Market highlights – May 2017

Trends News 4 1 - Market highlights - May 2017

Market highlights – May 2017

Every month B.D.C. gives you the key retail information you should not have missed. Key trends, innovation, major players, startups, market figures – discover in 60 seconds the latest key retail news.

 

UK MARKET HIGHLIGHTS

 

According to a new report from Criteo40% of all online grocery purchases made are done using a mobile phone and eGrocery shopping represents 7% of all grocery shopping. There is still a significant growth opportunity as 75% of all grocery shoppers have not bought online yet.

The monthly IMRG Capgemini eRetail Sales Index mentioned an E-Commerce sales growth of 13.9% in April which is partially explained by an increase of 7% for UK online retail searches in the first quarter of 2017 compared to the same period last year, with searches on smartphones increasing by 23% year-on-year (latest BRC-Google Online Retail Monitor). Those numbers also highlight the importance of having a local approach, as 40% of searches on Google have local intent.

KEY PLAYERS

 

Amazon Echo is rapidly becoming an established and mainstream technology. According to a new study by Radiocentreover 9% of UK households own one or more Amazon Echo’s devices and it is predicted to be in 40% of UK homes by 2018. In addition, 8 out of 10 owners aim to set up Amazon personal assistant Alexain their car once the technology becomes available.

Microsoft announced this month the launch of its Cortana-powered vocal assistant: Invoke. The new Amazon Echo’s competitor should arrive on the market this autumn however we don’t know the price yet.

Ikea had its fifth consecutive year of growth in 2016, with revenues rising 8.9% to £1.72 billion in the 12 months to March 31th. As a result, Ikea will open 3 new UK stores in Exeter, Greenwich and Sheffield and create then 1,300 jobs by the end of 2018.

INNOVATION & TRENDS

 

After your home assistant, here is your style assistant: Amazon Echo Look. Amazon has added this new device to the Echo family to enable customers to see themselves from every angle with the companion app, build a personal lookbook, share photos and receive style recommendations. This voice-activated camera is based on AI voice recognition and computer vision technologies.

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