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The State of Retail Tech H1 2020: Focus on Key Retail Priorities

  • August 11, 2020
  • August 11, 2020

Led by Senior Lead Analyst, Laura Kennedy

Our Senior Lead Retail Analyst, Laura Kennedy, provides an update on global retail funding and investments trends for first half of 2020. 

Laura highlights the deals, investments and trends from our recently-released State Of Retail Tech Report. 

She also demonstrates how she uses the CB Insights Technology Insights Platform to research retail investment, funding and startup trends in real time. 

During the webinar you’ll learn about:

  • How e-commerce drove big retail tech deals and valuations: As Covid-19  accelerated e-commerce sales growth, funding to technologies in social commerce, virtual shopping tools, and other online shopping tech increased in Q2.
  • The effects of Covid-19 on funding: Overall retail tech investment declined 20% from $8.1B in Q1 to $6.5B in Q2.
  • Which new retail formats saw funding rise in Q2 as brands and retailers looked for new, safer ways to reach shoppers.

Your Panelist

Laura Kennedy
  • Lead Analyst, Consumer & Retail

Laura Kennedy is a Senior Lead Analyst in the Consumer and Retail practice at CB Insights. She covers how technology is transforming retail in stores, online, and beyond, building on a foundation of knowledge about retail's biggest players to help clients understand where to place their innovation bets. 

Prior to joining CB Insights, Laura was a Vice President of Retail Insights at Kantar, where she led research on retail and shopper trends in the US market, with a specialty in big-box retail. She worked with major CPG clients to shape their retailer strategies and was a frequently-requested speaker across the industry. In addition, business press including NPR, Reuters, Bloomberg, and the Wall Street Journal regularly cited her insights. 

Before Kantar, Laura was a reporter and editor for the Kiplinger Letter, a weekly business forecasting publication in Washington, DC, where she covered retail and business law. 

Laura Kennedy is a Senior Lead Analyst in the Consumer and Retail practice at CB Insights. She covers how technology is transforming retail in stores, online, and beyond, building on a foundation of knowledge about retail's biggest players to help clients understand where to place their innovation bets. 

Prior to joining CB Insights, Laura was a Vice President of Retail Insights at Kantar, where she led research on retail and shopper trends in the US market, with a specialty in big-box retail. She worked with major CPG clients to shape their retailer strategies and was a frequently-requested speaker across the industry. In addition, business press including NPR, Reuters, Bloomberg, and the Wall Street Journal regularly cited her insights. 

Before Kantar, Laura was a reporter and editor for the Kiplinger Letter, a weekly business forecasting publication in Washington, DC, where she covered retail and business law.