US: Minneapolis startup Inspectorio raises $10mln
Inspectorio, a startup that moved to Minneapolis after completing Target’s Techstars accelerator program, has raised an additional $10mln it will use to further expand its efforts to modernize and improve how retailers monitor their supply chains. “It’s a big milestone for us,” Carlos Moncayo Castillo, the company’s CEO, said of its Series A funding round in a phone interview from Vietnam, where the firm has rapidly grown its engineering team from around a dozen to about 80 people in the last year and a half. Among the investors are Target, which was the lead investor in Inspectorio’s $3.7mln seed round, as well as St. Paul-based Ecolab. Techstars Ventures led the Series A funding round.
Source: startribune.com
Inspectorio, a startup that moved to Minneapolis after completing Target’s Techstars accelerator program, has raised an additional $10mln it will use to further expand its efforts to modernize and improve how retailers monitor their supply chains. “It’s a big milestone for us,” Carlos Moncayo Castillo, the company’s CEO, said of its Series A funding round in a phone interview from Vietnam, where the firm has rapidly grown its engineering team from around a dozen to about 80 people in the last year and a half. Among the investors are Target, which was the lead investor in Inspectorio’s $3.7mln seed round, as well as St. Paul-based Ecolab. Techstars Ventures led the Series A funding round.Source: startribune.com
US: E-grocer GrubMarket nets $32mln to expand delivery
GrubMarket, an online company that sources organic food directly from farmers to businesses and consumers, recently closed a $32mln funding round to further grow its business. The company plans to make acquisitions and expand before its IPO, which the company has scheduled for the end of 2019. GrubMarket plans to expand from its home state of California to the east coast in New York and New Jersey by October. Recently, the company acquired So Cal Farm Network, another company that sources organic and healthy foods from farms to business. Between 60% and 70% of the West Coast company's business is in B2B sourcing, with a client list that includes WeWork and Whole Foods Market. The company provides apps that lets business customers manage their sourcing logistics with farmers. It also developed a game that let's shoppers earn points towards future orders.
Source: fooddive.com
US: Target tags onto Prime Day with one-day sale
Online shoppers might confuse Tuesday with Cyber Monday as Target looks to swoop some of Amazon’s thunder with a wave of deals. The former is kicking off a day promising dozens of deals in multiple departments to online shoppers on July 17, a day recently dubbed “Prime Day” by the latter. The Target.com one-day sale will begin early in the morning (the retailer did not note a specific time), July 17, and run through 11:59 p.m. CT.
US: Walmart opening more convenience stores
Walmart Inc. has revealed plans to open several small-format convenience stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, with a 2,000-square-foot location in Plano opening this week and three more stores slated for Arlington, Lake Worth and Lewisville later in the year, according to a published report. Open from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m., the c-stores will be situated in the parking lots of Walmart Supercenters that didn’t already have gas stations, with each location offering eight fuel pumps. No free-standing locations are currently planned, company spokeswoman Anne Hatfield told The Dallas Morning News.
Source: progressivegrocer.com
GrubMarket, an online company that sources organic food directly from farmers to businesses and consumers, recently closed a $32mln funding round to further grow its business. The company plans to make acquisitions and expand before its IPO, which the company has scheduled for the end of 2019. GrubMarket plans to expand from its home state of California to the east coast in New York and New Jersey by October. Recently, the company acquired So Cal Farm Network, another company that sources organic and healthy foods from farms to business. Between 60% and 70% of the West Coast company's business is in B2B sourcing, with a client list that includes WeWork and Whole Foods Market. The company provides apps that lets business customers manage their sourcing logistics with farmers. It also developed a game that let's shoppers earn points towards future orders.Source: fooddive.com
US: Target tags onto Prime Day with one-day sale
Online shoppers might confuse Tuesday with Cyber Monday as Target looks to swoop some of Amazon’s thunder with a wave of deals. The former is kicking off a day promising dozens of deals in multiple departments to online shoppers on July 17, a day recently dubbed “Prime Day” by the latter. The Target.com one-day sale will begin early in the morning (the retailer did not note a specific time), July 17, and run through 11:59 p.m. CT.Source: delimarketnews.com
Walmart Inc. has revealed plans to open several small-format convenience stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, with a 2,000-square-foot location in Plano opening this week and three more stores slated for Arlington, Lake Worth and Lewisville later in the year, according to a published report. Open from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m., the c-stores will be situated in the parking lots of Walmart Supercenters that didn’t already have gas stations, with each location offering eight fuel pumps. No free-standing locations are currently planned, company spokeswoman Anne Hatfield told The Dallas Morning News. Source: progressivegrocer.com
Japan's FamilyMart UNY: integration almost complete
FamilyMart UNY posted a 2.0% rise in operating revenue to JPY316.5bln (US$2.8bln), with operating profit up 7.8% to JPY20.3bln (US$182.2mln) yoy. This was mainly driven by improved daily sales at converted convenience stores and cost reductions that have followed the closure of unprofitable stores. The retailer ended the first quarter with a total network of 24,002 stores, down 522, as it continues to consolidate its operations in Japan.Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
Holland: Groupe Casino's online devision Cnova N.V. : Q2 2018 activity
Cnova N.V. (Euronext Paris: CNV; ISIN: NL0010949392) ("Cnova") announced unaudited operating data for the quarter ended June 30, 2018: GMV (gross merchandise volume) totaled €760mln in the 2nd quarter 2018, an increase of 14.3% versus the same period in 2017. Organic growth of +9.0% accelerated quarter over quarter (+6.1% in the 1st quarter 2018) and included a 0.9 point contribution from Géant corners. The Casino Group's multichannel revenue streams, primarily related to the June 2017 agreement with Géant, contributed another 5.3 points to total GMV growth. Overall, GMV was positively impacted by the French Days (a commercial event gathering numerous French e-merchants during 5 days at the end of April) and the 2018 World Cup event, which supported a high growth for the Audio-Visual category over the quarter.Source: globenewswire.com
China: JD.com eyes Italy
Chinese internet giant JD.com wants to expand to Italy: the Milan office would be the second European office in a short period of time for Alibaba's great rival. The establishment of an office in Milan is another indicator of JD.com's European expansion drift, as the company will almost certainly extend to even more European countries soon. At the recent opening of the Paris office, the company already revealed they were searching for locations in Germany and the United Kingdom.Source: retaildetail.eu
UK: Budgens announces plans to expand north
Retailers in northern England and Scotland could be the owner of a Budgens, as the symbol group announces plans to expand further up the country. The full Budgens range is now available in a Booker Retail Partners depot in South Yorkshire, which has allowed it to attract retailers in new areas. In the past year, Budgens has opened 80 new stores in 12 new areas, such as York, Manchester and Newcastle.Source: betterretailing.com
UK: Ocado prepares to launch one-hour delivery service
Ocado is gearing up to take on Amazon by offering a super-fast delivery service. The online supermarket, which also builds slick robot-operated delivery services for other grocers, said it was preparing to launch express deliveries similar to those offered by Amazon. Shoppers who pay for Amazon's Prime Now service can get items such as bread, sun cream and batteries delivered to their home within two hours.Source: thisismoney.co.uk
Kaufland reaffirms support to Slovak producers
Kaufland Slovakia has announced that it sold more than 50mln kilograms of fruit and vegetables sourced from Slovak producers in 2017, and it intends to increase this figure in the coming year. In a statement, the company said that it currently partnered with Slovak producers holding a combined 3,845 hectares of fields and 92 hectares of greenhouses. The company indicated that its total offer for 2017 represented an average of nine kilograms of fruit and vegetables per person in Slovakia.Source: esmmagazine.com
Ecommerce in France was worth €81.7bln in 2017
Ecommerce in France grew 14% last year. The online business-to-consumer turnover was worth just under 82bln euros and is expected to rise even further in the coming year. The French ecommerce turnover is forecast to be worth 93bln euros at the end of this year. This can be concluded from the latest France Ecommerce Report by the Ecommerce Foundation. This study also shows that the B2C ecommerce turnover of France keeps on growing every year with about 14%. Last year, the online retail industry increased by 14.27% and for next year a 14.08% growth rate is expected.Source: ecommercenews.eu