Do you like numbers? Do you like retail technology? Then this is the article for you.

€2.8 billion…Riding an e-commerce wave boosted by the coronavirus pandemic, parcel locker firm InPost this week raised €2.8 billion in its initial public offering on Amsterdam’s Euronext exchange.

£100…The UK contactless payment limit for a single transaction could be raised to £100.

Last year, it went up from £30 to £45 during the coronavirus outbreak. 

"Recognising changing behaviour in how people pay, as part of a wider consultation, we will shortly be seeking views on amending our rules to allow for a possible increase in the contactless limit to £100," the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said in an online post.

Nine in ten Brits believe the average supermarket will be significantly different in the near future, according to a study by ThoughtWorks.

The company surveyed 2,007 people and found that 26% reckon the supermarket checkout will have disappeared by 2030, while 18% said shelves would be stacked by robots. 

€3.2 million…autoRetouch, an AI powered image editing platform for fashion and lifestyle brands, has secured seed funding of €3.2 million, with European apparel retailer Breuninger leading the investment. 

$17 million and 1 million…Starship Technologies has raised $17 million and completed one million autonomous deliveries.

3,000…Amazon is set to expand its Boston Tech Hub in the US and create more than 3,000 new corporate and technology jobs over the next several years. 

The roles will support teams across the company, including Alexa, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon Robotics, and Amazon Pharmacy. 

1…Waitrose has become the first national UK supermarket to integrate unpacked items into regular aisles at its store in Wallingford Oxfordshire.

9…A new BearingPoint study has ranked retail the top UK industry sector for digital maturity.

Retailers took nine of the top ten spots, with Ocado nabbing first place, Curry’s PC World (Dixons Carphone) second, Asos third, M&S fourth and Argos fifth.

$150 million…E-commerce specialist Bloomreach has acquired customer data and experience platform Exponea. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

It has also announced an investment of $150 million from Sixth Street Growth.

€49 million…French buy now, pay later venture Alma has closed a €49 million Series B financing round involving Idinvest, Cathay Innovation, the French Public Investment Bank (Bpifrance), Seaya Ventures and Picus Capital.

90,000…Edeka Rhein-Ruhr, part of Germany’s largest supermarket chain, Edeka, is equipping its new distribution centre, located in Oberhausen-Waldteich, with a robotic order picking system from Cimcorp. 

The largest construction project in the company’s history, the facility, with a total floor area of 90,000 square metres, will be operational in 2021. 

6…Digital retailer Very.co.uk, which notched up a record breaking festive period, has compiled its top six ways our online shopping habits changed during Christmas 2020. 

$10 trillion…Total spend via digital wallets will exceed $10 trillion in 2025, up from $5.5 trillion in 2020, according to Juniper Research. 

This will be fuelled by the heightened adoption of digital payments during the coronavirus pandemic.

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