How scarcity became Pop Mart’s greatest marketing weapon: the Labubu playbook for demand driven retail
Labubu’s parent company Pop Mart has redefined collectible toys as luxury items by deliberately engineering product shortages.
Turning what was once an impulse buy into an obsession, waitlists and sold-out signs have transformed Labubu from playful figurines into symbols of exclusivity – and elevated Pop Mart’s brand to cult status, observes Tom Summerfield, Retail Expert at Peak.
Amazon Just Walk Out technology goes live at Allianz Stadium Twickenham for frictionless bar launch
A deployment of Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology has wrapped at Allianz Stadium.
A Guinness Patch Just Walk Out frictionless bar made its debut during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby Final on 14th June, serving over 7,000 products. In a direct comparison, it surpassed its neighbouring traditional bar by 20% and sales were 15% higher than what the location averaged prior to Just Walk Out implementation.
Customers experienced average transaction times of less than six seconds from entry to exit. As with traditional queuing methods, the bar allowed for multiple lanes for entry and exit, to improve customer flow and eliminate congestion.
UK delivery firm Evri announces record results and parcel volumes as eBay and Vinted deals pay off
Evri says that it delivered record adjusted EBITDA and parcel volumes for the year to 1st March 2025, driven by a £57 million operational investment to improve service, broad-based growth across its divisions and new client wins.
It lays claim to parcel volumes of more than 807 million over the 52 weeks, up from c. 730 million in 2023-24. This represents a 25% increase in parcel numbers in the last two years.
Growth in 2024-25 was supported by deals with consumer-to-consumer marketplaces, such as eBay and Vinted, as the trend in selling second-hand items online shows no sign of slowing down. New client wins saw the business diversify into new sectors including fresh food, car parts and floristry.
Rob Barnes reflects on technology highlights as he ends 18 month run as Asda Chief Information Officer
Earlier this year, we reported that Rob Barnes was exiting Asda and the role of CIO. Barnes, who joined the UK grocery giant from Marks and Spencer, has now completed his last working day there.
In a LinkedIn post, he said: “It has been a privilege to serve a business during such a pivotal period of change, and it has taken me a few days to reflect and consider what we’ve achieved in this time. Looking back on the last 18 months, the team have achieved the impossible.”
This included rolling out NCR Voyix to all assisted and self-service tills in stores, converting over half of stores onto new SAP, Zebra Technologies and other store systems/processes including new shelf edge ticketing, and launching a new e-commerce platform, now serving all of George online and over half the grocery home shopping stores via Salesforce and Blue Yonder.
Royal Mail partners with Motor Fuel Group to introduce parcel lockers at UK petrol station locations
Royal Mail and Motor Fuel Group are teaming up to introduce parcel lockers at over 500 petrol stations across the UK. The first are now open at Motor Fuel Group forecourts in Shepton Mallet and Canterbury.
Motor Fuel Group is the UK’s largest independent forecourt operator.
Operating nationwide, it is also the largest open ultra-rapid EV charging network in the UK, the biggest car valeting operator with 900+ sites and a food to go retailer. Royal Mail launched its locker network in December on top of its doorstep services.
These offer a parcel drop off service, and soon they will include collection options. The lockers also feature label printing. Customers need to pay for postage online and print the label by scanning a QR code at the locker or request a QR code if they are returning a purchase.
