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Tag: Retail

  • Google Brings ‘Retail Search’ to Cloud Customers

    Google Brings ‘Retail Search’ to Cloud Customers

    Google is expanding its cloud services, bringing Retail Search to its clients in an effort to help them provide the best experience to their own customers.

    One of the biggest issues online shoppers face is finding the products they’re interested in. This can especially be apparent when comparing retail platform search capabilities with the Google Search features customers have become accustomed to.

    Google Cloud is now bringing the power of its search to retail clients, with Retail Search, which the company unveiled in a blog.

    This fully managed service is easily customizable, enabling organizations to craft shopper-focused search experiences. Our site search solution builds upon decades of Google’s experience and innovation in search indexing, retrieval, and ranking. Retailers can make product discovery even easier for shoppers, while optimizing for their business goals with advanced capabilities

    Retail Search gives clients the ability to offer advanced query understanding, meaning customers will have better success finding what they’re looking for even with the broadest of search terms. The service also includes semantic search, which matches product attributes with relevant products.

    Customers are already seeing the benefit of Retail Search.

    “With limited customer signals and no historical data, descriptive long-tail searches are some of the most challenging queries to understand,” said Neelima Sharma, senior vice president, technology, e-commerce, marketing and merchandising at Lowe’s. “We have been partnering with Google Cloud to give our customers relevant results for long-tail searches and have seen an increase in click-through and search conversion and a drop in our ‘No Results Found’ rate since we launched.”

    Google Cloud customers interested in learning more can visit Discovery Solutions for Retail or contact their Google Cloud field sales representative.

  • Shopify Evolving Into World’s First Retail Operating System

    Shopify Evolving Into World’s First Retail Operating System

    “Shopify is evolving into the world’s first retail operating system,” says Shopify COO Harley Finkelstein. “We think the future of retail is retail everywhere. A brand that’s going to be successful in 5, 10 or 15 years from now needs to sell across any platform and across any channel where they have customers. The idea is that it all feeds back in one centralized back-office, the retail operating system, which is Shopify.”

    Harley Finkelstein, COO of Shopify, discusses how COVID has dramatically sped up the timeline for commerce moving online and has also moved Shopify closer to its goal of becoming the world’s first retail operating system:

    Shopify Evolving Into World’s First Retail Operating System

    Most people assume that Shopify is an ecommerce provider. We have more than a million stores on Shopify. If you were to aggregate our stores in the US we’d be the second-largest online retailer in America. Of course, we’re not a retailer but we’re a platform. But we now have these great economies of scale that we’re using to level the playing field for entrepreneurs and small businesses. That being said, what really Shopify is evolving into is the world’s first retail operating system. 

    What we’re trying to figure out is what do brands and entrepreneurs and retailers need, not just now but in the future? We think the future of retail is retail everywhere. A brand that’s going to be successful in 5, 10 or 15 years from now needs to sell across any platform and across any channel where they have customers. This idea of enabling Shopify merchants to very easily push their products to the Amazon Marketplace or the eBay marketplace or now the Walmart marketplace, that gives them access to a new set of consumers. The idea is that it all feeds back in one centralized back-office, the retail operating system, which is Shopify. 

    Then we’ve gone ahead and asked what else can we do for these merchants? Can we do capital? We’ve now given out about a billion dollars worth of cash advances and loans to small businesses. We’re doing fulfillment and we’re doing shipping. We’re increasing the scope and the relationship that we have with the million stores on Shopify. This is allowing them to become category leaders.

    COVID Speeds Up The Ecommerce Revolution

    From our view, it seems like the commerce world that would have existed in the year 2030 has really been pulled into the year 2020 (as a result of the COVID crisis). We’ve seen ecommerce as a percent of total retail go from 15 percent to 25 percent in the last three months. That’s the same growth rate that we’ve seen over the last 10 years. What really has emerged here is sort of this tale of two retail worlds. On one side you have these resilient retailers that are doing great, they’re pivoting, and they’re expanding their businesses. On the other side, you have these resistant retailers who have not made it. In many ways, it’s probably the most exciting time for retail in a very long time. 

    We talk a lot about these direct to consumer brands that are becoming category leaders. The Allbirds and the Gymsharks who started on Shopify when they were very small and have grown to become the incumbents in their industry. Every 25 seconds a brand new entrepreneur makes his or her (products) for sale on Shopify. We talk a lot about those new startups, those new DTC brands. But actually, what we’re also seeing on Shopify are companies like Lindt Chocolate or Heinz ketchup or Chipotle. They are signing up for Shopify and basically from like five days from contract to launch they are completely changing their businesses. 

    This resiliency isn’t simply in the hands of just the smallest of brands. Big companies are also beginning to think a lot more about how to stay resilient in this time. They’re moving well beyond ecommerce or thinking about offline commerce now. They’re thinking about how do they sell across social media? How do they sell across different marketplaces? So no, I don’t think it’s too late (to enter ecommerce) but I do think they have to rethink their strategies.

    Shopify Evolving Into World’s First Retail Operating System Says Shopify COO Harley Finkelstein
  • Retailers Should Focus On The Last Mile, Says Justuno CEO

    Retailers Should Focus On The Last Mile, Says Justuno CEO

    “Conversion optimization is the same as it’s been for a while,” says Justuno CEO Erik Christiansen. “People still don’t want to focus on the last mile. We’ve kept to the same message that retailers should be investing in their current website visitors. There’s always low-hanging fruit to improve your business. How do you take one marketing dollar and stretch it as far as you possibly can? It’s all about creativity. That’s what marketing is and that’s what retail is.”

    Brand growth expert Austin Brawner of Ecommerce Influence interviewed Justuno CEO Erik Christiansen about conversion optimization:

    Retailers Should Focus On The Last Mile

    Conversion optimization is the same as it’s been for a while. People still don’t want to focus on the last mile. Finally, in 2020, we saw that shift when advertising got so expensive. Everyone is like, okay, we have minimal budgets, how do we stretch them? Finally, with all the competition from COVID where everyone’s shifting online everyone, they are saying that we can’t keep just throwing money at this. We’ve got to come up with the real problem.

    When we first launched we had to pivot immediately because when we mentioned the word coupon or the word pop-up people just ran the other way. It’s been ten years of education and we’ve kept to the same message of investing in your current website visitors. Our main job still is to educate the online retailer about the basics. We ask most businesses, as you know with email, are you doing a 30, 60, 90 day, the basics? Are you doing a cart abandonment email? You cover the basics and you get so much further ahead.

    There’s always low-hanging fruit

    Everyone thinks businesses are run perfectly but most businesses are just a mess. What I’ve been trying to do is challenge my team to look at the basics. There’s always low-hanging fruit to improve your business. When it comes to retail, where’s the low-hanging fruit? Let’s break out your business to the basics like new visitors versus repeat. With the new ones, how many are there? What percentage of emails are we capturing? Are we sending those emails to your ESP? Are we putting in the basic workflows? There’s so much low-hanging fruit.

    Then, you’re sending these emails, are you reinforcing those campaigns on-site? You spend so much time designing the email, sending it. Then it comes to that shopping cart abandonment. Do you even know how many people come to your cart each day? Do you know how many carts get abandoned and the dollar value? What can we do? The basics are still very much there in terms of opportunity to help people increase their sales lead capture and sales. How do you take one marketing dollar and stretch it as far as you possibly can? How do you also get creative? It’s all about creativity. That’s what marketing is and that’s what retail is. Retail is retailing and getting your hands dirty.

    Retailers Should Focus On The Last Mile, Says Justuno CEO Erik Christiansen
  • National Retail Federation CEO: This Is A Great Time For Innovation

    National Retail Federation CEO: This Is A Great Time For Innovation

    This is a great time for innovation,” says National Retail Federation CEO Matthew Shay. “There’s been a great increase in efficiency in the supply chain. Those gains are not going to be given back. Customers are going to continue to expect certain kinds of delivery and fulfillment opportunities that have been rolled out by retailers this year. They won’t give that up. They are going to want the convenience and they are going to expect to be able to maintain that in the future.”

    Matthew Shay, President and CEO of the National Retail Federation, says that the pandemic has made this a great time for innovation by retailers:

    This Is A Great Time For Innovation.

    Just look back a decade ago and the companies that were created in the midst of the great recession in 2008, 2009, and 2010. We saw a lot of new IPOs. This is a great time for innovation. Some of the predictions this year, for example, about the number of stores that would close or bankruptcies that we would see just haven’t materialized. Part of that is because consumers have been relatively healthy and part of that is because on a net basis we’ve seen new businesses opening to offset the closing. There’s an enormous amount of innovation taking place.

    On the issue of returns, there’s a big company located right here in Washington, D.C., Optoro, a big partner for many retailers helping them process returns efficiently. I’ve talked to senior executives at UPS today about shipping issues and there is a lot of innovation taking place. They are working very diligently and have a great delivery record so far. We are looking forward to getting all those gifts to American families. The biggest gift of all, of course, will be some additional pandemic relief.

    A Lot Of This Is Going To Be A Permanent Change

    The issue is how much of this consumer behavior has changed permanently and fundamentally? How much of us as Americans go back to our old behaviors? That’s going to play itself out. Certainly, a lot of this is going to be a permanent change. People will do more as we saw across all demographic groups, regardless of age, this entire year doing much more online. Some of that will remain sticky.

    There’s been a great increase in efficiency in the supply chain. Those gains are not going to be given back. Customers are going to continue to expect certain kinds of delivery and fulfillment opportunities that have been rolled out by retailers this year. They won’t give that up. They are going to want the convenience and they are going to expect to be able to maintain that in the future.

    With those kinds of innovations and that kind of resilience in the system against the backdrop of a year next year that could be extremely bullish if we get the vaccine rolled out, as we all believe it will be. I talked to a senior executive of one of the major pharmaceutical companies last week and they said early April or the end of May everyone that wants it will get it. We could be set up for a really big comeback for consumers next year.

    National Retail Federation CEO Matthew Shay: This Is A Great Time For Innovation
  • Sezzle Is the Creditization Of a Debit Card, Says CEO

    Sezzle Is the Creditization Of a Debit Card, Says CEO

    “Consumers love our product because it represents purchasing power but also budgeting for them,” says Sezzle co-founder and CEO Charlie Youakim. “They feel safe with it just like they do with the debit card. We’re driving a new wedge into payments between credit and debit. I call it the creditization of a debit card. I think it’s here to say because of that safety element that we give to the consumer.”

    Charlie Youakim, CEO and co-founder of Sezzle, discusses the massive growth of the Buy Now, Pay Later industry and how that is reshaping ecommerce and retail in general:

    Focused Uniquely On Credit Building

    Sezzle is generally focused on the ecomm space, that’s where we do most of our work. We are present on over 44,000 merchant websites. The Buy Now, Pay Later industry, in general, is typically focused on ecommerce. So as that push back into ecomm occurs (potentially due to increases in COVID causing more people to shop from home) we generally benefit from that.

    We compete in this space by really focusing on our stakeholders, focusing on the merchants, focusing on the consumers, and doing the right thing by both of them. We really stand on the high road for the consumer. We are the only player in the space that focuses on credit building which is totally unique. We love it, our consumers love it and our merchant partners love it. By focusing on their needs, these consumers’ needs, and doing right by them and right by the merchants, you have a chance to do a really strong job within the sector.

    Sezzle Pushing Into the Enterprise

    With SMB’s we’ve been growing like wildfire. It just continues for us. That’s how we have that big count of merchants and we expect that to continue. We’re doing a great job there and the merchants love us. It’s viral in that space. For us now the push is into enterprise and in Target, Bass Pro Shops, those are two great examples of that for us. The reason we’re doing that is that our consumer wants to shop with us everywhere so we have to be everywhere. That means we have to be with SMB, we’ve got to be with mid-market, and we’ve got to be with enterprise.

    That will be the push for Sezzle to continue to push in those spaces. If you look at the enterprise players in those spaces, what they want is they want a brand that they can believe in. That’s where you have Sezzle and our halo around doing right by the consumer helping them build their credit score up and being a partnerships player. That’s what really sets us apart.

    Sezzle: The Creditization Of a Debit Card

    The average order value per customer has been relatively stable. We’re around $100 per order. The only reason it’s been tracking a bit up for us is we’ve been expanding our services. We started with a pure ‘pay in four’ for over six weeks interest-free and so that’s where we tracked right around $100. But as we add long-term into the mix we’ve been starting to track upwards. The order values on a 12-month order or 12-month installment plan, tend to track towards $1,000. We feel it’s probably going to stay stable, it’s just going to be a mixed shift that creates any change for Sezzle.

    We see from our consumers that they love our product because it represents purchasing power but also budgeting for them. They feel safe with it just like they do with the debit card. We’re driving a new wedge into payments between credit and debit. I call it the creditization of a debit card. I think it’s here to say because of that safety element that we give to the consumer.

    Sezzle Is the Creditization Of a Debit Card, Says CEO Charlie Youakim
  • Google Cloud Retail Search to Address $300 Billion E-Commerce Search Abandonment

    Google Cloud Retail Search to Address $300 Billion E-Commerce Search Abandonment

    Google is trying to help the e-commerce industry address a $300 billion abandonment issue with Google Cloud Retail Search.

    According to Inc. search abandonment — where a user searches for a product but doesn’t click through to the results — costs the e-commerce industry a whopping $300 billion a year. Google is working to address that with its new tool, which has been in private preview, but is now available to all.

    “Search abandonment is a costly industry-wide issue, but for startup founders and small business owners, it can be devastating,” Carrie Tharp, Google Cloud’s vice president of retail and consumer, told Inc. “With Retail Search, we’re able to help convert site traffic to sales and keep startups and small businesses from leaving money on the table.”

    The tool brings the power of Google Search to a company’s own sites.

    Retailers now have the ability to provide Google-quality search and recommendations on their own digital properties, helping to increase conversions and reduce search abandonment. 

    Cloud Retail Search should help Google as it continues to fight for cloud market share against its larger rivals, AWS and Microsoft Azure.

  • Amazon Expands A-to-z Guarantee to Cover Personal/Property Damage

    Amazon Expands A-to-z Guarantee to Cover Personal/Property Damage

    Amazon has unveiled a major upgrade to its A-to-z Guarantee, vowing to cover personal or property damage caused by defective products.

    A-to-z Guarantee was initially rolled out 20 years ago and provided no-hassle returns for products sold by third-party sellers on Amazon’s store. The company is now expanding that to cover damage caused by defective products sold via Amazon, including products that are sold by third-parties.

    The program will automatically cover up to $1,000, at no cost to the seller, although Amazon reserves the right to cover more expensive claims if it feels the seller is not properly addressing the issue.

    Amazon announced the program in a blog post:

    Now, in the unlikely event a defective product sold through Amazon.com causes property damage or personal injury, Amazon will directly pay customers for claims under $1,000—which account for more than 80% of cases—at no cost to sellers, and may step in to pay claims for higher amounts if the seller is unresponsive or rejects a claim we believe to be valid. We are also launching Amazon Insurance Accelerator to help sellers buy insurance at competitive rates from trusted providers. We’re excited that these innovations create a more trustworthy shopping and selling experience for customers and sellers in our store.

    The new policy is good news for customers and sellers alike.

  • Amazon Poised to Open Department Stores

    Amazon Poised to Open Department Stores

    Amazon may dominate e-commerce, but reports show it now plans to take on traditional retail with its own debarment-style stores.

    Department stores were once a staple of American life and the go-to place to shop for everything from clothes to household items. In recent years, however, e-commerce has taken a toll on the industry, with many going into bankruptcy or making major changes to how they do business.

    Now Amazon, arguably one of the biggest factors in the demise of the industry, is now preparing to open its own department-style retail stores in California and Ohio, according to The Wall Street Journal.Amazon already has some retail locations, such as bookstores and the Whole Foods chain it purchased 2017. The company also has its 4-star stores, although those primarily sell gadgets.

    According to WSJ, Amazon’s new retail stores will be roughly 30,000 square feet, quite a bit smaller than a traditional department store, which usually comes in around 100,000. Even so, the new stores will be much larger than the company’s other retail efforts and will offer the full range of products from top brands, much like a traditional department store.

    While nothing is a sure bet, Amazon’s chances of success are pretty good. Having its own stores would give users the ability to try on clothes before buying them, eliminating one of the more frustrating aspects of online shopping.

  • Microsoft Announces Microsoft Cloud for Retail

    Microsoft Announces Microsoft Cloud for Retail

    Microsoft has announced a new vertical cloud, Microsoft Cloud for Retail, aiming to be an end-to-end retail solution.

    Microsoft Azure has been gaining ground in the cloud market, with a recent report showing it one of the biggest winners during the current digital transformation. Microsoft Azure is increasingly seen as a viable alternative to AWS, especially among retailers who are leery of relying on a cloud offering from their biggest rival.

    Microsoft is capitalizing on this by offering a vertical cloud solution tailored to the specific needs of the retail market.

    The unmatched performance of Microsoft Azure allows our customers to intelligently manage secure workloads across multiple sites and domains, scale those workloads to process millions of requests per second, and improve the logistics to manage each order. Azure Data and AI services help retailers respond to market forces, improve decision-making, and put customers first by breaking down their data silos to manage, merge, shape, and analyze the data and, as a result, uncover actionable insights.

    With Azure, retailers get the best of at-scale cloud, data, and AI workloads including industry data models that enable data management, governance, and domain excellence in one cloud platform from a provider that does not compete with them. As a result, retailers can build better digital feedback loops—the connections between their customers, their people, their stores, their data, and the insights at the heart of each—on a platform from a trusted partner.

    Microsoft’s announcement does not include pricing. The company is confident, however, that its latest vertical cloud will help the retail industry deal with the challenges and opportunities it is currently facing.

  • Former Walmart U.S. CEO Sees Virtual Reality As Future Of Retail

    Former Walmart U.S. CEO Sees Virtual Reality As Future Of Retail

    Former Walmart U.S. President and CEO Bill Simon sees technology, such as virtual reality, having a big impact on traditional brick-and-mortar retail, according to CNBC.

    Simon served as President and CEO of Walmart U.S. from 2010 to 2014, giving him a unique perspective on the retail industry. Rather than predicting doom-and-gloom for traditional retail, Simon believe technology has the ability to transform the industry and open all new possibilities.

    Even something as simple as trying on clothes may be revolutionized by technology, such as virtual reality.

    “Could we have virtual changing rooms so that you can just scan an item in a store with your phone and try it on yourself without actually having to go try it on?” Simon said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.”

    Simon believes successful retailers will combine online sales with a brick-and-mortar presence, and cites Target and Amazon as two examples of companies that are making it work.

  • Walmart Ecommerce Business Is Humming

    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
  • Is Amazon Destroying Retail?

    Is Amazon Destroying Retail?

    “A set of facts could be put forward that would support that (they are destroying the retail landscape),” says former Walmart CEO Bill Simon. “They’re going through another cycle of it where their CFO in the (earnings) call said we’re reinvesting to drive one-day Prime shipping. That’s going to put more pressure on retailers and give them this Sophie’s Choice. Do I want to go out of business because I’ve lost my sales by not matching them on price? Or, do I want to go out of business because I’ve matched them on price?”

    Bill Simon, former CEO of Walmart, discusses how Amazon uses profits from AWS to prop up operating losses in online retail while in the process, destroying competing retail businesses, in an interview on CNBC: 

    Is Amazon Destroying the Retail Landscape?

    They’re running their business model and they’re just doing a fantastic job of it. Who doesn’t like stuff shipped to their house for free? It’s an awesome business model. It’s going to be increasingly challenging for them though because nearly 70 percent of their operating income came from Web Services. If you filter out the operating income from web services and if you take out the operating income for advertising, then there’s a chunk of it that is made in brick and mortar through Whole Foods, or at least there was because they don’t report that anymore, their worldwide retail business is operating break-even or at a loss. 

    Their international business loses money on $16 billion this quarter in sales. It’s really no wonder that regulators internationally are starting to look at them. A set of facts could be put forward that would support that (they are destroying the retail landscape). Think about it, in North America, they priced at or below cost for many years and didn’t make money. It’s arguable today whether their online business makes money in North America. 

    This Quarter Is the Poster child For Anti-Competitive Behavior

    All the while, Circuit City went out of business, Linens N Things went out of business, Toys R Us went out of business, and then Prime is the driver of it. It went from $79 to $99 to $119. That’s sort of the definition of anti-competitive behavior and anti-competitive pricing. Price below the market and when your competitors start to go out of business you ratchet up your price. This quarter is really a poster child for that. Their North American business grew $6 billion and lost money. Their operating income went down in North America. 

    They’re going through another cycle of it where their CFO in the (earnings) call said we’re reinvesting to drive one-day Prime shipping. That’s going to put more pressure on retailers and give them this Sophie’s Choice. Do I want to go out of business because I’ve lost my sales by not matching them on price? Or, do I want to go out of business because I’ve matched them on price? I’ve not been able to make any profit because they support their retail business with web services. It’s tough to compete with them when they’re not making money and pricing below cost with online retail.

    It’s Not Possible To Do One-Hour Shipping and Make Money

    Who doesn’t love stuff free shipping to your house in two days or one day or in an hour? That’s awesome. I use it all the time. Everybody does. But there are consequences to it. As the expenses go up and the price goes up, eventually, Prime has been going up in price sequentially and has to continue to go up. It’s not possible to ship things to your house in one hour and do it at the same price or cost that can make money in retail. It’s just not possible. The packaging alone, the delivery person walking from the street to your front door, start adding up the cost of all that and you can’t make money on a $3 box of breakfast cereal. 

    So it’s going to be tough. I don’t know that regulators will take that on given the consumers love for it. But if the retail landscape keeps getting impacted and the weaker keep dropping out and it gets down to this battle between the behemoth on the online side and Walmart on the physical side, it gets to be a complicating factor. I think then regulators have to look at it. When that happens it’s hard to tell but this quarter has really kind of the poster child for that.

    Is Amazon Destroying Retail? – Bill Simon
  • COVID Has Had Lasting Impacts on the Consumer World

    COVID Has Had Lasting Impacts on the Consumer World

    A new report shows just how widespread the impacts from COVID have been as consumers look toward a post-COVID world.

    Brooks Bell conducted a survey of 700 consumers on a variety of topics, and the results show just how much the pandemic has altered consumer views and habits. The “New Normals in Retail, Travel and Financial Services: Consumer Sentiment Beyond 2020” report offers a number of insights businesses should pay attention to.

    • The report is good news for brick and mortar stores, with 76% of respondents planning to buy in-store post-COVID restrictions. At the same time, curbside pickup is here to stay, with 34% planning to continue using the service.
    • Travel is also looking to rebound, with 70% of Americans eager to travel. Millennials, in particular, are the most eager to do so. Interesting, 20% said safety will be a travel consideration indefinitely, while the single biggest consideration remains price.
    • Banking is another industry set to experience a revival, with in-person banking set to almost double from pre-pandemic levels. In-person banking doesn’t equate to face-to-face banking, however, as a preference for interacting with a human teller dropped 8 points to 38%. Even more telling, online communication in banking was the top choice among 56-74 and the over-74 age groups, dispelling the myth that older consumers are opposed to online banking.

    The full report is well-worth a read and can be found here.

  • Walmart Giving 740,000 Associates Samsung Smartphones

    Walmart Giving 740,000 Associates Samsung Smartphones

    Walmart is going the distance to ensure its employees can access its new app, giving 740,000 of them a Samsung smartphone.

    The retailer is taking the wraps off of its Me@Walmart app, designed to make employees’ jobs easier and help them “plan for life outside of work.” The company is determined to make it as easy as possible to use the app, even providing the phone for it to run on.

    Walmart will be providing a Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro smartphone, case and protection plan, completely free. Employees will only be able to access Me@Walmart’s work feature when they’re on the clock, but are free to use the phone as their personal device. The company emphasizes employee privacy is paramount, and that it has no access to employees’ personal data.

    The company says this is just the beginning, and it will continue to add features to the Me@Walmart app.

    In the coming months, we’ll add another feature to the Me@Walmart app that helps speed up the time it takes our stocking associates to get items from the backroom to the sales floor. Instead of scanning each box individually, associates just hold up their device and, using augmented reality, highlight the boxes that are ready to go. Product gets on the shelf faster — something we all know is increasingly important. In fact, since piloting it last year, this patent-pending capability takes a third of the time than the previous manual process.

    As retail continues to evolve — and quickly — it’s more critical than ever to equip our people with the tools and technology they need for success. Doing so makes work easier and more enjoyable, and it keeps the focus where we need it most — delivering a great in-store, pickup and delivery experience for our customers.

  • Target CEO Says Digital Performance Up 50%

    Target CEO Says Digital Performance Up 50%

    “Our digital performance was up 50 percent,” says Target CEO Brian Cornell. “As we gain greater clarity around the consumer, the economy, the state of the vaccine, we feel that the consumer continues to respond to our in-store experience and the ease and convenience of shopping with some of our same-day services like pickup, drive-up, and ship. Same-day fulfillment services now represent over half of our digital channel.”

    Brian Cornell, CEO of Target, discusses their massive Q1 results in an interview on CNBC:

    Digital Performance Up 50 Percent

    We’ve had a string of really solid results going back to 2017 but this quarter may be one of the highlights. Our team executed throughout the quarter. We had a great performance from our store teams with a store comp of 18%. Our digital performance was up 50%. It was really a team effort. We had great supply chain support with our merchants and marketers all coming together to support the results which speak for themselves.

    We are benefitting from investments we’ve been making for years now. Our investment in our store experience, our curated Home Brand and national brand mix, and then the fulfillment services that we offer. That combined with the investment in our team, I think we are seeing continued strength. We feel really good sitting here right now about our outlook, not just for the second quarter but for the full year.

    We’ve Connected With The Consumer

    As we gain greater clarity around the consumer, the economy, the state of the vaccine, we feel that the consumer continues to respond to our in-store experience and the ease and convenience of shopping with some of our same-day services like pickup, drive-up, and ship. They really connect with our curation of Great Home Brand, national brands, and the service our team provides each and every day.

    We are feeling very confident about our position today. I look at the proof point from Q1, we picked up another billion dollars in market share on top of the $9 billion of share last year. That’s just a sign that we’ve connected with the consumer, we’re building relevance, and we’re providing what they need and what they want throughout the year.

    Newness Is A Huge Trend In Our Business

    When you see the combination of stores comping up at 18%, which to me is just a highlight number, and categories like apparel growing again by over 60%, that combination of store traffic and category mix really benefited us throughout the quarter. We are seeing a resilient consumer. They’re clearly shopping our stores and when they’re there they are attracted to anything that’s new.

    Newness has certainly been a trend throughout our business in the first quarter and I think that’s going to continue. That great combination of store traffic and store comps and the continued movement of same-day fulfillment services which now represent over half of our digital channel. We really like that transaction. It looks and feels more like a store transaction which from a profitability standpoint certainly is beneficial for us.

    Target CEO Brian Cornell Says Digital Performance Up 50%
  • Amazon Destroyed Millions of Counterfeit Products in 2020

    Amazon Destroyed Millions of Counterfeit Products in 2020

    Amazon has detailed its efforts to fight counterfeit products, including the destruction of more than 2 million counterfeits.

    Few companies have enjoyed as much success as Amazon during the pandemic. The company became a lifeline for many who were under lockdown and quarantine, and significantly expanded its workforce to keep up.

    A long-term problem Amazon has faced, however, has been companies and individuals trying to sell counterfeit goods on the site. As Amazon has become a force to be reckoned with in the retail market, it is also stepping up its efforts to combat counterfeit products and attract brands that have been reluctant to sell on the site.

    In its first Brand Protection Report, Amazon said fewer than 0.01% of products sold received a counterfeit complaint. That low number was, in part, the result of the company’s aggressive fight against the problem.

    We seized and destroyed more than 2 million products sent to our fulfillment centers and that we detected as counterfeit before being sent to a customer.

    The company also stepped up its efforts to prevent bad actors from even gaining a foothold in the store.

    Our verification processes stopped over 6 million attempts to create a selling account before they were able to publish a single listing for sale. This is a significant increase from the 2.5 million attempts we stopped in 2019, and it was driven by increased bad actor attempts to get into our store that we successfully thwarted.

    Amazon’s transparency about its efforts may help sway companies and brands that have been reluctant to embrace the e-commerce giant.

  • Amazon Is the Number One US Apparel Retailer, Passing Walmart

    Amazon Is the Number One US Apparel Retailer, Passing Walmart

    What was years in the making has finally happened, with Amazon passing Walmart to become the largest apparel retailer in the US.

    Experts had been predicting Amazon would overtake Walmart for years. Like many other transformations, however, the pandemic is what finally pushed the online giant across the finish line. As individuals remained in lockdown and avoided crowded stores, Amazon’s business went into overdrive.

    According to Wells Fargo, via CNBC, that was enough to help it surpass Walmart in the apparel space, with its apparel and footwear growing an estimated 15% in 2020 to more than $41 billion. That gives it a solid 20% to 25% lead over Walmart.

    “This represents highly impressive 11%-12% share of all apparel sold in the U.S. and 34%-35% share of all apparel sold online,” wrote Wells Fargo analysts Ike Boruchow and Tom Nikic. “We now estimate Amazon will surpass $45 billion in apparel/footwear sales in 2021.”

    Interestingly, the outlook was not all roses for Amazon, as there are still some high-profile brands that refuse to sell on the online store. Much of this is due to the way Amazon approaches the business, focusing on sales over helping companies build their brand.

    “Until Amazon becomes a platform that works with companies to elevate brands, rather than viewing the relationship as transactional, companies who are fiercely protective of their brands (e.g. Nike), will not sell to Amazon,” said the analysts.

  • Best Buy Debuts $200 Yearly Membership Program

    Best Buy Debuts $200 Yearly Membership Program

    Best Buy has announced a yearly membership program, for $199.99, that provides special pricing, free installation and unlimited tech support.

    Like many companies, Best Buy has been working to transition away from brick and mortar stores, in favor of online shopping. The company recently announced it had laid off 5,000 employees, and would close more stores in 2021 than in previous years.

    The company is now offering a membership program, called Best Buy Beta. The program will cost $199.99, or $179.99 for customers with the Best Buy credit card. The program will be available in 60 stores by the end of the month.

    “As we look to evolve our membership programs, the goal of Best Buy Beta is to create a membership experience that customers will love and to leave them feeling confident throughout their relationship with Best Buy,” said Allison Peterson, Best Buy’s chief customer officer. “This pilot offers premium service, complete with support aimed at anticipating our customers’ needs.”

    The service will also provide a 24/7 concierge team, available via phone, chat, email and the Best Buy app. The service is currently available in Iowa, Oklahoma and eastern Pennsylvania, with Minnesota, North Carolina and Tennessee next in line.

  • Shopify: We Are Arming The Rebels

    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

  • Ever Given Freed, Suez Canal Reopened

    Ever Given Freed, Suez Canal Reopened

    Salvage crews have freed the container ship Ever Given from the shore, reopening the Suez Canal after it was blocked for nearly a week.

    The Ever Given ran aground in the Suez Canal Tuesday, March 23. The ship is one of the biggest container vessels in the world, coming in at over 1,300 feet long and nearly 192 feet wide. The ship can carry over 20,000 containers.

    Once the ship ran aground, 372 ships were were unable to pass, according to Lloyd’s List, resulting in a significant impact to the global economy. Roughly 12% of maritime trade passes through the canal, equaling an estimated $9 billion in goods every day.

    Given the amount of trade and goods passing through the canal, experts said the incident would have ripple effects throughout the economy for months. Some even said it could impact virtually everything sold in stores.

    It’s still unclear if the Ever Given will be able to resume its scheduled deliveries. When the ship was stuck, it had pressure on its bow and stern, leaving the middle section to sag. Since ships weren’t designed to take that kind of pressure, there was concern the hull would crack. Early inspections indicated that didn’t happen, but the ship still has to pass a final inspection now that it’s free.

  • Walmart, Target and Amazon Using AI to Dictate Return Policy

    Walmart, Target and Amazon Using AI to Dictate Return Policy

    Some of the biggest retailers are using artificial intelligence (AI) to help dictate their return policies.

    For many consumers, once they return an item they never give it another thought. For retailers, however, returns can represent a significant loss. There are a number of factors that can make it even worse, such as the size of item, shipping and shelf life.

    Walmart, Target and Amazon are turning to AI to help them optimize their return process. According to The Wall Street Journal, the retailers are using AI to determine when it is worth processing a return, versus letting the customer keep the product and issuing them a refund instead.

    Lorie Anderson of Vancouver, WA, tried to return makeup to Target, as well as batteries to Walmart. In both cases, the retailers told her to keep the items and still issued a refund.

    “They were inexpensive, and it wouldn’t make much financial sense to return them by mail,” Ms. Anderson, 38 years old, said. “It’s a hassle to pack up the box and drop it at the post office or UPS. This was one less thing I had to worry about.”

    Target even encourages customers to donate items they receive a refund for.

    AI has been making its way into a wide range of industries. This is merely the latest example of how it can be used to help companies make better decisions.