businesses were shortlisted and invited to submit a two-minute pitch on how they would use the grant to grow their business. The six winners were then selected by the judges.
They include Craig’s Barbershop, an inclusive barbershop in Bolton, Neighbourhood Store in Shoreham-by-Sea- which showcases work by independent sellers, Snug Bookshop in Somerset, which hosts inclusive literary events, Y.O.U Underwear, an ethical underwear shop in Oxford, Hoyle’s Oxford, a family run games shop in Oxford and Little Lizzie’s in Belfast, which is supporting families going through grief.
1...Amazon reports the launch of QLD1 - the first Amazon Now on demand delivery site in the UK.
Amazon Now lets customers purchase thousands of everyday essentials, such as groceries and personal care items, that will be delivered within minutes. In India, the service last year brought ten-minute delivery to Mumbai following launches in Bengaluru and Delhi, with 100+ micro-fulfilment centres operational.
In a LinkedIn post, Elisa Michelin Salomon, Ops Lead, EU Quick Commerce, said: "What started in May ‘25 as a few people around a table in Bangalore, discussing how we could learn from India and the UAE and bring quick commerce to Europe, has now become a live service for London customers - with fresh groceries and everyday essentials delivered in as fast as 30 minutes in Southwark area."
She added: "Six month ago, when we started this journey, I would never have imagined we could deliver a brand new service at this speed. This wasn’t just a site launch - it meant taking on the huge responsibility of standing up an entirely new network, shaping new operations, and enabling a new last mile delivery model from the ground up."
"From that initial small group, the journey grew into a collaboration across 57 partner teams, all aligned to make this possible. Proud of what we’ve built together - and just getting started."
1 and 5...Wing and Walmart are laying claim to Greater Houston’s first ever drone delivery service, providing this across five stores. This is part of their plan to include over 270 stores and 40 million Americans by 2027.
The pair say that Houston’s urban sprawl, growing population and demand for speed and convenience make it the ideal first market of the year for their expansion push.
"This is our most ambitious year yet as we work with Walmart to deliver to more customers by drone than ever before, and there’s no better place to start than Greater Houston," says Heather Rivera, Chief Business Officer at Wing. "We’ve seen how much Texans value having a fast, safe way to get what they need from the skies, and we are now serving one of the largest and most dynamic metropolitan areas in the country."
2,700...Uber Technologies and The Kroger Co. have announced the launch of nearly 2,700 Kroger owned stores on the Uber Eats, Uber, and Postmates apps.
Customers across the US can now shop their local Kroger banner for fresh groceries, Kroger's Our Brands favorites, household essentials etc and get on-demand and same day delivery via Uber's apps. The roll-out delivers on the companies' previously announced plan to broaden access to this service.
In addition to Kroger's floral and sushi shops already available on Uber Eats, customers can browse full store assortments from Ralphs, Fred Meyer, King Soopers, Smith's, Fry's, Harris Teeter, Mariano's, and additional Kroger banners, then schedule delivery at the time that works best for them.
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