retail
Alibaba faces reckoning with once-vaunted ‘new retail’ strategy
In 2017, “new retail” began appearing in Alibaba’s earnings reports. Coined by the Chinese e-commerce behemoth, the term “new retail” refers to the seamless integration of online and offline retail.…
Activist investors are coming for Etsy. Elliott Management, the investment management firm known for its aggressive governance tactics, has built a roughly 13% position in Etsy’s stock, CNBC reports —…
Amazon’s ‘Just Walk Out’ tech now works with employee badges
Amazon’s computer vision and sensor-powered Just Walk Out retail technology, which allows customers to shop at stores and then skip the cashier line when it’s time to check out, is…
Google wants to inject a little generative AI into retail. Or to try, at least. To coincide with the National Retail Federation’s annual conference in NYC, Google Cloud today unveiled…
Why Puma is sticking to its web3 bets as crypto shakes off a long winter
While some brands moved away from web3 in 2023 during a long crypto winter, Puma stayed the course and its head of emerging technology, Ivan Dashkov, told TechCrunch+ it has no…
Y Combinator-backed Guac trains algorithms to predict grocery demand
Poor grocery demand forecasting is responsible for more waste than you might expect. According to one source, grocery stores in the U.S. toss 10% of the roughly 44 billion pounds…
Circuit City, angling for a comeback of sorts, hopes to raise $25M
At the risk of dating myself, I’m old enough to remember the days when Best Buy had a formidable rival in superstore chains: Circuit City. A cross between an appliance…
Birdseye’s AI-powered chief marketing officer drives personalized email campaigns for retailers
The company offers hyper-personalization email and SMS campaigns and retail transaction data insights from one dashboard.
Qatar fund invests $1B in Ambani’s Reliance Retail at $100B valuation
Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund is investing $1 billion in Reliance Retail as India’s largest retail chain looks to expand its operations and enter new categories. The Qatar Investment Authority’s check…
Inventory robots are having a moment. Two days back, Swiss firm Verity announced an $11 million raise. That followed a $20 million round from fellow drone inventory startup B Garage,…
Datasembly grabs $16M to give brick-and-mortar retail pricing a big data intel boost
Online shopping often feels like a one-way street from the point of view of the physical retail world: e-commerce has a wider selection, it’s open all the time and there…
Let’s look at the three most important milestones along the road to predictive analysis in the retail media context.
In 2007, Alan O’Herlihy, who previously worked with large SAP installations as well as retail, set out to find a way to help retailers minimize “shrinkage,” or where a store…
Target will allow you to return items from your car starting this spring
Curbside pickup of groceries and other big-box retailer goods had been growing for years, then boomed during the pandemic, reaching mainstream adoption. Now, Target is taking the opportunity to offer…
Crypto makes you more attractive, according to a new Binance survey
In true Valentine’s Day fashion, we’re diving into the theme of love…and crypto? According to a new study by Binance, the world’s largest blockchain by trading volume, crypto could have…
Emperia is helping brands like Bloomingdales build shopping experiences in VR
Does the average person want to shop for apparel in virtual reality (VR)? Speaking for myself, it sounds rather cumbersome — having to plop on a headset to browse for,…
Katrina Lake is back as interim CEO of struggling Stitch Fix, 17 months after stepping down
Can Katrina Lake save Stitch Fix? The founder of the nearly 13-year-old, subscription-based online personal shopping service is going to try, returning today to her role as CEO 17 months…
Insite AI raises $19M to help consumer brands figure out their in-store strategies
Insite AI, a platform for consumer packaged goods companies that uses AI to provide recommendations on how to price, distribute and promote their products in physical stores, today launched out…
Dame Products expands sexual wellness product line following $7M raise
Dame doubled revenue, customers and employees each year for the past two years, and the new funding gives it runway for product expansion.
Retail tech startup Swiftly valued at $1B after bagging another $100M
Swiftly’s technology taps into that online shopping experience to make shopping at a brick-and-mortar store just as engaging and easy.
Grocery delivery startups with low margins might drop IPO dreams for M&A reality
Getting a bunch of bananas and avocados from your favorite 15-minute grocery delivery company at 3 a.m. might be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but some of these companies…
Walmart introduces virtual try-on tech which uses customers’ own photos to model the clothing
Walmart is expanding its support for AI-powered virtual try-on technology that allows online shoppers to better visualize clothing on models that look like themselves in both appearance and body type.…
The alternative asset class needs new infrastructure — who will build it?
Just as traditional alternatives are becoming a consistent part of the modern portfolio, a new era of alternative assets is emerging, fueling a broader and more fragmented landscape for investing.
Alima aims to build out Latin America’s perishable foods supply chain
Alima’s platform digitizes and optimizes procurement, transport and traceability using artificial intelligence and analytics integration so that less food is spoiled.
SnappRetail helps Pakistan’s kiryanas compete against supermarkets
The number of global retailers, department stores and supermarkets operating in Pakistan is increasing, which spells convenience for consumers, but trouble for kiryanas, or small general stores. According to a…
Lily AI lands new capital to help retailers match customers with products
During the pandemic, retailers were forced to embrace e-commerce. But some found that they struggled to maintain customer loyalty as consumer expectations changed and purchasing patterns shifted. As a result…
Walmart+ adds a new cash-back feature for members, Walmart Rewards
Walmart is introducing another perk designed to sweeten the deal for its Walmart+ membership program — the retailer’s answer to Amazon Prime, which today offers a combination of free shipping,…
Nigerian B2B e-commerce platform Omnibiz raises millions to gain and retain retail customers
Africa’s informal retailers supply most of the continent’s population with a broad range of consumer goods and generate over $1 trillion in sales annually. However, troubles with outward inefficiencies and…
Walmart’s last-mile delivery service, Walmart GoLocal, tops 1M deliveries in year one
Walmart’s last-mile delivery service business, Walmart GoLocal, has topped 1 million deliveries in its first year, the retailer today revealed. The company offered a brief update on the state of…
Vividly wants to put some sparkle in your next CPG trade promotion campaign
The company provides tools to manage trade spend from the creation of campaigns to promotion planning, forecasting and deductions management.
