Retail Tech: Kohl’s Teams with Instacart for Same-Day Delivery, URBN Taps Stripe for Payments

Glenn Taylor
·11 min read
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The Retail Tech Roundup compiles technology news across the supply chain, manufacturing, retail, e-commerce, logistics and fulfillment sectors.

Delivery

Kohl’s/Instacart

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Kohl’s is now offering same-day delivery for online shoppers, teaming with Instacart as its exclusive partner to provide the service.

The department store will enable shoppers to place online orders via the Instacart app, which the tech company says enables nearly 109 million U.S. households to obtain delivery in as fast as an hour from 1,172 Kohl’s stores nationwide.

This partnership enables customers to gain access to product categories, including accessories, home essentials, premium skincare, beauty items, pet supplies and more.

Kohl’s already provided next-day delivery, working with package carriers including UPS and USPS, but this exclusive collaboration marks the first time the department store has offered the same-day alternative since partnering with now-defunct platform Deliv in 2015.

As Kohl’s exclusive same-day delivery partner, customers on Instacart can place orders for either same-day or scheduled delivery, and do it for the same prices as in-store, the companies said. Customers shopping at Kohl’s on Instacart will be able to earn Kohl’s Rewards with the purchase.

“With Kohl’s as one of the first department stores on our platform, we’re proud to continue expanding our selection beyond grocery, making everyday shopping for our customers easier for their busy lives,” said Blake Wallace, senior director, retail partnerships at Instacart. “We’re committed to offering customers a broad selection of items and ways to get exactly what they need from the retailers they know and love.”

Customers can visit a dedicated storefront on the Instacart e-commerce site or select the Kohl’s storefront on the Instacart app.

For all orders, an Instacart gig worker will pick and deliver the order within the customer’s chosen delivery time frame.

Payments

Urban Outfitters/Stripe

Urban Outfitters, Inc. (URBN) and its stable of brands including namesake Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie Group, Free People and FP Movement have partnered with payments technology company Stripe to power their online and in-person retail payments.

With Stripe as its primary payments infrastructure, URBN aims to introduce a more consistent checkout experience for its customers with the goal of increasing authorization rates and enabling future innovation.

“Payments are a critical link between our brands and millions of URBN customers who expect checkouts to be as easy as trying on an outfit or adding items to a cart,” said Dave Hayne, chief technology officer at URBN. “Stripe lets us stay focused on building the best unified commerce experience possible by removing the complexity of payments across our brands.”

With billions in annual sales, URBN is consolidating the majority of its North American payments volume onto Stripe. In doing so, URBN expects to see higher authorizations, better reliability, more precise data analytics and greater potential for future payments innovation.

URBN will use Stripe for in-store payments, simplified online checkout, extended authorization windows, an improved performance and reliability.

Stripe Terminal will become URBN’s primary in-store checkout option in North America, using its own POS readers at more than 600 locations.

URBN is using Stripe’s Link and Financial Connections features to allow online customers to pay with their bank accounts. Customers who have saved their bank account details at any business using Link can check out without having to re-enter their payment information.

The retailer also uses Stripe’s Optimized Checkout Suite to power its checkout page with pre-built payment UIs designed for increasing conversion rates. Using the Optimized Checkout Suite, URBN also has access to over 100 payment methods.

Under URBN’s fulfillment process, card payments for URBN purchases are only processed when a customer’s order has been shipped or picked up from a store. URBN will use Stripe to extend the authorization window from the time between an order being placed to the time it ships, which can help ensure more transactions are successful even in the unlikely event of a delay.

URBN will use additional tools to power money movement and gather more precise analytics. The retailer will use Stripe Connect to facilitate payments between third-party merchants and buyers on their brand marketplaces, which host independent apparel brands. Additionally, finance teams at URBN will use Stripe Sigma and Stripe Data Pipeline to automate the collection of revenue data and financial reporting for all of its brands.

Buy now, pay later

Walmart/One

Walmart’s majority-owned fintech startup One has begun offering buy now, pay later (BNPL) loans for big-ticket items at some of the retailer’s more than 4,600 U.S. stores, according to separate reports from Reuters and CNBC.

The move would put One in direct competition with Affirm, which previously served as the exclusive provider of installment loans for Walmart customers since 2019. Walmart only recently expanded its use of Affirm as a payment option at Walmart self-checkout kiosks.

Offerings from both One and Affirm were available at checkout at a New Jersey-based location, according to the CNBC report. Loans from either provider were available for purchases starting at around $100 and costing as much as “several thousand dollars” at an annual interest rate of between 10 percent to 36 percent, according to their respective websites.

Electronics, power tools, jewelry and automotive accessories are eligible for the loans thus far, while groceries, alcohol and weapons are not.

“For the time being, Affirm will remain a funding option at Walmart but will presumably compete head-to-head with One at the point of sale (POS),” JPMorgan wrote in a note on Tuesday, adding that Walmart could push One more prominently at the POS.

Fulfillment

Modcloth/Cart.com

Women’s clothing retailer ModCloth has selected unified commerce and logistics solutions provider Cart.com as its U.S. fulfillment partner. The brand will leverage Cart.com’s third-party logistics (3PL) solutions to streamline order fulfillment, optimize its supply chain and improve customer service out of Cart.com’s New Jersey facility.

Cart.com’s 3PL offering is built to enable B2C, D2C and B2B companies to automate and simplify supply chain operations, reduce costs and achieve real-time order and inventory visibility. The company’s proprietary software, including its Constellation Order Management System (OMS) and warehouse management technology, are deployed alongside a variety of automated systems to drive precision and productivity across its nationwide network of omnichannel facilities.

“We are delighted to be partnering with Cart.com for our fulfillment solutions,” said Gabe Zeitouni, Director of ModCloth. “Their comprehensive logistics services, along with our ongoing partnership with Nogin for advanced e-commerce technology, are propelling us towards a future where our unique, inclusive fashion reaches more customers with greater efficiency. Together, these collaborations support our mission to enhance the shopping experience for the ModCloth community, ensuring that each vintage-inspired piece we offer is presented and delivered with care and precision.”

Cross-border commerce

Swap

Swap, an e-commerce platform built to manages all operations for direct-to-consumer brands, unveiled a $9 million Series A funding round led by QED Investors, with participation from Cherry Ventures, 9900 Capital, 2100 Ventures and Ed Hallen, the co-founder of Klaviyo.

With this capital, Swap will launch Swap Global, allowing the company to unlock new markets through delivered duty paid (DDP) shipping, automated tax remittance and express customs clearance. The funding will also enable Swap to grow its marketing and sales teams while the company works to broaden its footprint in the U.K., Europe and the U.S.

The latest offering is aimed at taking the worry out of cross-border shipments and ensures duties, taxes, and fees are done at checkpoints to improve cart conversion. Swap handles all global tax filing and duty drawbacks via localized tax and value-added tax (VAT) filing by country on all international shipments. Customers will save hundreds of thousands annually by accessing and using Swap’s tax ID’s globally automated filing of duty drawback on return shipments.

Swap also wants to combat the online returns problem by offering consumers a platform that makes it seamless to make returns, exchanges or receive store credit. The company says its team handles all the direct relationships with carriers, insurers and recycling partners, managing it under one platform as a brand’s e-commerce operating system.

The company is designed to help direct-to-consumer brands simplify their tech stack, by improving every pain point in a brand’s operations journey, from shipping, tracking, and package-protection, to returns and cross-border. Swap currently partners with hundreds of DTC brands, including Pangaia, Retrofete, Hill House Home, Drake’s, Percival, Nadine Merabi and more.

Logistics

Cargado

Cross-border logistics startup Cargado has secured $6.8 million in seed funding that will be used to expand its team and enhance the company’s product.

The seed round was led by Primary Venture Partners with participation from existing investors Ironspring Ventures, Zenda Capital, Wischoff Ventures and Proeza Ventures, along with new investor RyderVentures. Cargado secured $3 million in pre-seed funding in January.

Cargado was founded by CEO Matt Silver and chief technology officer Rylan Hawkins in October 2023.

Silver said the seed funding will be invested in hiring more data engineers, as well as additional sales, accounting and support staff. Cargado currently has about half a dozen employees, based in Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle and Laredo, Texas.

Cargado’s headquarters will be in Chicago and the company plans to open an office in Monterrey, Mexico.

While the team has been largely mum about the details of the launch, but Silver has hinted that the Cargado technology will be designed for operators involved in the cross-border process.

Order management

OneStock

Order management systems provider OneStock unveiled a $72 million investment from global growth equity investor Summit Partners.

OneStock was founded in 2015 by CEO Romulus Grigoras, and chief technology officer Benoit Baccot to help retailers and brands navigate the increasing complexity of the omnichannel landscape and enhance the overall customer experience. The company’s cloud-native solution provides a centralized platform designed to manage end-to-end order fulfillment and visibility and empower retailers to offer a “buy anywhere, deliver anywhere, return anywhere” experience to customers.

The company says it has achieved profitable growth in recent years, seeing a 2.5-fold increase in recurring revenue since 2021. The company has seen adoption among major enterprise customers across diverse verticals, ranging from luxury goods to car parts, pet food to furniture, and from traditional B2C retailers to franchiser networks and B2B commerce.

Today, more than 100 international retailers and brands across 25 countries leverage OneStock, with the platform facilitating over 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billiion) in orders annually. OneStock customers include Yves Rocher, WHSmith, Intersport, ManoMano, and S.Oliver.

This new funding will be used to fuel OneStock’s continued international expansion, particularly into the U.S. market. OneStock is an Adobe Gold Partner, one of the few MACH-certified OMS providers in the MACH Alliance, and the first OMS with an official integration with Shopify.

In addition, the company plans to accelerate product development in a number of areas, including B2B, AI and circular economy initiatives.

PLM

Lectra

Lectra has debuted Kubix Link 3.4, a new product data management platform built to ensure that fashion brands have information that is as accurate and as up-to-date as possible at each stage of the product lifecycle.

Its launch goes hand in hand with that of Kubix Forms, a solution that simplifies the collection and integration of data from third-party users on the Kubix Link platform.

Both launches come as fashion brands need to have information that is as accurate and up-to-date as possible at each stage of the product lifecycle. Fashion brands also need to be able to very simply and easily share this product information with all those involved in the design, manufacture, distribution and marketing of their collections.

With Kubix Link PLM, Lectra already had a cloud-hosted SaaS platform offer that included functions for product lifecycle management (PLM), product information management (PIM) and data asset management (DAM).

Kubix Link 3.4 can enhance the user’s experience through new media organization (photos, videos), greater data storage capacity, increased flexibility in using the tools offered, as well as improved translation to facilitate cooperation between multilingual teams.

This new version also provides transparent integration of third-party solutions, similar to AccuMark, Lectra’s pattern-making software, or the company’s brand new offering, Kubix Forms. This is being launched in parallel with Kubix Link 3.4 to make it easier for fashion brands to collaborate with their external partners.

Third-party users can fill out and expand the information available on Kubix Link. It is now possible to overcome traceability challenges by retracing the origin of textiles and calculating their carbon footprint, to check production quality and interact transparently with suppliers and brands to obtain product information more easily. Automatic response integration in Kubix Link ensures that work flows smoothly, reducing time spent on manual data entry and promotes data enrichment in a secure manner for brands.