Bringoz Industry Weekly 7/16

ew ventures focused on selling used cars online have struck deals to raise almost $6bn so far this year. Bed Bath & Beyond is partnering with Roadie to expand its same-day delivery offerings. Walmart is partnering with Symbotic to implement a high-tech automation system at 24 of the 42 distribution centers across the retailer’s regional network. Read about these stories and more in our weekly industry news roundup.

New ventures focused on selling used cars online have struck deals to raise almost $6bn so far this year, as investors bet big that the last major category of consumer spending to escape eCommerce disruption will finally go digital. Start-ups that barely existed before the pandemic and decades-old automotive trading groups alike are racing to build out the online marketplaces, consumer brands and costly logistics infrastructure needed to tap into a global used car market that is worth almost $1tn a year. “The automotive space is lagging the online shift versus almost all other retail spaces, but it’s now playing catch-up,” said Alex Chesterman, founder and chief executive of UK-based Cazoo, which is forecasting revenues to grow by more than 300% to almost $1bn this year. Read more on Financial Times.

Ghost kitchens are becoming increasingly popular. The coronavirus pandemic created huge demand for food deliveries leading to the accelerated growth of ghost kitchens, or cooking facilities that produce food only for delivery with no seating areas. According to Euromonitor, ghost kitchens could create a $1 trillion global market by 2030. Many restaurants started ghost kitchens out of necessity during the pandemic in order to keep their businesses afloat. Here are some ways these partnerships can help these businesses evolve. Read more in our blog here.

Bed Bath & Beyond is partnering with Roadie to expand its same-day delivery offerings, which the retailer already provided in some areas through DoorDash and Shipt, according to a company press release. The retailer said this will bring same-day delivery to about 16,000 zip codes, about double what it was prior to this latest partnership. There are more than 41,000 zip codes in the U.S. “In Q1, 31% of our digital demand was fulfilled from stores, with BOPIS representing 14% and ship-from-store and same-day delivery accounting for 17%,” Bed Bath & Beyond CEO Mark Tritton said last month. Read more on Supply Chain Dive.

Amazon expects hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles to be lighter, fuel faster and have longer range than battery-electric vehicles, Middle Mile Fleet Leader Tiffany Nida said during a webinar hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Coalition. “But the technology and the proof points against that are further out,” she said. “Hydrogen is … very much part of the future,” Thomas F. Jensen, senior vice president for transportation policy at UPS, said during the webinar. “But that future is yet to be defined, frankly.” Nida and Jensen said their respective employers do foresee hydrogen trucks as part of their fleet mixture. UPS views them as an option for OTR operations in the long term. For Amazon, “the details of that probably [are] further in the future,” Nida said. Read more on Transport Dive.

Walmart is joining forces with Wilmington, Mass.-based Symbotic to implement a high-tech automation system at 24 of the 42 distribution centers across the retailer’s regional network, a move that Joe Metzger, EVP of supply chain operations at Walmart U.S., said would “fundamentally alter how products get to stores.” The “revolutionary” tech will get products onto shelves faster, reduce out-of-stocks, and save time and effort for associates, who are then freed up to help customers, he added, noting that Walmart would also be able to train employees on how to use the new equipment, giving them new skills and preparing them for future roles. Read more on Progressive Grocer.

Sam’s Club has begun testing a new in-store service that provides a ship-to-home option straight from the aisle. Called Scan & Ship, the service enables members to use the Sam’s Club mobile app to scan a product QR code — on a shelf tag or the package — for eligible merchandise and place a direct-to-home order, the Walmart-owned warehouse club chain said Tuesday. The program leverages Sam’s Club’s Scan & Go service, which allows members to scan items with their smartphone as they shop and pay through the retailer’s app, skipping the checkout line. Read more on Supermarket News.

Half of Volkswagen’s sales are expected to be battery-electric vehicles by 2030, the German carmaker said Tuesday. By 2040, the company said almost 100% of its new vehicles in major markets should be zero-emission vehicles. Volkswagen has earmarked 73 billion euros ($86.4 billion) for the development of future technologies between 2021 and 2025, which makes up 50% of the company’s total investments. In a further bid to boost its electric vehicle offering, Volkswagen announced it would establish a “controlled battery supply chain,” introducing one unified battery format and opening six giga factories across Europe by 2030. Read more on CNBC.