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Category: FutureRetailNews

FutureRetailNews

  • Walmart Now Delivering Groceries Directly Into The Fridge

    Walmart Now Delivering Groceries Directly Into The Fridge

    “We’ve got 4,700 stores within ten miles of 90 percent of the US population,” says Walmart Ecommerce CEO Marc Lore. “In those locations, we’ve got about 100,000 products including fresh and frozen. We’ve started doing pickup a couple of years back and now same-day delivery to the door. We decided to take it a step further and actually deliver it directly into customers fridges and so far so good.”

    Marc Lore, CEO of Walmart Ecommerce U.S., discusses In-Home Delivery and Next Day Delivery in an interview on Bloomberg Technology:

    Walmart Now Delivering Groceries Directly Into The Fridge

    This (delivery to a customer’s fridge) is a great opportunity for Walmart to leverage this unique asset to do things that only Walmart can do. We’ve got 4,700 stores within ten miles of 90 percent of the US population. In those locations, we’ve got about 100,000 products including fresh and frozen. We’ve started doing pickup a couple of years back and now same-day delivery to the door. We decided to take it a step further and actually deliver it directly into customers fridges and so far so good.

    I do think this is a great step change in the value proposition. Imagine going to work and coming home and having all the groceries stocked in your fridge. We just saw (in a previous trial using a third party) a really big opportunity to use our own Walmart associates to do the delivery. Their W-2 employees. They’ve been with Walmart for at least a year. We feel like that’s a big advantage.

    Can Deliver All Purchases Into Your Home Without Packaging

    We don’t actually need to have cameras in the home. The actual associate will have a camera on their vest. You could actually as a customer track on your app the associate going into your home, putting groceries into the fridge, and then leaving. You can look at it in real time or you can go back and look at it anytime you want. It’s very safe for customers as well.

    There are lots of possibilities (that will stem from in-home deliver). For example, being able to do a return. Imagine just leaving something on your kitchen table. That’s it, going to work and coming home and we’ll just take it away from you. Also, being able to deliver general merchandise into your home without any packaging. I think there’re lots of opportunities for services and health and wellness and all sorts of opportunities. We’re thinking them through now. We have some ideas.

    One Day Delivery Actually Costs Us Less Than Two Day

    Next Day Delivery has been great so far. It’s down in the LA region right now. By the end of the year, we’ll have about 75 percent of the population will have access to Next Day Delivery. Typically, the cutoff time is around 3 p.m. If you order by 3 p.m. you will get it the next day in a single box. That’s the other great thing too. A lot of times now you might receive it in multiple packages. It’ll be overnight in one box. We are really excited about that.

    It actually costs us less than Two Day Delivery. The big reason is that we’re able to get it in a single box. All this inventory is now mirrored or replicated close to the customer. If it’s close to the customer and it costs us less to ship it. If it’s one box it costs us less to ship as well. So yes It’s actually cheaper. We’re just being very measured in how we roll it out. By the end of the year, three-quarters of the country will have it. It’s gonna be moving pretty fast. About 40 of the top 50 metro areas will have access to it. So it’s about four or five areas a month that we’re adding.

    Dramatically Improved Contributed Profit Margins

    Right now, we’re in a really good position (regarding online profitability). Over the last year, we’ve dramatically improved our contributed profit margins. We’re starting to drive more mix into the higher margin categories like fashion and home. So feeling really good about the momentum we have. We have some dates in mind that we’re not obviously sharing. But we feel good about where we are right now. We feel really good about where we are and where we’re going.

    Walmart Now Delivering Groceries Directly Into The Fridge – Walmart Ecommerce CEO Marc Lore
  • FedEx Ground Now Offering Sunday Shipping

    FedEx Ground Now Offering Sunday Shipping

    FedEx has announced “that FedEx Ground has officially started delivering FedEx Home Delivery packages on Sunday for the majority of the U.S. population.”

    The moves comes as FedEx strives to “better serve the fast-growing e-commerce market.” Over the holiday season, Amazon banned its third-party sellers form using FedEx Ground over concerns the service was too slow and that packages would not arrive in time for Christmas. The news should go a long way toward dispelling those concerns moving forward.

    “Now that FedEx Ground delivers FedEx Home Delivery packages on Sundays to most U.S. residences, we have increased our speed advantage significantly to kick off the new year,” said Raj Subramaniam, president and chief operating officer of FedEx. Corp. “This provides added value to e-commerce shippers throughout the U.S. and the 188 million online shoppers in 7,700 cities and towns where FedEx Home Delivery packages are delivered on Sundays. As more customers expect weekend delivery, this enhancement to our network means that every day is now a delivery day at FedEx.”

    The change is another example of the increasing importance of e-commerce to the U.S. economy and the changes companies are willing to make to keep pace with it.

  • At Honeywell Innovation is Always the Key, Says CEO

    At Honeywell Innovation is Always the Key, Says CEO

    “Innovation is the key,” says Honeywell CEO Darius Adamczyk. “Anything we do in Honeywell, innovation is always the key. Whether it’s expanding into Europe, driving more robotics, a connected  warehouse offering which we are bringing to customers and having a broader play, are the key technology levers for that business.”

    Darius Adamczyk, CEO and Chairman at Honeywell, discusses how the company is using innovation and technology to drive growth in an interview on Bloomberg:

    Honeywell Digital Makes Us a More Contemporary Digital Company

    As we always said my number one priority as CEO was to drive organic growth, but we never say we’re going to give up on our margin expansion. We do it through a combination, both commercial levers, which is managing our mix, and always introducing new products, which bring more value to customers. But also not forgetting our roots, which is driving productivity. With the number of ERPs we have and the kind of complexity we have in our supply chain, Honeywell Digital, which is going to make us a much more contemporary digital company, we have plenty of levers for productivity as well.

    Honeywell Digital really has three primary elements. First is data governance, which is standard across all our various businesses. We’ve done over 80 acquisitions in the last 15 years so we have a lot of disparity. Then there are common processes, which is we want to run our businesses the same way in a very consistent manner. We have some pockets of excellence, but those have some inconsistency. Finally, all integrated into a common IT platform. Just to give an example, we had well over 1,500 different software applications before we started. We had over 150 ERP systems. It’s just very difficult to run a company efficiently and enable us to really make good data-based decisions. Honeywell digital is really all about enabling that.

    Anything We Do In Honeywell, Innovation is Always the Key

    Warehouse automation, which we started in 2016 with our Intelligrated acquisition. It’s been just a terrific business growing strong double-digit. We also made another acquisition called Transnorm which added to that technology in Europe in Q4 last year. We were planning on growing it organically, but also we’re looking to enhance our offerings, so we’re looking for inorganic opportunities as well. Innovation is the key. Anything we do in Honeywell, innovation is always the key. Whether it’s expanding into Europe, driving more robotics, a connected warehouse offering which we are bringing to customers and having a broader play, are the key technology levers for that business.

    Amazon is a big customer but we have a lot of big customers. I wouldn’t say it’s a predominant customer in that business. Just about everybody is looking into ecommerce because with a lot today’s retail you really have basically two options. One option is to enhance the in-store experience which a lot of retailers are doing. The other one is to drive ecommerce. We think that this trend is going to continue. Although I would say it’s in the middle innings in the US, it’s just beginning in Europe. We think we have a huge opportunity in Europe, India, and some of the other overseas markets.

    We have a very active venture capital fund and we’ve made about six investments in the last six months which is augmenting our technology plays. So although we haven’t made any big acquisitions, other than Transnorm in Q4, we are continuing to invest through our venture fund and we’re deploying capital that way. It’s been a terrific story for us in 3D printing for instance, particularly for our aerospace business. For a lot of the slow-moving parts we’re trying to basically get a new part certified and three printing per day. That’s our objective. Our aerospace businesses have made tremendous progress in achieving that and it’s really helping both for our inventory and on-time delivery for a lot of our aftermarket customers.

    It’s Important For Teachers To Be More Effective in STEM Education

    Regarding the workforce, education is the key and particularly STEM education. Honeywell is a big believer in that. Not only do we develop a lot of our young people that we bring into the company but we also spend a lot of money and time on developing teachers. It’s important for teachers to be more effective in STEM education. It’s something that we’re going to be supporting going forward even on a broader scale because that’s the way to differentiate our company.

    We’re always going to be differentiated by technology and we want to bring the brightest and the best. We want to make sure that it’s a competitive issue, not just here in the US, but everywhere we hire people, and we hire people just about everywhere. We have engineers in the US, China, India, everywhere around the globe. I would say lately we’ve actually been very much on the hiring string. When you grow 8% that creates a lot of opportunities to hire a lot of people particularly in the area of technology and engineering and software.

    At Honeywell Innovation is Always the Key, Says CEO


  • Walmart Can’t Let Amazon Out Walmart Walmart

    Walmart Can’t Let Amazon Out Walmart Walmart

    “I’ve been watching Walmart since 1968, they only came into existence in 62, they’ve done the same thing to the rest of retail,” says Jan Kniffen of J. Rogers Kniffen Worldwide. “They kept making a new step every time and the rest of retail had to follow and they won the game, they got all the market share. They can’t let Amazon out Walmart Walmart (when it comes to free one-day shipping). Walmart will fight this battle to the bitter end.”

    Jan Kniffen, CEO of J Rogers Kniffen World Wide, discusses Walmart’s likely reaction to Amazon’s free one-day shipping announcement in an interview on CNBC:

    Walmart Tweets One-Day Free Shipping…Without a Membership Fee

    Walmart is going to get to same-day delivery and so is Amazon. They’re just making the steps down. I would have come out with that tweet because they can say we’ll give it to you maybe same-day and no membership fee. They’ve been tit for tat for with Amazon right along. I think that Walmart with its 4,500 stores that are many distribution centers can keep up with Amazon on delivery. Can anybody else? Maybe not, but those two certainly can.

    Walmart can do same day and they should do it. The real question is what’s the cost to them to do this and what’s the cost to Amazon? They’ve already told us, it’s hundreds of millions of dollars. But what’s the cost to everyone else? Because market shares are what it costs everyone else. Walmart’s got to do this if Amazon does. They can’t give Amazon market share just because their deliveries are not as fast. But can anyone else keep up and pay the price that it takes to be able to do it? It’s really hard to imagine other people can. Amazon and Walmart both can.

    Walmart Can’t Let Amazon Out Walmart Walmart

    If you’re the investor I’m sure you’re going I don’t want this to happen. If you’re Walmart you’re saying I don’t really have a choice if Amazon does this I have to be competitive. Amazon caused Walmart or Walmart’s competitive nature caused it to spend a fortune over these last five years to be competitive with Amazon. When Doug (McMillon) came out and talked about it the stock went down a lot. Now it’s all come back and it’s all paid off and Walmart’s winning the game versus all of the other retailers. They’ve got to continue to do that.

    I’ve been watching Walmart since 1968, they only came into existence in 62, they’ve done the same thing to the rest of retail. They kept making a new step every time and the rest of retail had to follow and they won the game, they got all the market share. They can’t let Amazon out Walmart Walmart. Walmart will fight this battle to the bitter end. The question is do you still want to own the stock? My answer is yes you do just like you still want to own Amazon stock. These two win the game.

    Target is the Third Man Out in This Three-Horse Race

    I’m not pushing Target. I think Target is the third man out in this three-horse race. Target has done a great job. They’re a much better retailer than they were three or four years ago. They were the best retailer in the country in 2006. Now we’ve reached the point where it is sort of a three horse race and I just don’t see how they continue to win the game.

    I understand the call (by Barclays) and they are doing a much better job in apparel than they’ve done in years. But they’ve still got to fight this battle on things like same-day delivery with Walmart and Amazon. I don’t see how they win.

    Walmart Can’t Let Amazon Out Walmart Walmart


  • Microsoft Gaining Ground As Retail Cloud Alternative To Amazon

    Microsoft Gaining Ground As Retail Cloud Alternative To Amazon

    According to a report by Bloomberg, Microsoft is increasingly positioning itself as the cloud vendor of choice for retailers seeking to avoid Amazon, as well as more generalized software vendors.

    The software giant has been rolling out a number of cloud tools and services designed specifically for the retail market. Microsoft has had tremendous success in this market, as many retailers want to avoid relying on software made by their primary competitor, Amazon.

    “A key part of our offering is that we partner and we don’t compete,” Shelley Bransten, Corporate Vice President, Global Retail & Consumer Goods, told Bloomberg.

    One such feature that has come from that partnership is one that allows Teams users to use their phones as walkie-talkies for in-store communication. Microsoft is quick to point out, however, that features such as this one have value far beyond the retail environment.

    The end result of this focus has been some large, high-profile defections from competing products to Microsoft. Ikea, for example, has already moved 70,000 employees from Slack to Teams and “plans to have the rest of its 165,000-person workforce on Office 365 cloud software and Teams by the end of spring.”

    As Bloomberg points out, Microsoft’s stature in this market is turning heads. CEO Satya Nadella is scheduled to speak at the National Retail Federation’s annual show next week, “underscoring how significant the industry is to Amazon’s biggest cloud competitors.”

  • Walmart Announces Alphabot—Autonomous Carts That Speed Up Online Orders

    Walmart Announces Alphabot—Autonomous Carts That Speed Up Online Orders

    Walmart has just announced the first of its kind technology aimed at speeding up online grocery orders.

    The Alphabot system was created specifically for Walmart by Alert Innovation and is set to help Walmart launch its first pilot program in their Salem, New Hampshire supercenter.

    Alphabot is designed as a high-speed automation system that significantly speeds up the process of collecting and preparing an online grocery order. The systems uses autonomous carts to retrieve the items and send them to workstations where associates “pick, assemble and deliver orders to the customers,” as well as check the final order for accuracy.

    As part of the Salem store’s re-grand opening, “a 20,000-square-foot extension connected to the store houses the new system and will serve as a dedicated grocery pickup point with drive-thru lanes for customers. When completed, automated mobile carts will retrieve ordered items – stored warehouse-style in this new space – then deliver them to our associates at one of four pick stations.”

    According to the company, “the vast majority of grocery products we offer in-store will be fulfilled through this system, though our personal shoppers will still handpick produce and other fresh items.”

    Walmart plans to have Alphabot running by the end of the year and hopes to roll it out across the U.S.

     

  • California Welcomes Driverless Delivery Vehicles

    California Welcomes Driverless Delivery Vehicles

    KRCR News is reporting that California has opened the doors to driverless delivery vehicles, provided they receive a permit from the DMV.

    According to the report, “the Office of Administrative Law approved revised regulations on Monday that will allow companies with a DMV permit to operate autonomous delivery vehicles weighing less than 10,001 pounds.”

    Permits will be issued for autonomous vehicles both with and without a backup safety driver. Driverless delivery vehicles will have to follow the same guidelines and standards as autonomous passenger vehicles. The DMV is expected to begin approving applications within 30 days.

    The change in regulation is a welcome win for the autonomous vehicle market. If the tests and deployments are successful in California, it will be hard for critics to make valid arguments against their safety and practicality in other jurisdictions.

  • Windows Search Bar Upgraded With Visual Search

    Windows Search Bar Upgraded With Visual Search

    Microsoft announced a major upgrade to the Windows search bar, giving users the ability to search using an image.

    The feature is designed to work with screenshots. “Simply click the Bing Visual Search button in the bottom right corner and snip any part of your screen to search the web using the image,” according to the post.

    Bing has had camera-based searches since 2017, but this new upgrade is designed to make it faster and easier for someone to find images similar to what they’re already looking at onscreen.

    “We found people also wanted to search with screenshots, so we brought searching with screen snips to the Windows search bar,” says Nektarios Ioannides, Bing Image Search lead.

    The feature recognizes clothes, furniture, animals, flowers, landmarks, celebrities and even text within images. There is also an API available so developers can incorporate the feature in their own apps.

    The feature is rolling out to U.S. customers first, with International markets to follow and requires Windows 10 May 2019 Update or newer.

  • Foursquare CEO: We’re 99% NOT Social Media or Location Check-Ins

    Foursquare CEO: We’re 99% NOT Social Media or Location Check-Ins

    “We’re 99 percent not social media or location check-ins,” says Foursquare Labs CEO Jeff Glueck. “We are rather a location technology platform that helps other companies with location technology, marketing tools, analytics tools, and the like. We’re actually more ubiquitous than ever. We are like a location layer underneath, an Intel Inside for location. The company today is celebrating its 10-year anniversary and we’re very different, so much more than the check-in app that everybody remembers.”

    Jeff Glueck, CEO of Foursquare Labs, discusses how the company has shifted from a consumer app to a B2B technology company as it celebrates its 10-year anniversary. Glueck was interviewed on Bloomberg Technology:

    We’re 99 Percent Not Social Media or Location Check-Ins

    The company today is celebrating its 10-year anniversary and we’re very different, so much more than the check-in app that everybody remembers. Now we’ve passed over $100 million in revenue. We’re bigger than ever. We’re 99 percent NOT social media or location check-ins, but a location technology platform that helps other companies with location technology, marketing tools, analytics tools, and the like. We’re actually more ubiquitous than ever. We are like a location layer underneath, an Intel Inside for location. 

    Foursquare, because we started ten years ago as a consumer company, had a head start in thinking about all the ways that location could make our lives better but also all of the potential abuses and the privacy implications where consumers should be in control. We’ve been thinking about this and really trying to build an ethical tech company. Internally, we talk a lot about the ethics and privacy of approaching this stuff. I know that in this day and age that’s unusual but that is what we’re about. 

    It has been in a way a benefit to our business because we are hoping that developers and marketers are actually taking a really close look at how they add value with location, whether they have adequate user opt-in, and whether there are user controls. We’ve been advocates in fact that there should be more regulation in the United States, not less. So for us, it’s staking out a position where privacy and ethics are very core to what we’re doing. We’re kind of welcoming the scrutiny and I actually hope they’ll be even more.

    Placed Is The Leader In Measuring In-Store Visits

    When we raised a $150 million from investors led by the Rain Group this year we acquired from Snap, the parent of Snapshot a B2B business called Placed. The Placed product is the leader in measuring in-store visits after you have seen an ad, whether it’s on TV or digital or on outdoor billboards and the like. It helps marketers make better decisions about what’s working and, as they say, which half of my marketing spend isn’t working. We combine that with Foursquare attribution which was growing fast and together we are the leader in helping marketers and product companies understand what’s working. 

    We work with about 50 of the Fortune 100 in the United States, 14 of the top 20 retailers, and 18 the top 20 QSR and dining brands to help them understand which of their ads is actually inspiring new consumers or regulars to come back in the door and their storefront. With Placed, we really have taken a big leap forward in being the number one by far in that space. We also added a bunch of very talented people including our new president David Shim.

    Foursquare CEO: We’re 99% NOT Social Media or Location Check-Ins

  • How Non-Amazon Retailers “Leaned Into” Prime Day To Increase Sales

    How Non-Amazon Retailers “Leaned Into” Prime Day To Increase Sales

    “Retailers and brands took advantage of the buzz, the demand, the awareness, that Amazon has created and really rode that wave for great growth,” says Rob Garf, VP of Industry Strategy and Insights for Salesforce. “Retailers didn’t just ignore Prime Day, but they leaned into it. They really recognized this manufactured holiday, recognized the demand that was being created, and really took advantage of the consumers and their willingness to look for a good deal.”

    Rob Garf, VP Industry Strategy and Insights for Salesforce, discusses how retailers “leaned into” Amazon Prime Day, taking advantage of the buzz and overall consumer interest, to initiate their own Prime marketing. Rob was interviewed by Owen Milbury, Senior Manager, Analyst Relations for Salesforce:

    Retailers Didn’t Just Ignore Prime Day, They Leaned Into It

    What we saw is that this manufactured holiday, Hallmark has to be proud, really rose all ships if you well. The tide has risen where we saw 37 percent year over year growth for global retailers other than Amazon. What’s really interesting is that it just didn’t take place over those two days, but rather the entire month of July. We saw July having a ten percent higher growth rate than any typical month. Retailers and brands took advantage of the buzz, the demand, the awareness, that Amazon has created and really rode that wave for great growth. 

    Retailers didn’t just ignore Prime Day, but they leaned into it. What we found was that emails were at a heavy double-digit increase week over week. The other really interesting thing is our team stepped back and we actually looked at the Internet Retailer 500. We subscribed to all of their email lists and we went to their homepages over the last week. What we found was 51 percent of the IR 500, more than half, did some sort of promotion either on their home page or through email. 

    They just didn’t ignore it, they leaned into it. We found that 17 percent of the IR 500 mentioned either Prime Day or Black Friday in July as part of those promotions. They really recognized this manufactured holiday, recognized the demand that was being created, and really took advantage of the consumers and their willingness to look for a good deal. 

    We Saw Two Breakouts, Apparel, and Footwear

    Consumer electronics was certainly big. But we also saw two breakouts, apparel, and footwear. That’s really important because Amazon is leaning into their own private label. So these brands need to think how to differentiate. They didn’t just go to market and give deals. They also promoted limited edition products, special assortments, customizable merchandise, and even looking for subscriptions to be able not only to attract but to retain them over time. 

    The other one was consumer product goods. What was interesting about that was typically what you find in a grocery store they use the retailer as the intermediary, they’re looking generally to leapfrog these retailers. According to Salesforce research, 99 percent have some sort of active direct to consumer (D2C) type of initiative underway. That was no different this Amazon Prime Day. They were taking advantage of the buzz and really looking for ways to engage the consumer directly.

    49 Percent of Orders For Non-Amazon Retailers Were On Mobile

    When you think about the time of the year, most of Europe was on holiday, most of the US was taking time off as well, they’re not tethered to their computer. They don’t have the luxury of sitting down and searching that way. That showed in our data. In fact, 49 percent of orders for all non-Amazon retailers were done on a mobile device. This just speaks to the fact we’re on the go, the phone is the remote control of our daily lives. 

    We’re using it to break through the friction that usually exists between inspiration—I like something and I want to buy it—and then actually purchasing. Just for a point of context, that was a 20 percent increase year over year. It’s become a bellwether for shopping not only during the rest of the year but in particular on Prime Day.

    Retailers Saw Prime Day As a Test Run For Holidays

    Retailers are seeing this as really the test run for the holidays. They’re looking at their mobile strategy. How are they going to breakdown their friction? They want to make sure that they have mobile wallets so that they can really get through the checkout process. They are incorporating artificial intelligence so not forcing the consumer to swipe five times down the phone to find if you like this you might like this. Instead, putting it right above the fold. 

    They are also looking for fulfillment as well. As you are thinking through towards Cyber Week and the overall holiday season, and with it being five or six days shorter between Thanksgiving and Christmas, how are we going to use the store as a fulfillment center? You really bump up against that shipping deadline and need to also be able to fulfill that for several days after. Retailers are really cutting their teeth. They’re really bearing down. They’re looking at Prime Day as a way to get ready and gear up and go full force to back to school, Halloween, and through the holiday season.

    https://youtu.be/JHm8PZ2z1xU
    How Non-Amazon Retailers “Leaned Into” Prime Day To Increase Sales – Salesforce Execs Explain
  • Walmart Testing Self-Driving Delivery Vans, Says Gatik AI CEO

    Walmart Testing Self-Driving Delivery Vans, Says Gatik AI CEO

    “Our partnership with Walmart is a huge validation that commercialization and scalability of autonomous vehicles will happen in the B2B short or logistic space,” says Gatik AI CEO Guatam Narang. “Our autonomous vehicles will be moving goods for Walmart from one of their dock stores to their neighborhood markets in Bentonville, Arkansas. Think of our solution as filling the gap. We call it the middle mile. It’s hugely underserved and it’s a huge business opportunity for us.”

    Guatam Narang, co-founder and CEO of Gatik AI, discusses their partnership with Walmart to test B2B self-driving delivery vans near their headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. Narang was interviewed on CNBC:

    Walmart Launches Self-Driving Delivery Vans

    Our partnership with Walmart is a huge validation that commercialization and scalability of autonomous vehicles will happen in the B2B short or logistic space. That’s what Gatik focuses on. Both of the companies are very excited about this. Gatik is focusing on scaling and commercialization of the autonomous vehicle technology. Think of our solution as filling the gap. We call it the middle mile. It’s hugely underserved and it’s a huge business opportunity for us. 

    We believe that while operating the vehicles back and forth on known routes we can over-optimize our algorithms to perfect these routes. This is a much more constrained environment. The promise of autonomy can be realized sooner than B2C delivery applications or other applications of autonomous driving technology like passenger transportation. With our application, we are focusing on introducing these vehicles without safety drivers before a B2C delivery application or a passenger transportation application does the same.

    Autonomous Vehicles Moving Goods From Docks to Markets

    We are actually the first company that is working with Walmart for this particular use case. What that means is we are not delivering anything to the end consumer. Our autonomous vehicles will be moving goods for Walmart from one of their dock stores to their neighborhood markets in Bentonville, Arkansas. With some of the other companies that Walmart is working with the focus is more on B2C deliveries.

    Our focus is to move goods between businesses in an urban environment. The whole idea is let’s not try to change end consumer behavior. Let’s try to bring the promise of autonomous vehicles to businesses and help them save on operating cost in the near-term future.

    Gatik Is Focusing Their Driverless Tech On the Middle Mile

    Gatik is focusing on the middle mile. It’s filling the gap between long-haul trucking and the smaller sidewalk delivery robots. The middle mile is the most underserved segment of the whole supply chain. It is also the most expensive part of the whole supply chain. The reason to focus on this middle mile is to help our customers, which are businesses, help them save a lot on the operating cost. In addition to that, there is a huge shortage of drivers in this segment. With our solution, our customers can help fulfill. For us, it’s a huge validation. Right now all the testing and all the deployment is with the safety driver. The aim of the company is to take the driver off, scale the solution, and commercialize this technology. At scale, we are talking about saving up to 50 percent for our customers. The focus is to operate the vehicles on public roads. 

    When we talk about operating these vehicles between businesses, there are a lot of constraints that we can introduce. For example, very famously, FedEx and UPS trucks, they mostly take right turns because it’s more fuel-efficient for them. If we have something similar for our solution what that means is we wouldn’t have to worry about changing lanes. We wouldn’t have to worry about solving a very tricky situation in our space, that is unprotected left turns. As a company and as the solution we have a clear go-to-market strategy by installing or introducing some of these constraints. Not taking left turns is just one example, even though the technology stack can handle left turns, lane change, intersections, and traffic light navigation today.

    Walmart Testing Self-Driving Delivery Vans, Says Gatik AI CEO Guatam Narang
  • Alibaba.com Opens World’s Largest B2B Marketplace To US Businesses

    Alibaba.com Opens World’s Largest B2B Marketplace To US Businesses

    “Alibaba.com is the largest B2B marketplace on the planet,” says John Caplan, the North America B2B President at Alibaba Group. “Today is a great day for US small businesses. Manufacturers and wholesalers can join Alibaba.com today to sell to the world. The platform is now open to enable those businesses to reach the 190 countries at four corners of the globe where we have ten million business buyers on the platform. That business is $23.9 trillion and in fact, it’s six times larger than the B2C market.”

    John Caplan, President, North America B2B at Alibaba Group, discusses opening Alibaba.com to US small businesses to reach 10 million new B2B buyers, in an interview on Bloomberg:

    Alibaba.com Now Open To US Small Businesses

    Today is a great day for US small businesses. Manufacturers and wholesalers can join Alibaba.com today to sell to the world. The platform is now open to enable those businesses to reach the 190 countries at four corners of the globe where we have ten million business buyers on the platform. That business is $23.9 trillion and in fact, it’s six times larger than the B2C market. Alibaba.com is the largest B2B marketplace on the planet. What we built are simple to use tools for small businesses to have a global storefront, to market to customers, and then to reach deep into the globe so that they can sell their goods.

    Today’s the big announcement. But in fact, one-third of the demand, the buyers on Alibaba.com, are here in the United States. So those folks we’ve been doing business with for 20 years since Jack founded the company. Now what we’re saying to them is you’ve been sourcing on the platform and now you can, in fact, sell to the world on the platform. We are entirely focused on the B2B market. It is $23.9 trillion. Alibaba.com is purpose-built to help small businesses sell to the world. We’re very focused on helping digitize small businesses around the globe.

    70 Percent of US Small Businesses Do Not Sell Online

    One interesting statistic, 70 percent of US small businesses do not sell online today. This market is not yet digitized. What we’ve created are simple to use tools to help small businesses get online. It’s an interesting space because. In fact, the value chain for small businesses, the value chain for B2B is so complex that no one has digitized it end-to-end other than Alibaba.com. 

    We’ve actually created a platform that enables a small business to message, talk to, negotiate with, pay, and handle the logistics for orders end-to-end. I think we’re in a class by ourselves.  Our business has seen a triple-digit growth and this plan has been in the works for many years. I joined Alibaba.com in 2017. The transformation of our business from a yellow page business to an end-to-end procurement platform is now adding the globalized supply to the platform.

    Alibaba.com Opens World’s Largest B2B Marketplace To US Businesses – John Caplan
  • There’s So Much Investor Subsidy In The Delivery Business Model, Says Domino’s CEO

    There’s So Much Investor Subsidy In The Delivery Business Model, Says Domino’s CEO

    “What we’re going to see here in the near term is that there’s so much investor subsidy into that (delivery) business model right now,” says Domino’s CEO Ritch Allison. “We’re not really sure where it’s going to shake out long term. There’s substantial discounting and over-investment in advertising right now to drive consumer demand. We don’t know how that’s going to shake out once consumers actually have to pay the full cost of that delivery because those fees are quite substantial relative to the cost of the underlying food.”

    Ritch Allison, CEO of Domino’s, discusses how investor subsidies of delivery companies like Grubhub and Uber Eats are impacting Domino’s in an interview with Jim Cramer on CNBC:

    There’s So Much Investor Subsidy In The Delivery Business Model

    What we’re going to see here in the near term is that there’s so much investor subsidy into that (delivery) business model right now. We’re not really sure where it’s going to shake out long term. There’s substantial discounting and over-investment in advertising right now to drive consumer demand. We don’t know how that’s going to shake out once consumers actually have to pay the full cost of that delivery because those fees are quite substantial relative to the cost of the underlying food. 

    We also have not yet seen what’s going to happen with the supply of restaurants on these platforms as well. Over time it’ll be proven out whether or not that business is truly incremental and whether or not that business is actually accretive from a margin standpoint to the operators that are offering that service through the third-party aggregators. So long-term still a lot of questions but short term certainly some pressure.

    We’re not going to do foolish things in the short term in reaction. We’re still very focused on our franchisees’ profitability. That’s first and foremost in our minds and we’re still very focused on generating great returns and free cash flow for our investors. We’re generating cash flow now at a pace of about a million dollars a day in the Domino’s business. So some near-term activity here that’s creating some turbulence in the marketplace but we’re going to remain focused on our long-term strategy, great profitability for our franchisees and strong operating cash flow and returns for our investors.

    We Still Gained a Significant Amount of Market Share In Q2

    When you take a look at our business we still gained a significant amount of market share in the pizza category during the second quarter. Our retail sales were up 6.8 percent which is significantly higher than the growth in the category and frankly much higher than the growth in the restaurant industry in general. So while same-store sales at three percent were at the lower end of our long-term outlook, the overall retail sales growth driven by the combination of that same-store sales and really strong unit growth was still quite positive.

    It is a tougher operating environment than it has been in years past. We do have new competition in the marketplace that we’re fighting against every day. There are also labor pressures in the marketplace, certainly, the tight employment environment and some of the rising minimum wages across the country are putting some pressure on. But we are really in a position of strength as we enter into this more turbulent period. 

    Bringing Data-Driven Decision Making To International Markets

    In 2018 our average store in the US had operating cash flow as measured by EBITA of $141,000. Our franchisees are very healthy. Cash on cash returns in the business are really strong. That’s why when you take a look at what’s going on with units, we opened 45 units in the second quarter in the US and only closed three, it’s still a very healthy business model. We’re positioned quite well as we look forward relative to the rest of the restaurant industry to continue to be successful.

    We are we’re working hand-in-hand with our master franchisees around the world. As you look from market to market the issues in markets can be different depending upon those specific circumstances. What we’re trying to do is work with the markets to bring some of the same terrific data-driven decision-making that we’ve used to grow the business in the US over a number of years now and help our international markets in that regard. 

    Broadly, when you take a look at the international business, retail sales were up 9.8 percent in the second quarter. We are gaining share at a significant pace in the international markets as well as having great growth in the international markets this past quarter with a 158 net store openings. It remains a very healthy business despite the comps over the last few quarters being on the lower end.

    There’s So Much Investor Subsidy In The Delivery Business Model, Says Domino’s CEO Ritch Allison
  • Virtual Restaurants Helping Power Uber Eats Growth

    Virtual Restaurants Helping Power Uber Eats Growth

    “Virtual restaurants is a very interesting initiative,” says Uber Eats EMEA head Rodrigo Arevalo. “Basically by leveraging the data on our platform, we can partner with other restaurants in order to cuisine types that only exist on food delivery platforms. If there is not a restaurant in a certain neighborhood we will partner with restaurants to make that happen. In the UK we are already doing 200 virtual restaurants and we are expanding throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.”

    Rodrigo Arevalo, head of EMEA at Uber Eats, discusses how virtual restaurants are helping power Uber Eats Growth in an interview on Bloomberg:

    Virtual Restaurants Helping Power Uber Eats Growth

    Virtual restaurants is a very interesting initiative. Basically, by leveraging the data on our platform we can partner with other restaurants in order to cuisine types that only exist on food delivery platforms. That has two benefits. The first one is that it helps restaurants utilize their kitchens a lot more. The second one is that it increases their revenue on their top line. It’s a very interesting initiative to provide more choice and to increase business for restaurants. 

    If there is not a restaurant in a certain neighborhood we will partner with restaurants to make that happen. In the UK we are already doing 200 virtual restaurants and we are expanding throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It’s a type of local exercise that we are trying to tack on. It’s going really well and we’re excited about that.

    Uber East Demonstrates the Potential of Uber’s Logistics Platform

    Uber Eats fits into Uber’s overall strategy and portfolio in the way that it demonstrates the potential of Uber’s logistics platform. Just in three and a half years, we’ve been able to build a multi-billion dollar business and today we are already the biggest food delivery app outside of China. It’s all about the logistics network that we have built and how we can leverage the potential of that platform. 

    It’s about focus for us. We want to make sure that we deliver on the plan, deliver on the vision that (Uber CEO) Dara Khosrowshahi has set for the company. Focus is basically three pillars for Uber Eats. The first one is restaurant selection, providing consumers choice. The second one is customer experience for eaters, for restaurants, and for delivery partners. The third one is underpinning that with great technology and a great product that people would love to use every single day. 

    Uber Eats Partners With 220,000 Restaurants Globally

    We partner today with 220,000 restaurants globally and there is a vast variety of selection from every kind of meal that you would like; comfort food to the healthiest options such as vegan, salads, etc. We believe selection. We believe in consumer choice. We want to make sure that we provide all of those options to them. We very much focus on providing that information, providing those options, and making sure that consumers make an informed choice.

    When it comes to packaging we already partner with several companies that provide sustainable packaging. Given our platform, particularly in the UK, we already look for ways to facilitate sustainable packaging for restaurant partners, making sure we do our part in that sense.

    Virtual Restaurants Helping Power Uber Eats Growth – Uber Eats EMEA head Rodrigo Arevalo
  • Salesforce Commerce Page Designer – Creates Experiences With Clicks Not Code

    Salesforce Commerce Page Designer – Creates Experiences With Clicks Not Code

    “We have something brand-new we call the Commerce Page Designer,” says Mike Micucci, CommerceCloud CEO at Salesforce. “It allows you to create experiences with clicks not code. You can literally drag and drop things around on the page and just put them right where you want to. You don’t need to be a programmer or a data scientist to do it. Your marketers and your merchandisers can build those experiences super fast to respond to different market changes.”

    Mike Micucci, CEO of CommerceCloud at Salesforce, announces new enhancements to Salesforce Commerce Cloud in a discussion at Connections 2019:

    You Have To Really Put the Customer Right At the Center

    In today’s industry, it’s not just about showing up and having a pretty picture you have to really put the customer right at the center. When they are there experiencing your brand you’re not delivering just the premium experience but you’re personalizing it to them. It’s not just on the shopping site it’s everywhere they go, from how you engage with them on social all the way through on customer service.

    Putting the customer at the center to deliver a premium, a personalized experience, that’s a differentiator today. That’s what the customers are expecting everywhere they go. That’s is the key.

    Commerce Page Designer Creates Experiences With Clicks Not Code

    Our team has been working all year to get ready for Connections. We’ve got some great news that we’re going to showcase. First and foremost, we have something brand-new we call the Commerce Page Designer. It allows you to create experiences with clicks not code. You can literally drag and drop things around on the page and just put them right where you want to. You don’t need to be a programmer or a data scientist to do it. Your marketers and your merchandisers can build those experiences super fast to respond to different market changes. That’s one of the biggest things that we’re producing.

    The second thing is we also have a lot of new tech for developers. We’re connecting Heroku Solution kit and Commerce together in a whole new way. With this new Heroku Solution Kit, which includes templates to help you build mobile apps, shopping apps, and service cloud apps. They are all right there in front of you so they developers can be super productive with this great environment with Heroku where you can manage and build apps.

    Thirdly is MuleSoft. It takes on average about 39 different systems to pull off a commerce scenario. Those are back-end systems like ERP, your order system, and inventory. What we’ve done with MuleSoft is we made it a lot easier to connect commerce through MuleSoft to all those legacy systems through one unified layer. So today, we’re announcing this new MuleSoft For Commerce Cloud Accelerator so that developers have a whole set of preset of APIs so they can jump-start that process.

    Those are three great innovations. One for all your marketing and merchandisers. Then there are two great innovations for the developers that make them much more productive. Our goal is to help you not only deliver premium experiences but do it really fast.

    Einstein and AI Are Really Reshaping Commerce

    So what is next on the horizon? First and foremost, we always listen to our customers tell us here are the things that they need to drive their business. But what you should be looking for is how Einstein and AI are really reshaping commerce. You’ll see that in how Einstein is not just doing product recommendations but reshaping the entire customer experience.

    Einstein takes away of a lot of those things that you used to do manually, let’s say like visual search where you can shop by pictures, where Einstein will figure out, hey, what’s in that picture and make it really easy to add it to the cart. It can take a lot of the guesswork out of it and just really make the shopping experience delightful. So stay tuned for a lot more AI and a lot more Einstein.

    https://youtu.be/Wpu7zVQTZ-Q
    Salesforce Commerce Page Designer – Creates Experiences With Clicks Not Code – Mike Micucci
  • Jeff Bezos: We Need To Have Billion Dollar Scale Failures

    Jeff Bezos: We Need To Have Billion Dollar Scale Failures

    “At Amazon, we still take risks all the time,” says Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. “We encourage it. We talk about failure. We should be failing. Our failures have to grow with the company. We need big failures if we are going to be moving the needle. We need to have billion dollar scale failures. If we are not, we are not swinging hard enough.”

    Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, discusses how to be a successful entrepreneur by being customer obsessed in a conversation at the Amazon re:MARS conference in Las Vegas:

    The Most Important Thing Is To Be Customer Obsessed

    If you want to be an entrepreneur, the most important thing is to be customer obsessed. Don’t satisfy your customers, figure out how to absolutely delight them. That is the number one thing whoever your customers are. Passion. You have got to have some passion for the arena that you are going to develop and work in. Otherwise, you are going to be competing against people who do have compassion for that. They are going to build better products and services.

    You can’t be a mercenary. You have to be a missionary. Missionaries build better products and services. They always win. The mercenaries are just trying to make money. Paradoxically, the missionaries always end up making more money.

    We Need To Have Billion Dollar Scale Failures

    You have to pick something that you actually have a genuine passion for. You have to take risks. You have to be willing to take risks. If you aren’t going to take risks, if you come up with a business idea where there are no risks there, those ideas are probably already being done. There being done well by many many people. So have to have something that might not work. You have to accept that your business is going to be in many ways an experiment. It might fail. That’s okay. That’s what risk is.

    At Amazon, we still take risks all the time. We encourage it. We talk about failure. We should be failing. Our failures have to grow with the company. We need big failures if we are going to be moving the needle. We need to have billion dollar scale failures. If we are not, we are not swinging hard enough.

    Disagree and Commit

    If I have a new idea and I want to see it pursued I do have to build support for it. You need very smart people to embrace the idea and move it forward. We have a framework at Amazon, it’s one of our leadership principals, it’s called disagree and commit. That is extremely useful. After you discussed an idea, you do need to make a decision and move forward. The whole team needs to really commit to that. When I really feel strongly about something and the team disagrees with me I have a helpful phrase that I look to use which is, “I want you to gamble with me on this.”

    The truth is when you are in a position like that nobody knows what the right answer is.  You’re not saying I’m right on this. Go do this. You’re saying I want you to gamble with me on this because I don’t know if it is right either. I disagree and commit all the time. I promise the people when I do it, I’m very clear in saying, “I don’t agree with this. I think it is probably not going to work. But I will never say I told you so and I’m going to be on your team. I will do everything I can to make it work.”

    Broadband Access Is Going To Be a Fundamental Human Need

    A recent big bet (we’ve taken at Amazon) would be Project Kuiper. This is our LEO satellite constellation. The goal here is broadband everywhere. One of the things this does, it’s just the way the systems work, you have equal broadband all over the surfaces of the earth. Not exactly equal, it tends to be a little bit more concentrated toward the poles, unfortunately. You end up servicing the whole world.

    It’s really good because by definition you end up accessing people who are under bandwidth including rural and remote areas. I think you can see going forward that access to broadband is going to be very close to being a fundamental human need as we move forward.

    Amazon’s Jeff Bezos: We Need To Have Billion Dollar Scale Failures
  • Everything Can Be Digital At The End Of The Day, Says Wingstop CEO

    Everything Can Be Digital At The End Of The Day, Says Wingstop CEO

    “Everything can be digital at the end of the day,” says Wingstop CEO Charles Morrison. “We still take a lot of phone orders and a lot of people still walk. So every time somebody accesses us we want the opportunity to digitize that transaction. Why? Because the digital transaction tends to have almost a five-dollar higher average ticket and is more profitable for our franchisees which means a better return on investment and more new restaurants to grow on.”

    Charles Morrison, CEO of Wingstop, discusses how digitalization is powering their growth and profitability in an interview with Jim Cramer on CNBC:

    Everything Can Be Digital At The End Of The Day

    We believe it’s a fantastic partnership with DoorDash. What they focus on is making merchants successful. As the merchant that’s exactly what we want. And they take care of the logistics. In our partnership, we’ve made sure that we are always working together to ensure that no matter how you access Wingstop, whether it be carryout or walk-in or through delivery, you’re going to get the same great experience. We believe they’re best positioned to provide that.

    Everything can be digital at the end of the day. We still take a lot of phone orders and a lot of people still walk. So every time somebody accesses us we want the opportunity to digitize that transaction. Why? Because the digital transaction tends to have almost a five-dollar higher average ticket and is more profitable for our franchisees which means a better return on investment and more new restaurants to grow on. I think people spend more time with the menu (on digital). They get to know the menu. They add a couple of items on to that and they’re not as intimidated by the phone call and the rush that they see at the front counter.

    Digital Technologies Create Efficiencies To Help Us Grow

    We’ve been a socially active brand as it relates to social media for many years. We’ve become large enough and have scaled to national advertising. Our franchisees generously added one percent to the advertising spend so they now spend four percent to a national fund. That has been redeployed into fantastic new media and new creative which is really helping drive that same point 7.1% comp that you saw in the first quarter.

    In our brand, we’re pretty well insulated (against labor shortages). We have a very small roster already, so in that small footprint, it doesn’t take a lot of people to operate a Wingstop. I don’t know that you’ll necessarily see us doing anything to remove the number of people in a restaurant. We do believe through digital technologies and further digitalization of our business that we can create efficiencies that create capacity that will help us to grow. This will take the pressure off the labor line.

    Everything Can Be Digital At The End Of The Day, Says Wingstop CEO Charles Morrison
  • McDonald’s Is Seriously Looking At Offering Vegan Burgers Worldwide

    McDonald’s Is Seriously Looking At Offering Vegan Burgers Worldwide

    “We’ve got a vegan burger going in Germany at the moment on a promotional basis,” says McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook. “When you look at the whole meat substitute type ideas what will be interesting for us will be to see who is particularly interested in that. Is it an existing customer who wants just an alternative option? Is it to bring a new customer in? We’re exploring that and trying to understand it better and also understand a customers acceptability of that particular type of product.”

    Steve Easterbrook, CEO of McDonald’s, discusses the possibility of  McDonald’s putting vegan Big Macs on the menu in an interview on CNBC:

    McDonald’s May Soon Sell Vegan Burgers Worldwide

    We’ve got a vegan burger going in Germany at the moment on a promotional basis. When you look at the whole meat substitute type ideas what will be interesting for us will be to see who is particularly interested in that. Is it an existing customer who wants just an alternative option? Is it to bring a new customer in? We’re exploring that and trying to understand it better and also understand a customers acceptability of that particular type of product. There’s a lot of buzz around it at the moment, but it’s clearly prepared in a different way to a traditional beef patty. We’re keeping a close eye on it and watching this space.

    It undoubtedly does bring complexity to the preparation. You’ve got to segregate the tools you use and the grills from beef products because some people are clearly not beef eaters. So we know there’s complexity. The question is will the demand make it worth absorbing the complexity because it’s will drive the business? We had a similar discussion, maybe four years ago, around all day breakfast. It certainly adds complexity to the operation but the demand was sufficient that we wanted to find a way to absorb that. It’s something we’re certainly taking a good look at.

    Review of McDonald’s Vegan Burger in Germany

    I Don’t Think Vegan Meat is Faddish

    I don’t think it’s faddish. Whether it maintains its same level of buzz I think is what’s interesting. Like any other restaurant business, you want throughput, you want to keep serving the items so you can keep them fresh and well-prepared. Our teams in the restaurants, the crew, and the managers are well trained in preparing them. You really want to have a certain volume of those just to keep the finished menu item hot and fresh for the customer. So we’re taking a little look at this one.

    The one thing about the job I have is McDonald’s attracts attention no matter what it is you’re doing. Clearly, anyone who has something they want to get scale to will often look to McDonald’s to be that partner to help them scale in any way, shape, or form. You’ve also got to look at just the sheer volumes that we require just because we serve around the world 70 million customers a day. If I just take the cage-free eggs example here in the US. When we made the announcement, that was going to be a five-year announcement to transition across. It takes that amount of time to make sure there’s that sufficient supply so you can meet the demand.

    Berlin Vegan Burgers Compared to McDonalds Vegan Burger!

    These are all the factors you’ve got to take into account. Do you launch your test just in a particular city? Do you launch in just one particular regional or a smaller market elsewhere in the world? You want to test these things out when they’ve got the kind of volume that can meet the potential demands. So we’ll see, but we’re pretty familiar with trying new items and new products and how we can test and assess. Frankly, the customer won’t always be the decision maker on this one.

    McDonald’s Is Seriously Looking At Offering Vegan Burgers Worldwide
  • How McDonald’s Is Using Data, Machine Learning, and AI to Accelerate Growth

    How McDonald’s Is Using Data, Machine Learning, and AI to Accelerate Growth

    “Our acquisition of Dynamic Yield has brought us a lot of excitement,” says McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook. “Very simply put, in the online world when we’re shopping and we pick an item and put it into our shopping basket, any website will automatically suggest two or three things to go along with it. We’re the first business that we’re aware of that can bring that into the physical world. It’s really just taking data and machine learning and AI, all these sorts of technical capabilities.”

    Steve Easterbrook, CEO of McDonald’s, discusses how the company is using technology to elevate the customer experience and accelerate growth in an interview on CNBC:

    Continue To See How We Can Elevate the Customer Experience

    As we’ve executed the growth plan we’ve spent the first two years, three or four years ago, turning the business around. Now we’ve had a couple of years of growth. We’re confident now that we’re beginning to identify further opportunities to further accelerate growth. That takes a little bit of research and development cost. It means you’ve got to bring some expertise into the business to help us do that. We’re still managing to effectively run the business. G&A is staying the same and we’re putting a little bit more into innovation.

    We continue to see how can we help continue to elevate the experience for customers. With this pace of change in the world and with different technology and different innovations, whether it’s around food, technology, or design, we’re seeing opportunities that we think can either make the experience more fun and enjoyable or smoother for customers. If we can find that we’re going to go hard at it.

    We need to continue growing. If where we are investing that money is helping drive growth across 38,000 restaurants then I think the shareholders and investors would be satisfied. We want to bring our owner-operators along with us as well. They’re investing their hard-earned dollars so that always means we got a business case. The owner-operators will want to see a return on their investment just the same as a shareholder would. We’ve got a wonderful check and balance in the system to help us make sure we spend that innovative money in the right way.

    Using Data, Machine Learning, and AI to Accelerate Growth

    Our acquisition of Dynamic Yield has brought us a lot of excitement. It was our first acquisition for 20 years. It was an acquisition in a way that was different from the past. It wasn’t looking at different restaurant businesses to try and expand our footprint. It’s bringing a capability, an IP and some talent, into our business that can help us accelerate the growth model. We completed the deal mid-April and within two weeks we had that technical capability in 800 drive-throughs here in the U.S. It’s a very rapid execution and implementation.

    Very simply put, in the online world when we’re shopping and we pick an item and put it into our shopping basket, any website we’re on these days will automatically suggest two or three things to go along with it. People who buy that tend to like these things as well. We’re the first business that we’re aware of that can bring that into the physical world. As customers are at the menu board, maybe they’re ordering a coffee and we can suggest a dessert or they’re ordering a quarter pounder with cheese and we can suggest making that into a meal. It’s really just taking data and machine learning and AI, all these sorts of technical capabilities.

    Mining All of the Data Will Improve the Business

    The best benefit for customers is we’re more likely to suggest things they do want and less likely to suggest things they don’t. It’ll just be a nicer experience for the customer. But yes, for the restaurant itself, because we can put our drive-thru service lines in there, for example, the technical capability by mining all of the data will be to suggest items are easier to make at our busier times. That’ll help smooth the operation as well. The immediate result will be some ticket (increases). But frankly, if the overall experience is better customers come back more often. That’s ultimately where the success will be, driving repeat visits and getting people back more often.

    Across the entire sector, traffic is tight right now and people are eating out less. They have been progressively eating out less for a number of years. Whether it’s the advent of home delivery, for example, which is something we participate in, but at the moment it’s just a little bit tight out there. It’s a fight for market share. Anyone who is getting growth, typically it’s because they’re adding new units. People are finding it hard to (increase) guest count growth. It’s something that we have stated as an ambition of ours. We think that’s a measure of the true health of the business. Last quarter, we did grow traffic and we’ve grown traffic for the last couple of years, but only modestly. We want to be stronger than that.

    How McDonald’s Is Using Data, Machine Learning, and AI to Accelerate Growth
  • We’re Enabling a New Era of Hospitality, Says Toast CEO

    We’re Enabling a New Era of Hospitality, Says Toast CEO

    “We’re enabling what we call this new era of hospitality,” says Toast CEO Chris Comparato. “We’re investing heavily in R&D. This is a massive opportunity and the restaurant community is a massive market. The market is untapped and we’re in the early days of a major transformation across the entire industry. For us in many ways, we’re still getting started because we’re making massive investments in R&D across the whole spectrum.”

    Chris Comparato, CEO of Toast, discusses how the company is continuing to invest in R&D and innovate as they disrupt the hospitality industry in an interview on Bloomberg Technology:

    We’re Enabling a New Era of Hospitality

    We’re going to do a lot with the money. It’s a nice capital raise ($250 million). We’ve been busy over the course of the past two years really trying to affect a lot of change across the restaurant community. We’re enabling what we call this new era of hospitality. We’re investing heavily in R&D. We look at all of the stakeholders, we look at the guests, we look at the employees, and we look at the owner-manager-operator. This is a massive opportunity and the restaurant community is a massive market. The market is untapped and we’re in the early days of a major transformation across the entire industry. For us in many ways, we’re still getting started because we’re making massive investments in R&D across the whole spectrum.

    A good example of what we are doing is how do you get orders into the restaurant? In today’s consumer, personalization, and convenience environment, how does the restaurant get orders? Whether it’s a tool like Toast TakeOut which we piloted in Boston, which allows you to do mobile order ahead with your phone. Or possibly a kiosk or online ordering or a device called Toast Go which we released last year that allows the waitstaff to take orders at the table and turn tables faster. Toast brings (to restaurants)  two things. It’s all about more revenue in the door and then operational efficiency.

    Toast Growing North of 100 Percent Year-Over-Year

    First and foremost we’re happy being private and putting investments to pilots and R&D and really breaking fruit to the future for the restaurant community. I’ve had a lot of friends who have gone public recently and we’re in no rush. I think it’s a milestone. We’re after building long-term shareholder value. When we look at the opportunity for us it’s to build a pillar company in Boston for the restaurant community that builds long-term investor value.

    We’re growing north of a hundred percent year-over-year in terms of the customer base (and revenue). We’ve got over 1,500 employees. We’ve probably added a thousand employees in the past couple of years. We have an engineering center in Dublin but we’re still US-based in terms of the restaurants that we serve. We serve restaurants across the United States, whether it’s an enterprise like Jamba Juice or nationally acclaimed restaurant operators like Danny Meyer and Jose Andres. We’re all over the US in 30 markets but it’s still the early days.

    Innovating Across the Entire Restaurant Value Chain

    We look at the entire restaurant value chain and we’re trying to make their lives better. It’s hard to run a restaurant. This week we announced Toast Payroll and Team Management. A lot of restaurant operators are spending hours doing payroll every Friday. If we can give them their Friday’s back and streamline payroll so that they can get hours back on efficiency to spend more time with guests that’s what we’re doing. We launched that this week which is an exciting new venture for us. We’re going to continue to innovate across the entire restaurant value chain. This includes the back-office, front office, supply chain, whatever it is.

    There are areas where we built and there are areas where we partner. I think it’s a space that’s dynamically changing. At the end of the day, we want to help transform the community and move the community forward. The Boston Market (where Toast is headquartered) is tremendous. There is sort of two sides to the market. You’ve got this amazing supply chain of talent with MIT, BU, UMass, and Harvard. There is plenty of talent. Then you’ve got on the other side of the market these companies that are transforming industries like Wayfair, CarGurus, HubSpot, and Toast. It’s an amazing market for us to thrive in and it’s an awesome restaurant community.

    We feel like we’re enabling the community to thrive. A lot of the restaurants that are running Toast are adding workforce. Because we’re making their jobs easier they can spend more time with guests, more time cooking, and more time managing the operations. We see a lot of restaurants that are thriving and adding labor and we’re trying to make it easier for them.

    We’re Enabling a New Era of Hospitality, Says Toast CEO Chris Comparato


  • Building the Target of the Future

    Building the Target of the Future

    “We dropped back several years ago and started thinking about building the Target of the future,” says Target CEO Brian Cornell. “It really started with an investment in understanding the consumer and really understanding what they were looking for and how to build the capabilities starting with data science to really guide us through that journey. Whether that’s technology or supply chain capabilities, product design, or our focus on execution at the store level, data and analytics have been important guideposts for us as we’ve gone through this journey.”

    Brian Cornell, CEO of Target, discusses the details of how the company is building the Target of the future in an interview at the Stanford Graduate School of Business:

    Reimagining Stores and Investment in Technology is Paying Off

    Target’s (current success) is really a combination of a number of things that we’ve been working on for several years now. If I go back to February of 2017 we laid out a three-year vision for the company. We said we’re going to invest billions of dollars. At that point, I said $7 billion dollars over a three year period to invest in reimagining our stores, in building new smaller stores and urban centers and on college campuses, reinvest in our brands, invest in technology and fulfillment capabilities, and make a big investment in our people.

    The success we’re seeing right now is really a combination of all those elements starting to mature. We’re executing at scale and they’re all starting to work together. That’s driving for us great top-line growth, market share gains, and importantly more traffic in our stores and visits to our site.

    In Most Cases Shopping Starts With the Mobile Phone

    I actually think blend (of digital and physical) is the right term. I think from a consumer standpoint they’ve really lost sight of whether they’re shopping in a physical environment or a digital environment. In most cases, their shopping starts with that mobile phone in their hands, that digital device. It’s how they decide where they’re going to shop and what they’re looking for. If you went to one of our Target stores this afternoon I guarantee you we’d find consumers with a phone in their hand, they’d be looking at their latest Pinterest, they’d be checking things on their favorite digital site, and they’d have their shopping list there.

    That device really guides them through the shopping experience. I think more and more there’s a blurring and a blending that’s taking place and it’s a combination of both. The consumer today is enjoying the fact that shopping has become really easy. They get the best of both. They get a physical experience when they want it and if they don’t have time they can shop from their desk or from their classroom. They’re constantly in touch and we’ve made it really easy now for them to interface with our brand on their own terms.

    Building the Target of the Future

    We dropped back several years ago and started thinking about building the Target of the future. It really started with an investment in understanding the consumer and really understanding what they were looking for and how to build the capabilities starting with data science to really guide us through that journey. I can talk a lot about strategy, but the other thing that we’ve recognized is how important it is to have the right capabilities in place. Whether that’s technology or supply chain capabilities, product design, or our focus on execution at the store level, data and analytics have been important guideposts for us as we’ve gone through this journey.

    We’ve been fortunate in that we’ve recruited quite a few Stanford grads. I think what’s attracting them to our business is the richness of our data. The fact that on an average week we get 30 million consumers shopping our stores and a similar number going to Target.com. We have all this rich data and we understand where consumers are shopping, what they’re looking for, and I think they’ve been really intrigued by the ability to take that data and help us build a future.

    The Consumer is Looking For a Unique Personalized Experience

    I’ve certainly seen this trend towards personalization and localization. If I think about the changes in consumer packaged goods, in some cases those big brands that you and I grew up with, well they’ve been replaced by smaller local niche brands that we didn’t see when we grew up and they’re being regionalized across the country. I think the consumer today is looking for that unique personalized experience, whether they’re shopping a Target store or they’re walking through a local store right here on the Stanford campus.

    I think I walked in recognizing the importance of a clear strategy for an organization. But I’ve come to realize just how important culture is, a clear purpose, and importantly ensuring that our strategy is supported by great capabilities and the importance of team. I think (as we look toward the future) we’ll still be true to the purpose we have today. It’s really focused on bringing a little bit of joy to all the families we serve each and every week and really enhancing their everyday life. I think that focus on families, that connection we have today with moms with kids with families across the country, will be as true in the future as it is today.


    Building the Target of the Future – Target CEO