'Detestable' Asda blasted over cleaning staff outsourcing move: the retail technology week in numbers
Do you like numbers? Do you like retail technology news? Then this is the article for you. Including Whatnot, Kroger, Simbe, Ocado Group, Lotte Shopping, Edgify, ClearJet, Huck's Market, Westfield Rise, and Malachyte.
$25 million...ClearJet, a specialist in parcel logistics infrastructure and orchestration for brands, e-commerce shippers, and 3PLs, has raised a $25 million growth equity investment led by Edison Partners, with participation from returning investors Venture53, Origin Ventures, Salt VC, and SpringTime Ventures.
The firm’s investor base also includes early backers Sky VC (formerly JetBlue Ventures) and Tandem Ventures. The new funding brings ClearJet's total capital raised to more than $40 million, and will support expansion across its network of 95 US airports and investment in its AI powered logistics platform.
ClearJet connects shippers with unused cargo space on commercial flights, delivering packages across the US at the speed of air freight and the price of ground shipping. The company’s software- owered delivery network is carrier agnostic and combines the staffing, sorting, and ground infrastructure needed to move packages on planes already flying between American cities.
3,500...Asda this week announced plans to outsource 3,500 of its cleaning staff in a move the GMB union labelled ‘detestable’. The UK grocery retailer will now begin the process of switching to third party providers Bidvest and NIC Cleaning Services.
Rachelle Wilkins, GMB Organiser, says: “Outsourcing companies have a proven track record of slashing pay terms, conditions and even jobs as soon as they have their feet under the table. Now loyal, hard working cleaning staff will be worried sick about whether their job will still pay the bills or whether the axe will fall on them. We asked Asda in April if there was any further planned outsourcing and the company categorically replied ‘no’ - yet here we are in August. We have called on Asda to halt this process now - at least until the other consultations are finished - and consider what is best for its customers and staff.”
Asda did not respond to our request for comment.
21,000...Warner Bros. Discovery Global Experiences is opening the UK’s largest official Harry Potter store on 4th November at The Ribbon, 134–140 Oxford Street, London. Spanning a total of more than 21,000 square feet, with two levels of retail space, the flagship is inspired by Diagon Alley.
Warner Bros. Discovery has unveiled the first official concept artwork for the store (see below for an example of this).
"Following the success of our Harry Potter shops around the globe, opening in London is a truly special milestone. We're incredibly proud to bring the magic back to the city where Harry Potter’s story began. There's no better place to create a destination that celebrates the magic, creativity and storytelling that has captivated generations of fans around the world,” says Karl Durrant, Senior Vice President, Retail, Warner Bros. Discovery Global Experiences.
“Step inside and you’ll feel as though you’ve walked straight into Diagon Alley. Every detail has been designed to transport fans into the wizarding world. Whether you’re local to London or visiting from afar, we can't wait to welcome fans through our doors this November.”
85.6% of UK consumers say a retailer’s returns policy is very important or quite important when deciding whether to buy online (45.6% - very, 40% - quite important), according to an IMRG and nShift survey of 1,000 Brits.
42.3%, meanwhile, would be much less inclined to shop with a retailer again after a poor return, while 28.8% would stop shopping with that retailer altogether. 66.1% would be likely or very likely to accept an exchange offered when starting a return instead of requesting a refund. 47.4% expect to initiate a return within one to three minutes. A further 30.1% expect the process to take no more than five minutes. More than 70% would be likely or very likely to return an online purchase in-store instead of by post if the option were available.
The research also finds that shoppers distinguish between blanket returns fees and charges linked to specific circumstances. While 21.5% believe charging for returns is never fair, 47.6% consider a fee fair for frequent returners. Charges for international returns and non-faulty items are also accepted by around one quarter of consumers.
“It’s very interesting to note that almost half of respondents are accepting of return costs aligning with past behaviour, which is the model Asos have trialled,” says Andy Mulcahy, Strategy & Insight Director at IMRG. “Exactly how that attitude develops over time remains to be seen, but if that kind of approach becomes normalised it may open up opportunities to do something similar in other areas of the customer experience. Everything becoming more personalised to the individual feels like the direction of travel.”
$1 million...Echovane has secured $1 million in funding in a round co-led by Titan Capital and Neon fund to expand what is pitched as “a permanently done for you research service where clients provide the business question and the company’s AI agents execute the study through to a completed, decision ready outcome”.
The cash will support the expansion of Echovane’s AI agent infrastructure, multimodal research capabilities, and global participant network. The venture was founded by former Amazon, Stripe, Gojek and Razorpay product leaders and graduates of Indian Institute of technology, Smriti Gupta, Vipul Nair and Himadri Roy. They initially set out to build an AI moderator for consumer interviews.
But the deeper they went, the clearer it became that the interview was only a fraction of the problem. Research teams were still spending weeks recruiting participants, coordinating fieldwork, analysing evidence and turning it into something the business could act on. So they expanded Echovane into the execution layer for the entire research process.
$100,000...Huck’s Market, a convenience retailer with 135 locations across the US Midwest, reports that its online ordering and delivery business has surpassed $100,000 in weekly sales. It says that this reflects the growing role of digital commerce within its broader digital transformation efforts, driven by expansion across both first-party ordering and third-party marketplaces.
"For years, we’ve believed that convenience retailing has to become more digitally native," says Jon Bunch, Vice President of Digital Marketing, Technology, and Innovation at Huck's Market. “We've been building toward that future through deliberate investments in our stores, operations, and strategic technology solutions, enabling us to serve our customers wherever and however they choose to shop."
Working in partnership with Vroom Delivery, Huck's Market says it has turned what had previously been a fragmented delivery operation into a centralised digital commerce platform. The company’s omnichannel strategy now spans first-party ordering on the Huck's Bucks Bigg Rewards app, Godfather's Pizza first-party ordering, and third-party marketplaces including DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. Most recently, Huck's expanded its reach with standalone Godfather's Pizza restaurant listings on DoorDash.
2...Westfield Rise, the in-house media agency of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW), has launched the second phase of its Toy Story 5 inspired experiential activity, extending across both Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City during the peak summer holiday period. Toy Story 5 is continuing to play in cinemas, having crossed the $1 billion global box office mark.
The latest phase introduces Bonnie’s Playtime, an immersive family experience running at Westfield London until 9th August and Westfield Stratford City until 31st August.
The activation is supported by a multi-channel media campaign delivered through Westfield Rise, combining experiential, digital out-of-home, social, CRM and destination marketing channels to engage family audiences before, during and after their visit. Bonnie's Playtime brings together LEGO, Mattel, Funko, Simba and The Disney Store and features interactive play zones, hands-on experiences and shareable content moments.
The initial Toy Story activation launched at Westfield London in June and involved a series of Gen Z fan focused experiences. Visitors took part in interactive challenges including a claw machine photo opportunity, a Disney Lorcana card themed spin to win game with prizes and access to archived Toy Story content.
$9 million...Edgify, a London-based company providing AI powered technology that protects against in-store loss, has raised $9 million in Series A+ funding to accelerate the roll-out of its platform. The round was backed by Rank Ventures and Mangrove Capital Partners, bringing the firm’s total funding to date to $25 million.
Nadav Israel, CEO and Co-founder at Edgify, says: “We founded Edgify on a simple conviction: intelligence should live where data is created, and devices should learn as one. A store is a fleet of machines that can see, decide and learn together, without a single byte leaving the building. Retail is just the beginning. The operational friction we have solved in grocery and convenience stores can be replicated in any industry where fleets of devices meet the physical world, as demonstrated by our expansion into QSR, distribution centres, and apparel.”
“This funding will fuel our growth, enabling us to take the intelligence layer we’ve built for retail and deploy it across the global industrial landscape, turning millions of isolated machines into self-learning real-time networks that operate independently of the cloud.”
500...500 of Simbe's Tally inventory robots are now in operation across Kroger's store network. The milestone was achieved at its newest Smith’s Marketplace location. In a LinkedIn post, Shaun Buck of Smith's Food & Drug Centers, said: "We’re excited to welcome the 500th Tally robot across all of Kroger to our Smith’s Marketplace team!"
"It’s an honour to have our store selected for this achievement. Our team is excited to put Tally to work and use this technology to strengthen our in-stock conditions, improve shelf accuracy, and continue finding new ways to better serve our customers. Technology like this allows our associates to spend more time helping customers while giving us better insights to keep the store looking its best. We’re looking forward to seeing the impact Tally will have as we continue working to deliver the best possible shopping experience for our community. A huge thank you to our incredible team for embracing new technology and always putting our customers first. Here’s to continuing to raise the bar every day!"
$545 million...Whatnot, a live commerce platform operating across North America, the UK, and Europe, has pulled in $545 million in Series G funding, led by ICONIQ, Lightspeed and Avra. New investors Kleiner Perkins, Wellington Management, Robinhood Ventures Fund I, S32, and Standard Capital also participated, alongside returning backers CapitalG, Y Combinator, Durable Capital Partners, Alkeon, Andreessen Horowitz, Greycroft, BOND, and DST.
This new financing values Whatnot at $20 billion, nearly doubling its valuation in less than a year. The company has raised approximately $1.5 billion since its founding in 2019.
“Small businesses were the earliest adopters of live commerce on Whatnot, helping demonstrate what was possible. Today, businesses of all sizes are making live commerce a core part of their business," says Grant LaFontaine, Co-founder and CEO at Whatnot. "Our job is to help every seller grow. This investment allows us to build better tools, bring AI to more parts of the selling experience, help sellers reach more buyers, expand into new markets, and continue building the world's biggest and most trusted marketplace.”
$900 billion...Commerce models pioneered in China, including live commerce, social commerce and quick commerce, are increasingly influencing how consumers discover, shop and engage with brands around the world, according to a report from NIQ entitled The Commerce Revolution: Where East Meets West.
China’s live commerce market reached approximately $900 billion in 2025, approaching the size of the entire US e-commerce market, while Asia Pacific now accounts for approximately 55% of global e-commerce revenue. 59% of consumers across the region already purchase through social platforms.
“Across Asia Pacific, the growth of social commerce and connected retail is accelerating the adoption of models first developed at scale in China. As these models gain traction in the region, brands need a more integrated understanding of how consumers discover, evaluate and purchase products through physical and digital channels,” says Rachel White, President, Asia Pacific at NIQ.
“The next generation of retail will be shaped by businesses that can connect consumer intelligence across physical and digital commerce. Brands that understand how consumers discover, evaluate and purchase products across every touchpoint will be better positioned to anticipate change and drive sustainable growth.”
1...Ocado Group reports the launch of its first customer fulfilment centre (CFC) with Lotte Shopping in South Korea. Following a partnership deal inked in 2022, last year Lotte went live with the Ocado Smart Platform, fulfilling orders using Ocado's in-store fulfilment (ISF) software. And now the first automated CFC will serve a catchment covering four million households across Busan and the broader Yeongnam region.
It also introduces a number of innovations for the first time. These include the launch of Ocado's fully automated freezer (Auto-Freezer), bringing Ocado's proprietary 'hive and bot' automation into temperatures as low as -25° C. The site will also support dawn delivery, enabling freshly packed grocery orders to reach customers’ homes before 7am.
It is also expected to be the most environmentally efficient Ocado CFC in the world, supporting a 100% electric vehicle fleet for daytime deliveries and operating more energy efficient 3D printed bots, with multi-temperature totes to maximise storage density for delivery. The widespread installation of solar panels will reduce annual carbon emissions by over 1,000 tonnes, those involved claim.
750…Amazon has expanded its locker network to over 750 locations at colleges and universities across the US. These locations span more than 500 campuses nationwide, with some colleges and universities offering multiple locker pickup points. Students can have eligible orders delivered to a campus locker at no additional cost and pick them up on their schedule.
“College students are constantly on the move, and picking up a package should fit into their day, not the other way around,” says Viraj Chatterjee, Vice President, Amazon Transportation. “Expanding Amazon lockers across college and university campuses nationwide puts secure package pickup directly into the flow of campus life.”
$10 million...New York headquartered Malachyte has announced the close of a $10 million seed funding round co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Gradient Ventures with participation from Harpoon Ventures. The startup was co-founded by Sidd Motwani (CEO), Ian Anderson (CTO), and Shivaditya Sinha (COO), the team behind the behavioural intelligence infrastructure that powers Spotify recommendations across millions of users and items. They say that they’re now bringing that same technology to every retailer and e-commerce brand.
"Brands are paying more than ever to acquire customers, then trying to convert them with a stack that only understands the fraction it already recognises," says Motwani. "Our technology reads behaviour instead of logins or cookies, so it understands every visitor before their first click, and keeps sharpening with every action. That's infrastructure built for how commerce works today."
"Malachyte's technology has driven our ability to recommend the right product at the right time across our entire user journey. It works for every visitor from the moment they land on our site, not just the ones we already recognise," says Emilee Walch, VP of Digital Product at Brunt Workwear. "The ROI was clear quickly, and the results we've seen so far are just the beginning of what's possible for us as a brand."
