Tag: ecommerce

eBay Uplifting Women in Business

We have all been stressed far beyond capacity in the past year and a half since the onset of the COVID pandemic. We’ve been tested and tried and many of us have often felt that we might just fall apart and never recover. We’ve suffered huge, and deep losses in so many areas of our lives, from the loss of jobs, the loss of wages, the loss of normalcy, to the loss of friends and family.

These wounds run deep across our entire nation and, despite the amount of “normalcy” that has returned to some degree, we are still recovering from all that we’ve experienced since the beginning of 2020. Although many things have made us stronger and many things have caused us to improve and become better, the simple truth is that we will never be the same. Let’s learn about the role of women in business, and how eCommerce has been a game changer.

Women are Doing More Than Their Fair Share

One demographic who has felt all of us on a very large, and heavy scale, is women. In general, women have always worn many different hats, and have borne many kinds of responsibilities, from work to home life, and beyond. However, with the pandemic, women were hit particularly hard.

Not only do women find themselves being the fallback person for household responsibilities, like managing food preparation and cleanup, maintaining the cleanliness of the home, and making sure the children are taken care of, but with the pandemic, they have had these burdens increased. Many of us are working from home, so there is more food to be consumed and more cleanup needing to happen. Not to mention that kids were doing school via zoom much of last year, which brought it slew of new challenges to the home.

On top of all of this, women are also the group who are the most likely to work in industries hit the hardest by COVID quarantines and lockdowns, which induced loss of profits and subsequently, loss of jobs for employees. Women are more likely to work in hospitality, food services, and in-store retail, which means they were also hit hard with loss of hours, and total loss of income.

Women are always resourceful, and certainly no less so during all the hardships of a global pandemic. For this reason, many women turned to selling online on sites like eBay to bring in an income and still manage all that they needed to do at home. In fact, in the first 6 months of the pandemic, US based eBay businesses rose by 34%, and US based sales grew by 38%. Eighty-two percent of women who either began selling or increased their eBay presence. They did so due to hardships brought on by COVID.

eCommerce is Making a Difference

eBay has given women exactly what they need during this difficult time. Women who run an eBay business have the flexibility they need to manage everything in their lives. They also enjoy being their own boss, and they enjoy the ability to bring in an income for their household.

Selling on eBay has been a wonderful resource to help women to bear their additional burdens and to thrive during this uncertain time.

October 27, 2021
Recommerce: the Secondhand eCommerce Market

Since eBay began as a company in 1995, transactions between consumers (known as C2C transactions) have been a vital part of eBay’s business model. In particular, the sale of secondhand goods between parties is something eBay has grown famous for during the internet age. When someone sells a pre-owned good to another person, they engage in a process known as recommerce. To celebrate the impact recommerce has had on eBay, its users, and the planet as a whole, eBay launched its new Recommerce Report. The report’s highlights have been outlined below.

The first main point to come out of the report is the rise in recommerce’s popularity. More than 7 in 10 of the US eBay sellers surveyed say buying pre-owned products has grown more common in recent years. The numbers are even higher among Generation Z, of which 81% report that buying second hand has become more common in 2020. This may be due in part to the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. When people face financial woes, they are less likely to buy items new. Furthermore, the strains coronavirus placed on traditional stores did not affect eBay’s online platform, allowing business on eBay to continue as normal while yard sales and thrift stores may have suffered. Though possible the trend towards recommerce may reverse as the economy heals, there is also the chance that the current trend reduces the long term stigma of buying and using secondhand items. If that is the case, the power of recommerce is here to stay.

The Benefits of Recommerce

For sellers, the recommerce market boasts extremely low barriers to entry. The average American owns 36 household items that are worthy of sale on eBay. If the individual agrees to part with said items, they can earn over $3600 in supplemental income. While most sellers are likely to only engage in recommerce as a side hustle, more dedicated sellers can also search yard and estate sales for hidden treasures. On the side of the buyers, secondhand finds usually cost less than their new counterparts. Thanks to eBay’s auction style format, buyers and sellers can negotiate a mutually beneficial price on each transaction that takes place.

So far, recommerce has been shown to greatly benefit eBay, buyers, and sellers. There is still one more beneficiary worth discussing: planet Earth. As green living enthusiast Hannah Stringer put it, “recommerce is the most effective strategy as a consumer taking on a climate crisis.” In addition to being accessible to consumers with a wide variety of incomes, buying second hand preserves the environment in two important ways. Every item sold second hand is spared from a landfill and every consumer who demands a pre-owned good saves the water, energy, and resources that would have made a new good from being used. In the electronics and apparel markets alone, recommerce on eBay kept 720,000 metric tons of carbon emissions out of the air.

October 4, 2021
Ecommerce Nearing $1 Trillion

“We’re forecasting that ecommerce spending this year will be somewhere between $850 billion and $930 billion,” says John Copeland, Vice President of Marketing Science and Customer Insights at Adobe. This would be a 14 percent increase over last year. That would be more typical of what we see year over year in the ecommerce channel.”

John Copeland of Adobe, predicts that ecommerce spending could be $930 billion, or just under $1 trillion, in 2021:

COVID was a catalyst to the ecommerce channel last year. What we saw when you look at the full calendar year of 2020 was $813 billion dollars in ecommerce spending, 42 percent growth over 2019. That’s like combining two years’ worth of growth into a single year. Consumers have really embraced the online channel to meet their needs during these challenging times.

We’re all kind of wondering what (the vaccine rollout) is going to do in terms of ecommerce. We’re forecasting this year somewhere between $850 billion, only a 5 percent over last year, and up to $930 billion, which would be a 14 percent increase over last year. The 5 percent increase would be if everybody gets vaccinated and rushes out and we see kind of a slowdown. The $930 billion, 14 percent increase, would be more typical of what we see year over year in the ecommerce channel.

Buy Now Pay Later Up 215 Percent Over Last Year

Buy Now Pay Later is very much good for retailers. In fact, what we’ve seen in February this year relative to February 2020, which is kind of on the cusp of the pandemic, is a 215 percent increase year over year in buy now pay later orders. In terms of retailers, it comes along with larger average order values. What we’re seeing is 18 percent larger orders when customers are using that service. Unlike layaway, with buy now pay later you actually get the goods upfront, you don’t have to wait until the payment’s done.

Another trend is Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store, also known as BOPUS. In February of this year, we’re already seeing it growing 67 percent year on year. It’s always been huge and growing during the holiday season but now people are clearly working it in as part of their fulfillment options. Picking up in the store gives consumers the ability to schedule it according to their availability and knowing that stock will be there for them when they want to pick it up.

Ecommerce Nearing $1 Trillion, Says John Copeland of Adobe

September 30, 2021
Panera CEO: Ecommerce Pivot Sparks Dramatic Growth

“Close to 60 percent of our sales are coming from e-commerce,” says Panera CEO Niren Chaudhary. “By focusing on servicing customers through our off-premise channels, leveraging e-commerce, and then rapidly innovating we’ve seen a very smart recovery on our brand and also a stronger business model emerging from the pandemic. What’s clearly playing out is the off-premise channel is seeing dramatic growth.”

Niren Chaudhary, CEO of Panera, discusses how the company has focused on ecommerce and the “off-premise channel” to drive dramatic growth:

Panera’s Ecommerce Pivot Sparks Dramatic Growth

Panera is actually emerging quite strongly through the pandemic because we’ve been completely focused on what we have control over. By focusing on servicing customers through our off-premise channels, leveraging e-commerce, and then rapidly innovating we’ve seen a very smart recovery on our brand and also a stronger business model emerging from the pandemic. What’s clearly playing out is the off-premise channel is seeing dramatic growth.

To give you a sense, our delivery is growing by over 100 percent, drive-throughs are growing by over 60-70 percent, and rapid pickup is seeing strong growth. The off-premise channels are growing very strongly and in some ways compensating for the decline in business on-premise. Pre-pandemic we were probably about 60-40 in terms of off-premise versus on-premise. Now it is predominantly off-premise convenience for our customers as we’re moving in that direction.

Close to 60 percent of our sales are coming from e-commerce. Brands that are able to leverage their e-commerce strength and pivot very sharply on providing convenience and off-premise are beginning to see a smart recovery.

It’s All About Convenience, Ecommerce, and Innovation

There are three levers that we’re working on to get our business back on track: convenience, e-commerce, and then meaningful innovation. Included in that are cool foods, a coffee subscription program, and most recently the flatbread pizza launch. We’re very excited about this because it’s the launch of a new food category at Panera, one that we haven’t had before. It’s a bullseye innovation in terms of what the customer is looking for at this time. Customers are looking for a warm shareable at-home meal solution for their families. The flatbread pizza fits perfectly for that.

We’re doing it in a uniquely Panera way as you would expect. We’re leveraging the credibility of our breads. We have unique ingredients that are all clean, they’re fresh, we have double blend cheese, bold flavors of our sauces, and it’s stone-baked. Think of this as a pizza that customers love but done in a very unique Panera way. That’s why we’re so excited.

Panera CEO Niren Chaudhary: Ecommerce Pivot Sparks Dramatic Growth

August 8, 2021
Ready to Drink Cocktails: the Latest eCommerce Trend

Graduations, weddings, becoming a parent, becoming a grandparent, promotions, anniversaries, vacations, birthdays, a night on the town, and a quiet dinner date at home. What do all of these things have in common? They all involve the consumption of alcohol. No matter the occasion, there’s always a reason to have a drink, and since the COVID pandemic, we’re consuming even more alcohol than before. Even though we could no longer meet for drinks at a bar, overall alcohol consumption actually grew by 14% during quarantine, with the top growth demographics being among women (17%) and millennials & Gen X’ers (19%). Forty-four percent of Americans began buying their alcohol online which caused a 243% spike in online alcohol sales. Instacart alcohol orders also grew by 75%. And the emergence of ready-to-drink cocktails are here to serve.

The pandemic also naturally caused a spike in home bartending, and now we have new Quarantinis to add to our mixed drink repertoire. Some of these drinks include the Kumquarantini; a mix of rye whiskey, kumquat syrup, lemon juice, saffron liquor, and egg whites. Or if you want to embrace your inner health nut while consuming your alcoholic beverage, you might enjoy the Kombucha Quarantini, which includes a blend of gin, kombucha, and blackberries. We also can’t forget this throwback to the great toilet paper shortage of 2020; the Charmin Quarantini, with vodka, cointreau, lime juice, simple syrup, cranberry liqueur, and toilet water (just kidding.)

No matter what’s going on in the world, alcohol has been there to help us cope and help us celebrate. Cocktails have played a big role in human history. Gin & Tonic (gin, tonic, and lemon or lime) was popularized by the Brits in the 19th century as a health tonic many traveled to India and warmer climates. Maraschino Cherries became popular in the early 1900’s after a New York Times post in 1910 reported on a young woman who had ordered dozens of Manhattans at a fashionable hotel. Upon investigation it was discovered that the drinks were still untouched, but all the cherries were gone. By 1915, the cherries were popping up in drinks and ice creams all over the country.

Another interesting bit of cocktail history is that the Spanish flu of 1918, much like the COVID pandemic, also produced it’s handful of cocktails including the Corpse Reviver (gin, cointreau, Lillet Blonde, lemon juice, and Absinthe); the Penicillin Cocktail (Scotch whisky, lemon juice, honey syrup, ginger, and Islay single malt Scotch); and the Medicina Latina (Mezcal, honey ginger syrup, and lime juice.)

The Mai Tai was created by Victor J. Bergeron, or “Trader Vic”, in 1944. It included rum with lime, orgeat, orange curacao, and simple syrup. However, in 1954, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel began adding pineapple and orange juice to sweeten the cocktail and this new recipe quickly became the standard.

And who could forget the Pina Colada? Created by Ramon “Monchito” Marrero in 1954, this fruity drink includes rum, coconut cream, and pineapple juice. In 1978 the Pina Colada was named the official drink of Puerto Rico.

Although classic drink mixing still reigns supreme, the 2020 pandemic brought a huge boost in the sale of ready-to-drink cocktails. In fact, sales of these quick drinks rose by 43%. By 2024, ready-to-drink cocktails are expected to make up 20% of alcohol e-commerce.

Someday soon, we may all be headed back to bars and restaurants, but with everyone becoming a bartender at home since COVID, the invention of ready-to-drink cocktails might just be something to celebrate. We’ll drink to that!

Via Cooloo.com

August 5, 2021
Walmart Ecommerce Business Is Humming

“With Walmart’s e-commerce business humming the way it is and the way the company’s been able to integrate it with the store base, with curbside and everything else, this is a tough one,” says Moody’s retail analyst Charlie O’Shea. “This is really setting a high bar for brick and mortar retail and it’s giving Amazon something to really think about.”

Charlie O’Shea, retail analyst at Moody’s, and Bill Simon, former president and CEO of Walmart, discussed Walmart’s blowout quarterly results:

Walmart Is Going To Be Tough To Stop

This is just a phenomenal quarter for Walmart. It’s good on all fronts. It really is an indicator that the consumer is still there. Once we sort through all this COVID stuff the consumer is willing to spend. I’m particularly impressed by Walmart’s operating income. I’ve been watching that for several years and it’s been challenged as they move their business to digital and to e-commerce. Big growth and operating income have been under pressure.

Walmart grew its operating income by almost nine percent. Even adjusted for currency it is in the mid-teens. That’s phenomenal. Brett Biggs is one of the best CFOs in the country in my view and they manage the company very well. It looks like they’ve been able to get the e-commerce growth under control in a way that can deliver some pathway to profitability. If they can do that they’re just going to be tough to stop.

Walmart Ecommerce Business Is Humming

Every quarter it looks like they’re running on all cylinders and now the engine just keeps getting bigger. We’ve gone from an eight-cylinder engine to a 12-cylinder engine. With the e-commerce business humming the way it is and the way the company’s been able to integrate it with the store base, with curbside and everything else, this is a tough one. This is really setting a high bar for brick and mortar retail and it’s giving Amazon something to really think about.

It’s how does Amazon compete with Walmart not how does Walmart compete with Amazon? With an almost doubling of online revenue for this quarter we’re starting to see this battle really escalate. If you were open you obviously had advantages. That’s not exactly a lightning bolt coming out of the sky. But I think what we’re seeing with the consumer is they have money they’re willing to spend and they weren’t able to spend it for a while because a lot of places weren’t open. Now that things are starting to reopen there’s a lot of pent-up demand here.

Consumers Are Shifting Spending And Walmart’s Benefitting

During the early days of the pandemic during lockdowns no one’s buying pants, no one’s buying blouses, and no one’s buying tops because you can’t eat those and you also can’t use them to clean your house. So people had kind of shifted their demand towards the essentials and the consumables. Now they’re moving in another direction and Walmart’s benefiting. They benefited from the early blast of spending and now they’re benefiting as it expands. The margins going up indicates they’re selling a lot of other non-consumable stuff because those margins are lower.

I also cover the auto retailers and the auto retailers showed an awful lot of resilience so far this year. Q2 numbers for my rated universe were much better than we expected and we didn’t expect them to be that bad. The consumer clearly has money and the stimulus obviously helps the folks that are still employed are out there and still spending. That portends well for Target tomorrow and Best Buy next week. Home Depot also popped a big number today. The essential type retailers are still going to be benefiting.

Walmart Ecommerce Business Is Humming

August 1, 2021
Shopify: We Are Arming The Rebels

“We are arming the rebels… the entrepreneurs, the small business owners, the independent brands, and the rebels are winning,” says Shopify President Harley Finkelstein. “It feels like the retail world that would have existed in 2030 was pulled back to 2020. We have seen this massive catalyst to an acceleration in digitalization in commerce and retail. We are writing the future of commerce and entrepreneurs are really the heroes of the Shopify story.”

Shopify President Harley Finkelstein says the rebels―the entrepreneurs and the small business owners―are the heroes of the Shopify story… and the rebels are winning:

We Are Arming The Rebels

There’s a lot to be optimistic about even in the second half of 2021. It feels like the retail world that would have existed in 2030 was pulled back to 2020. We certainly have seen this massive catalyst to an acceleration in digitalization in commerce and retail. But actually, we are writing the future of commerce and entrepreneurs are really the heroes of the Shopify story. We are arming the rebels… the entrepreneurs, the small business owners, the independent brands, and the rebels are winning.

Consumers have been voting with their wallets for the last ten months or so to buy from independent brands wherever possible. In 2020, 47 million consumers purchased from a Shopify merchant. That’s up 52 from 2019. Our merchant’s performance helped expand Shopify’s lead on an aggregated basis to be the second-largest e-commerce retailer in the U.S. Shopify is now about nine percent of all US ecom. If you think about it, Shopify is a proxy for independent retail and for direct-to-consumer retail.

Shop Pay Launches Accelerated Checkout

We only succeed when our merchants do. This has led to us having more than 1.7 million merchants on Shopify. This includes people from first-time entrepreneurs making their first sale every 28 seconds to the likes of O’Neill and Hallmark and Herman Miller and Purina. Diageo, who also just launched in Shopify and in Q4 alone revenue nearly doubled year over year to $978 million. There’s a lot to be optimistic about. Actually, the future of retail and commerce we think is going to look a lot more like these independent brands than these sort of department stores that existed in the past.

Shop Pay is our accelerated checkout. We just announced it last week. We know that it not only helps merchants get more sales, it helps buyers convert better and much faster. Now we think that providing it to the Instagram and Facebook platforms means that our merchants can not only access new customers on those platforms, and frankly anywhere where customers are, but now can transact in a more efficient way. Shopify is becoming far more than an e-commerce provider.

Future of Retail Is Wherever Consumers Are

We are trying to build the world’s first retail operating system, which makes it as easy as possible and where the cost of failure is as low as possible, so more people can participate in entrepreneurship. We think the future retail is not online or offline or anywhere, in particular, it’s wherever consumers are. That’s what we’re trying to build. Seeing Shop Pay move into Facebook and Instagram is a really great way to demonstrate where the future of retail is happening.

We are trying to get to a point where we completely democratize entrepreneurship. We use a 100-year perspective and we want to build a 100-year company. We’re about 15 years into our journey right now and we have 85 years left to go. In the long run, we’re happy where Shopify is but frankly, on the topic of more participation in the equity markets, we think that is also entrepreneurial and we think that’s also democratizing.

Shopify CEO: We Are Arming The Rebels

April 5, 2021
How To Find Trustworthy Supplements on Amazon
One of the largest businesses in the world, Amazon, makes up 77% of all supplement sales online. This percent is larger than the five biggest vitamin sellers combined. However, since many are controlled by third-parties, online supplement legitimacy has grown controversial.

The history of the mismarketed supplement on Amazon is long-lived. Hundreds of articles began emerging about fake products as early as 2013. In June 2020, NPR discovered over 100 dietary supplements illegally marketed as antiviral medications.

Mismarketed supplements come in a variety of forms, including those that:
- Wrongfully record doses of active ingredients.
- Include unlisted ingredients or ingredients by the wrong name.
- Lack of at least one major active ingredient.
The most commonly mislabeled supplements on Amazon range from bodybuilding supplements and CBD products to herbal and dietary vitamins. The goal of supplements is usually to augment or increase heath relative to personal goals, but poorly manufactured supplements often produce adverse, even dangerous effects.

Nearly 5,500 health incidents were reported to the US Poison Control Center over the past year. Vitamins have been known to negatively affect vital organs such as the liver, pancreas, and gallbladder. Worse, overdoses and other forms of supplement poisoning have increased by 35% in less than 25 years. The issues associated with vitamin and supplement use are only increasing, and the industry is not slowing down.

The supplement and vitamin market is one of the most thriving industries worldwide. It is projected that the global market for dietary supplements will surpass $27 billion dollars by 2027. It is safe to assume that the market for supplements — whether they are high quality or not — will only continue to grow over time.

From a business point of view, controlling the 58% of third party vitamin sellers on Amazon’s platform is tricky. Many dishonest businesses are familiar with loopholes in the legal and digital business systems, leading to exploits that include:
- Reselling supplements that were not approved through quality control.
- Falsely claiming to be located inside of the US to avoid consequences.
- Paid for reviews that claim a poor quality supplement is safe for human use.
Tricky business practices make it extraordinarily difficult to purchase safe supplement products through Amazon. This revelation pushed the company to take action, although not as quickly as most had hoped.

Amazon’s Project Zero launched in 2019 in order to combat false advertising and poor business practices listing supplements online. The program utilizes a program that crawls Amazon search listings to identify suspicious, fake, or dangerous products. Unfortunately, the program requires opting-in by small businesses, reducing reach and identification capabilities.

A year later in 2020, Amazon debuted a pilot program to vet new businesses on a live basis. It is hoped that the program will identify poor quality supplements before they hit the market, but the full extent of the program has not yet been tested.

Until better circumstances surround the Amazon supplement industry, it will be important to choose only verified, safe sellers. Look for supplements that follow USDA regulations, possess signs of high quality, and are free from red flags. Until then, this infographic may give further insights.
December 9, 2020
Google Brings Free Retail Listings to Google Search

Google has announced that it is bringing free retail listings to the main Google Search results page.

The move follows Google’s decision to primarily include free listings on the Google Shopping tab. According to Bill Ready President of Commerce, that move resulted in a significant uptick in engagement between customers and merchants. This would seem to indicate that people are having better success finding what they’re looking for.

“Sellers of all sizes are benefitting from this incremental traffic, particularly small and medium-sized businesses,” writes Ready. “And we already see that these changes will help generate billions of dollars in sales for retailers and brands in the U.S., on an annual basis.

“Now, we’re bringing free listings to the main Google Search results page in the U.S., helping shoppers choose the products and sellers that will serve them best, from the widest variety of options.”

Given the impact the pandemic has had on the retail industry, this move will certainly help small and medium-sized businesses connect with more customers online.

November 11, 2020
Stitch Fix CEO Says Localization and Brand Marketing are Key

Stitch Fix founder and CEO Katrina Lake says that “we are still early in the journey but have learned a lot in the last couple of years on the marketing front.” Stitch Fix, an online subscription and personal shopping service, was established in 2011 in San Francisco and went public in 2017.

Katrina Lake, founder, and CEO of Stitch Fix discussed their current marketing strategy on “Squawk Alley” earlier today:

Stitch Fix Enters the UK Market

I’m excited about heading into the UK. What we see in Stitch Fix Mens has given us a lot of confidence as we think about a new client base and a new set of inventory. We are now coming up on the two year anniversary of Stitch Fix Mens and now that we are in a place where that business is more mature and contributing to the business you can actually see it in our gross margin. We had the highest gross margin this quarter than we had in the last six quarters.

Then to add kids and now to add the UK we are really excited about planting those seeds. I think that the UK it is so important in the business of personalization which ours is. We understand each client and understand what each client is looking for.

There’s a lot of investment in localization, of localizing stylists, of bringing on merchants who understand the market and are buying from brands that our clients in the UK will expect. All of that localization definitely requires more work but we think really sets us up for greater success.

Revenue Per Client is Up

We are really excited about seeing revenue per client higher this quarter. What that means is we have high-quality clients that are spending more with us. Right now is a great time to see that because Men’s is getting to a place where we see greater maturity in that business. Kids, our newest business, has not blended into those client numbers yet.

Internally, figuring out how we can capture more wallet share and how we can make sure we are getting clients more what they love and capturing more of that revenue per client is a really big effort for us.

We Are Still Early in Our Marketing Journey

We are still early in the journey and we have learned a lot in the last couple of years on the marketing front. We’ve brought channels in-house. We have a lot of efforts around diversifying our channels. In the last quarter, we had national TV off for 10 of the 13 weeks which really helped us understand regional impacts, how much TV is adding directly and much it is helping our other channels.

We already knew that TV was an important part of the mix, but it really validated those learnings. It definitely helped us to plan in an accurate way going forward. That being said, even on the TV front, there is still a lot of opportunities as we think about diversification and different tactics.

Planning Brand Marketing Push Soon

What we haven’t done any of to date is brand marketing. We have a CMO who has been in the role for three or four months and as we are able to hone that marketing muscle and learn more about what’s working and what’s not working brand marketing is actually going to be another tactic that will be really helpful. This will not just be for activating and generating awareness but also driving more reengagement and driving retention.

We are part way on the journey on the marketing front but we are still really early. There’s still a lot of the addressable market out there, our awareness is still really really low. We are really excited how much more opportunity there is on the marketing front.

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November 4, 2020
Slice CEO Leading Digital Transformation Of Pizzerias

“We want to make sure that 70 to 80 percent of the volume for pizzerias is digital., says Slice CEO Ilir Sela. “This is very comparable to Domino’s and Papa John’s and other big chains. We’ve got to lead the digital transformation of these small businesses. We bring technology and marketing and we enable the existing operation of the pizzeria. We make them more efficient and we make these Pizzerias really powerful and valuable.”

Ilir Sela, CEO of Slice, discusses how the Slice app is driving the digital transformation of small pizzerias so that they can compete effectively with the national pizza chains:

Leading Digital Transformation Of Pizzerias

We take a merchant friendly approach because we really believe in the power of small business and the American dream. I am third generation in the pizza industry. My family consists of a ton of entrepreneurs who mostly opened up small business pizzerias. The goal for us was to make sure that as digital becomes an important component of their business that it doesn’t cannibalize the physical location.

So we take a digital-first approach in a way that means we want to make sure that 70 to 80 percent of the volume for these pizzerias is digital. This is very comparable to Domino’s and Papa John’s and other big chains. In order to do that you have to take a long-term view and you’ve got to take a merchant friendly view around loyalty and online ordering. Obviously, in order to do that we’ve got to run the playbook. We’ve got to lead the digital transformation of these small businesses.

All Pizzerias Need To Digitize Their Platforms

We are actually an all-in-one platform where we partner with a small business in order to digitize their operation. We are not a logistics company ourselves. We empower small businesses to have what we call first-party delivery. In a way, that’s been done forever. Small business pizzerias have delivered across the entire country for decades and they’ve made it work incredibly well.

The reality is that in the world of COVID and as we go further into the 2020s, all these pizzerias really need to digitize their platforms in order to become more efficient. What we do is we bring technology and marketing and we enable the existing operation of the pizzeria. We make it more efficient and we make it really powerful and valuable.

Slice CEO Ilir Sela Leading Digital Transformation Of Pizzerias

September 21, 2020
Walmart+ Goes Head To Head With Amazon
Walmart launches Walmart+ a subscription service that competes directly with Amazon Prime and costs only $98 a year or optionally $12.95 a month. Walmart’s membership option is now available to customers across the country. Membership includes free 15-day trial period.

“We can’t wait for customers to use Walmart+ as a way to keep more time on their calendars and money in their pockets,” said Janey Whiteside, chief customer officer, Walmart. “We designed Walmart+ to be the ultimate life hack for customers, pulling together benefits they told us would be most helpful to them today and in the future. Its usefulness will only grow from here.”

The initial list of Walmart+ benefits is below. The company says that the list of benefits will continue to grow over time:
- Unlimited free delivery: In-store prices as fast as same-day on more than 160,000 items from fresh produce, to milk, eggs and bread to tech and toys to household essentials. This service was previously known as Delivery Unlimited – a subscription service that allows customers to place an unlimited number of grocery deliveries for a low, flat yearly or monthly fee. Current subscribers will automatically become Walmart+ members.
- Scan & Go: Unlock Scan & Go in the Walmart app – a fast way to shop in-store. Using the Walmart app, customers can scan their items as they shop and pay using Walmart Pay for a quick, easy, touch-free payment experience.
- Fuel discounts: Fill up and save up to 5 cents a gallon at nearly 2,000 Walmart, Murphy USA and Murphy Express fuel stations. Sam’s Club fuel stations will soon be added to this lineup.
Bill Simon, former CEO of Walmart, discusses the launch of Walmart+ designed to take on Amazon by combining free delivery of groceries and general merchandise within a paid subscription service:

Walmart+ Goes Head To Head With Amazon

Walmart has long coveted a subscription service to go head to head with Amazon. They tried three or four times but this one is different. Walmart+ combines both their grocery and their general merchandise strength which is really trying to recreate the supercenter online through a subscription service. If they can use the frequency of their food business to also help sell their general merchandise line they can mix it out better and hopefully get to profitability sooner.

Retail has actually been better (this last quarter) than most people have expected. It’s not been even. There have been categories and retailers who have struggled. By and large, its help up pretty well. The pandemic accelerated digital ecommerce development by five to ten years. If you were not up to speed on that or didn’t get up to speed very quickly you would be behind. As we head into the fall it will be really interesting to see how it goes.

Holiday Selling Season Uncertain

Typically, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, that weekend has been really critical to the selling season. If you missed that it would be very difficult to have a really good holiday selling season. With the delayed openings now and Thanksgiving not on the line, the focus is going to be online and there won’t be as many in-person Black Friday deals. It’s going to be difficult for retailers to make up all that volume online. The holiday selling season is going to be a bit uncertain.

I’m really speaking from the consumer perspective when I say that digital ecommerce accelerated by five to ten years in the last six months. It accelerated at that pace and people had to head in that direction. That is likely where retail is going to head but it is going to still be a mix. The vast majority of retail will remain brick and mortar but ecommerce will take a larger role in the facilitation by online pickup in store. Customers are now completely blending the omnichannel retail experience.

The Amazon Effect: Digital Sales Rule!

There’s also been really a change from an investment standpoint. This has been really more the Amazon effect than anything I can think of. Five years ago, it used to be, grow your profit faster than your sales and your share price would move forward. Now, if you’re not growing digital sales at a hyperactive rate it’s really hard to get a good valuation on your company. Walmart is a great example of a retailer employing this strategy.

They’ve invested a ton of money, almost a third of their operating income they’ve given up in order to build an ecommerce business. Yet, investors have rewarded them by buying their stock. It’s near historic highs.

Walmart+ Goes Head To Head With Amazon
September 20, 2020
What We’re Really Seeing Is the Integration of Bricks and Clicks

“What we’re really seeing here is the integration of bricks and clicks,” says Cohen retail analyst Oliver Chen. “Target really hit the bull’s eye on their numbers. What stood out really was 195 percent ecommerce growth and using stores as hubs or fulfillment centers, particularly drive-up curbside pickup and reinventing the purpose of the store to integrate the whole shopping journey. As retail continues to evolve this whole fulfillment and stores plus digital will continue to be a huge theme.”

Oliver Chen, Retail and Luxury Analyst at Cohen, and Michael Baker, Managing Director & Senior Retail Analyst at D.A. Davidson Companies discuss how ecommerce and physical stores are integrating:

What We’re Seeing Is the Integration of Bricks and Clicks

What we’re really seeing here is the integration of bricks and clicks. Target really hit the bull’s eye on their numbers. What stood out really was 195 percent ecommerce growth and using stores as hubs or fulfillment centers, particularly drive-up curbside pickup and reinventing the purpose of the store to integrate the whole shopping journey. What’s happening is that America really values convenience and Target’s done a great job being America’s easiest place to shop.

Thinking about physical, mix with digital and instant gratification, same-day fulfillment has been a big deal. Customers want it all. They want physical, they want digital, they want groceries and hard lines. We’re also seeing this at-home revolution with home electronics doing really well too. These are all key themes. As retail continues to evolve this whole fulfillment and stores plus digital will continue to be a huge theme.

Ecommerce Is No Longer a Bad Word

The key is that ecommerce is no longer a bad word. If you think back a couple of years ago if you mentioned ecommerce the idea was to short all retail. It took some of these retailers a while to understand the investments in technology that needed to be made. But they’ve done it using the stores as assets instead of liabilities.

Again, if you go back maybe five years ago the idea was if you had a store you’re in trouble. These companies through their technology investments have really proven that’s not the case. I do believe that investing in technology to drive your sales and your earnings is certainly the right thing to do for these companies.

What We’re Really Seeing Is the Integration of Bricks and Clicks

September 19, 2020
FreshDirect CEO: Seismic Shift In How People Want To Buy Food

“It’s a remarkable time in that we’re witnessing the beginning of a seismic shift in terms of consumer preference in how they want to buy their food,” says FreshDirect CEO David McInerney. “What we’ve seen is within the cities that we operate, New York, Philadelphia, DC, we’ve seen the urban dwellers migrate out to the suburbs. As they migrate out they are taking FreshDirect with them.”

David McInerney, CEO, and co-founder of FreshDirect, discusses how the pandemic has caused a boom in how people want to buy their food:

Witnessing Seismic Shift In How Consumers Want To Buy Food

Overall, the growth continues to be tremendous both in the cities and in the suburbs. It’s a remarkable time in that we’re witnessing the beginning of a seismic shift in terms of consumer preference in how they want to buy their food. What we’ve seen is within the cities that we operate, New York, Philadelphia, DC, we’ve seen the urban dwellers migrate out to the suburbs. As they migrate out they are taking FreshDirect with them.

When you combine that with this iconic truck that we have that everybody knows and then new customers in the suburbs see it and word of mouth goes on. Then all of a sudden we are seeing really explosive growth there as well. Frankly, it’s something that we like a lot. We like the suburban customer because they have really big pantries. They really value fresh food. We’ve had a good time with it thus.

Customers Moved To Suburbs But They Are Coming Back Soon

We’re sort of on the sidelines watching (when people will go back to urban areas again). We are talking to a lot of our customers. The truth is we are hearing from some that they plan on staying wherever they are, whether that’s in a suburb in our trading area or somewhere else in the country. But I think there are a fair amount that are coming back and we’re planning as such. We’re planning to see a significant migration back in September for all three cities.

While the ramp-up will probably not be as strong as we’ve seen in earlier years we’re still expecting growth. There’s also a big chunk of our business which is in the offices. We do a corporate office business as well and that has been pretty much non-existent. We think that will take more time to ramp up but we see that coming back to some extent in September as well.

FreshDirect CEO David McInerney: Seismic Shift In How People Want To Buy Food

August 23, 2020
Walmart CEO: We Had To Become More Digital

“We had to learn to work in different ways to become more digital and to put data to work in different ways,” says Walmart CEO Doug McMillon as he reflected on the release of their blowout financial results. “Basically, to create a seamless experience for customers. We don’t want them to sense any difference as it relates to our brand whether they are shopping inside a store, picking it up, or having it delivered. All of those differences and channels that we might have thought about in the past need to be erased and taken away.”

Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart, discusses how the company has changed to become more digital over the last couple of quarters in response to the pandemic:

Ecommerce Was Very Strong

I would like to say thank you to all of our associates around the world and here in the US. They did a great job. You can imagine how challenging it is in this environment to go to work everyday and serve customers and keep the supply chain moving. Whether it’s in our stores, our Sam’s Club’s, or our distribution centers they have done a great job.

Customers have been responding in waves as we’ve gone through the first and second quarters. Not surprisingly, they got really focused on things they needed to stock up to be at home for a long time at first. Over time, as we got through the second quarter and stimulus checks came in to play and people were at home, we certainly saw them buy things like laptops and tablets and fishing equipment and bicycles. Things that were related to home decor as they were at home thinking about their environment inside and outside the house we certainly saw them respond with what they were buying. Ecommerce, in particular, was very strong.

Technology Phenomena Happening Around the World

I’ve been in retail for almost 30 years and it’s really exciting when so many things can be done using technology. We can save customers time and expose them to so much more choice than we could previously. Our ecommerce assortments are broader as retailers and that’s certainly true at Walmart. We sell first-party owned inventory as well as through our marketplace. Now they can pick up their phone or be at home and open up their laptop and shop in so many different ways and have access to so many different things. It’s a lot of fun to be able to try and serve them in that way. That phenomena is happening around the world.

You can use your app to do pickup and our stores. You can use your app to have the product brought straight to your house. Obviously, you can come in the store and we are learning how to use technology inside the stores in different ways to save you time. It boils down to access to assortment and an ease of shopping here in the US and around the world that people haven’t experienced before. That’s happening in Mexico, Canada, China, India, and all over the world.

We Had To Become More Digital

There have been a lot of changes inside the company. We had to learn to work in different ways to become more digital and to put data to work in different ways. Basically, to create a seamless experience for customers. We don’t want them to sense any difference as it relates to our brand whether they are shopping inside a store, picking it up, or having it delivered. All of those differences and channels that we might have thought about in the past need to be erased and taken away. Our teams have been doing a great job doing that.

The outcome of that is this ease of shopping that’s unique and different. In our case, we’ve got so many stores so close to customers around the country it gives us a big advantage especially in being able to deliver quickly. We’ve got an express delivery system here in the United States that commits to delivering orders from our stores in less than two hours. That’s now in more than 2,000 stores and coming to stores all over the country. We are actually delivering a lot faster than two hours so far. That’s a great experience.

We believe that this is something that we can build on along with having great stores where you want to come in from time to time, stock up, and experience what’s new. Really, we think that this omni world of retail is what will end up being the winning strategy over time.

Scale Can Sometimes Be A Disadvantage

Scale can sometimes be an advantage and sometimes it’s a disadvantage. Speed also matters a lot. Creativity matters a lot. What I’m proud of is how our team is responding to create new solutions for customers. Ultimately, whether Walmart grows or not is all up to them. We are serving families, moms and dads, and customers that have a lot of different choices. Even during the pandemic period with ecommerce and all the chains that were open there was still a lot of choice.

We’ve got to compete to earn their business everyday and that’s the approach we take. Our team has really stepped up during this period and even before the pandemic to drive change and to create more solutions for customers.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon: We Had To Become More Digital

August 19, 2020
It’s Crazy To Rely On Amazon To Sell Your Product

Everybody who sells something through a third party needs to figure out their ecommerce strategy,” says VaynerMedia CEO Gary Vaynerchuk. “The thought to be reliant on retailers or Amazon or anybody else and not being the driving force of your own destiny of producing something and sending it to somebody is crazy to me.”

Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia discusses on Bloomberg the necessity for sellers of products to develop their own sales channels and to not rely on Amazon or other third-party sellers:

It’s Crazy To Rely On Amazon To Sell Your Product

Everybody who sells something through a third party needs to figure out their ecommerce strategy. The thought to be reliant on retailers or Amazon or anybody else and not being the driving force of your own destiny of producing something and sending it to somebody is crazy to me. Regardless of where the world is, try not to overextend yourself on CapEx and OpEx. Let’s get into the game. For others, it’s trying to mitigate their excitement on how good their numbers look so that they don’t overspend.

Innovation comes from times like this. If you’re selling through a retailer and you make a product you’re in a bad business. Walmart, Target, Albertsons, they have disproportionately too much leverage. If you’re selling through Amazon you’re really just setting up the next giant that’s going to have too much leverage and they’re going to ask you for more brand dollars and you’re going to spend less on the consumer.

I think the change that you’ll see, much like anything, you look at downtown, supermarkets, and now e-comm, I do think you’ll see a fragmentation of products going direct-to-consumer, not through Amazon or Walmart. In seven years I think that many will talk to this time as the aha moment of we need to get our act together on going direct to consumer.

Customer Acquisition Costs Right Now Are Crazy Attractive

Meanwhile, because this is a complicated game. Facebook and Instagram and Google prices are down in costs in the auctions because a lot of people are not spending. Customer acquisition costs right now are crazy attractive. So the cliche plays out. Cash-rich businesses always accelerate aggressively during downtimes. If you have the ability to spend on acquiring customers right now and have a healthy business there’s a huge growth opportunity.

For others, it’s a restrategize opportunity. Dwelling and going on full defense is only the answer if you’re actually on the verge of going out of business.

It’s Crazy To Rely On Amazon To Sell Your Product

August 10, 2020
Everything You Do is The Brand, Says ShipMonk CEO

Everything you do in the company drives you toward the vision and the mission of the brand and the company itself, says Jan Bednar, Founder & CEO of ShipMonk. “Something we have learned in the last few years is that once you communicate those values and what the brand really means to your employees and to your customers, it kind of does the job itself,” he says. “You don’t really have to spend a lot of time maintaining it.”

Bednar adds: “Everything you do at that point is the brand.”

Jan Bednar, Founder & CEO of ShipMonk, talks to Logan Lyles of Sweet Fish Media and host of the B2B Growth podcast. Bednar tells how he grew ShipMonk to a $30 million business and how the company’s values have helped drive their success:

Our Values Are the Pillars of the Organization

The one important thing in the way we look at our products and our brand is we try to figure out who are users are and what does our brand mean. We have a certain set of values that are associated with our brand. It’s not just a bunch of text that we put on a whiteboard three years ago and we never look at it. We have them everywhere and everyone knows them. They basically become the pillars of the organization. It’s something that everybody looks up to. You know what they are.

Everything you do in the company drives you toward the vision and the mission of the brand and the company itself. Something we have learned in the last few years is that once you communicate those values and what the brand really means to your employees and to your customers, it kind of does the job itself. You don’t really have to spend a lot of time maintaining it.

ShipMonk Values

Everything You Do is The Brand

Everything you do at that point is the brand. It’s how you answer the phone. It’s how you decorate your office. It’s how you go to work. It’s what you wear to work. Every single detail, as long as you have those values in the back of your mind and you know what the brand really means, it’s almost like a self-sustaining organism at that point.

That’s been really important for us. We really see with our customers that once they like our brand and they see what we are doing they become part of it. It’s one of the most rewarding things. They love coming to our office. They love sharing their thoughts and improving the product. It becomes this one big ShipMonk family in a way. Everything we do from a branding and marketing standpoint surrounds those values and the proposition of the brand.

>> Listen to the full podcast at Sweet Fish Media…

About ShipMonk

From their inception in 2014, ShipMonk has operated with a singular guiding principle: to help small and medium-sized businesses scale by offering technology-driven fulfillment solutions that enable business founders to devote more time to the things that matter most in their businesses. Put simply, ShipMonk helps eCommerce companies stress less and grow more.

August 8, 2020
Ecommerce Is Growing Much More Rapidly Than Before

“Demand for space is actually increasing because ecommerce is growing much more rapidly than it was before,” says global logistics real estate company Prologis CEO Hamid Moghadam. “We probably got three, four, or five years of growth in a quarter or two. Ecommerce is a big tailwind for our business. It’s a pretty good business otherwise but ecommerce just supercharges it.”

Hamid Moghadam, chairman, and CEO of Prologis, the global leader in logistics real estate, while discussing their earnings release says the pandemic has rapidly accelerated the growth of ecommerce worldwide:

Ecommerce Is Growing Much More Rapidly Than Before

We started the year with a very optimistic outlook and of course, all of that was before COVID. When we got to the first-quarter results, they were strong, but we softened our outlook a bit because nobody really knew what we were facing. As the business has progressed in the second quarter we’re finding that demand for space is actually increasing because ecommerce is growing much more rapidly than it was before.

We probably got three, four, or five years of growth in a quarter or two. Ecommerce is a big tailwind for our business. It’s a pretty good business otherwise but ecommerce just supercharges it.

Our Business Is Vital To The Supply Chain

We run a global business. If you look at our collections globally, the US is actually stronger than the global numbers. But if you look at the overall numbers they are actually running better than last year which was a record year. You might ask why in an environment like this that collections are running ahead of last year? The reason is pretty simple. Our business is vital to the supply chain. Even people whose businesses are not doing well have to keep their inventory somewhere and that’s usually in one of our buildings.

An interesting statistic is that 2.5 percent of global GDP goes through our billion square feet around the world. We’ve got pretty good visibility as to what’s going on in the global economy. Both on the good end and the soft end people need inventory and a place to store their goods.

Houston Is The Softest Market In The US

Houston is probably the softest market in the US. Globally, I would have to say France is probably one of the weaker markets. But generally, through this cycle, we’ve held up pretty well around the world. The primary reason is that unlike other cycles supply of space was very tight going into this downturn. Vacancies were under five percent and utilization rates were in the mid-80s. Both of those are records.

I’ve been doing this for about 37 years and those are numbers that are unprecedented in our business. Unprecedented good.

Ecommerce Is Growing Much More Rapidly Than Before, Says Prologis CEO Hamid Moghadam

July 21, 2020
Ecommerce Exploded When Everybody Got Their Stimulus Checks

“Ecommerce exploded when everybody got their stimulus checks,” says marketing superstar Gary Vaynerchuk. “It reminded me how much of a materialistic capitalistic country we are. The numbers are through the roof on food and beverage and things of that nature. Obviously, apparel has been hit in certain ways also. But net-net this is a capitalistic materialistic country and people want to buy things so you’re seeing a ton of activity.”

Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia and host of his own “GaryVee” channel on YouTube with 2.6 million subscribers, discusses how ecommerce is booming in spite of the current pandemic:

Ecommerce Exploded With The Stimulus Checks

Ecommerce exploded when everybody got their stimulus checks. It reminded me how much of a materialistic capitalistic country we are. A lot of my businesses are in ecommerce and I was “micro happy.” But I was macro disappointed because I’m hoping that people learn how to save money during this time. With VaynerMedia, my marketing firm, we sit with a lot of Fortune 500 companies that have consumer brands and we’re very involved in a lot of their e-commerce businesses.

The numbers are through the roof on food and beverage and things of that nature. Obviously, apparel has been hit in certain ways also. But net-net this is a capitalistic materialistic country and people want to buy things so you’re seeing a ton of activity. Sports cards are a space I pay attention to. I can’t believe how well it’s doing.

People Still Think Another Stimulus Check Is Coming

I actually think the macro conversation is the way this is all playing out. It’s disguising some of the economic vulnerabilities because we’re still in this cocoon. People still think there may be another stimulus check coming for me. As soon as this is over I’m gonna get a job.

I think the most interesting part of this from a kind of thoughtful economic standpoint it’s kind of that first month to three months or four months after it gets back to normal-ish. I’m really eyeing February, March, and April of next year where I think that you could see a dip because people will say wait a minute we’re in something bad. Right now I think it’s fake to some people.

Ecommerce Exploded When Everybody Got Their Stimulus Checks

May 20, 2020
We Are An Experience-Driven Company, Says Chewy CEO

“Last year we sent about 50,000 pet portraits to our customers,” says Chew CEO Sumit Singh. “We’re an experience-driven company. This is not a cost. This is an engagement mechanism. We’ve partnered with about a thousand local artists across the country. We think of this as an experience building. We have 90 percent re-ups (of our subscriptions). Our customers love engaging with us.”

Sumit Singh, CEO of Chewy, discusses their IPO (launched today) and how customer engagement has driven their phenomenal growth in an interview on CNBC:

We Are An Experience-Driven Company

Last year we sent about 50,000 pet portraits to our customers. We’re an experience-driven company. This is not a cost. This is an engagement mechanism. We’ve partnered with about a thousand local artists across the country. They show up to your doorstep unannounced. It’s a total surprise. You can’t buy them. When they do (the paintings) they create memories. People talk about them. They drive dinner table conversations. They show up on social media. It’s just an emotive category.

We think of this as an experience building. We have this because we want it, not because we need it in some way. Once we get out there and once this shows up on your doorstep the engagement that it creates generates the loyalty, the repeat purchase rate. In fact, our cohorts just keep growing from $330 to $500, $600, and $700 as they go from year five, six, and into year seven. This is what does it. Pets is the only category where a consumer refers to themselves as a pet parent. The only other category where consumers do that is kids.

“Jackson loves his Chewy portrait!” notes Chewy customer Eri Anne

Our Customers Love Engaging With Us

Pet ownership is underrepresented in the growth of e-commerce. First of all today in the United States we’re only about 14 percent penetrated from an online point of view. Chewy, if you look at it, is a $70 billion dollar industry. We’re penetrated in about roughly 10 percent of the households. We have 11 million customers. We’re growing fast and we’re engaging them hard.

They stay with us. It’s the two flywheels, the engagement, and the acquisition. It just spins really well. Our investors love that. Our customers love that. We like it. We have 90 percent re-ups (of our subscriptions). Two-thirds of our revenue comes from Autoship and our subscription program. Our customers love engaging with us.

We Have An Incredible Amount of Data

Our shipping (cost) is built into our gross margins. What you’ve seen is as we’ve gotten big fast, we’ve also gotten fit fast. Our gross margin has expanded over 500 basis points over the last three years. We have a dense network. We have the predictability of Autoship. We can plan supply plan tighter and baseload build a lot tighter and get it to our customers fast and in a reliable manner. That’s how we make it work.

We have a ton of data. When you contact us you’re giving us (information). Pet profiles is an amazing way for us to engage with you. Customers are leaning in. We talked to you via customer service. At this point, we have 11 million customers but we manage over 27 million relationships between pets and pet parents. That is an incredible amount of data and facts to have on base.

Pets.com Was 20 Years Ago

The company (Pets.com) was 20 years ago. Look at the way the e-commerce has built out, the inputs are changing. Look at our stickiness. Look at the number of customers that we’re attracting. The fact that we’re servicing greater than 95 percent of US households in less than two days and the fact that customers keep coming back to us. Also, the necessity and desire to continue to engage and seek information via the high-touch high-class customer service that we provide. We just closed the loop better than anybody else out there.

We Are An Experience-Driven Company, Says Chewy CEO Sumit Singh

May 5, 2020
Google Still The King of Driving Ecommerce Sales

Facebook and Instagram may be the darlings of many advertisers, but data shows Google is still the king of driving ecommerce traffic.

Analytics firm Oribi conducted an extensive study of shopping trends in 2019 and the results show that Facebook and Instagram still have a long way to go. According to the study, direct traffic in the form of mobile apps, email marketing and direct input accounts for nearly half of all traffic at 48.9%.

Behind that, however, is Google organic search at 20.6%. Rounding out the top three is Google paid search at 14.1%, while Facebook and Instagram came in at 9.6% and 1.5% respectively.

“Everyone seems to talk about Facebook’s shopping potential, but Google is, by far, the second traffic driver for online stores,” said Iris Shoor, Founder and CEO of Oribi. “And, despite Instagram’s rise, it’s responsible for less than 2% of traffic, even across the fashion stores we analyzed.”

When it comes to conversions, the news doesn’t look much better for either Facebook or Instagram. Google paid search provides 2.7% conversion rates, while Google organic search results in 2.5%. Facebook and Instagram, both paid and organic, only result in 1.5% and 0.8% respectively.

The study also showed a relatively clear distinction in the type of shopping the different platforms drive. Social media drives cheaper purchases, the digital equivalent of window shopping. In contrast, Google performs better for larger purchases where an individual is looking for, researching and buying something specific.

One thing is clear from Oribi’s study: Facebook and Instagram will need to work hard if they have any hope of challenging Google’s dominance in the ecommerce realm.

April 23, 2020