The e-commerce technology company announced on Monday a new Seattle location, Amazon Go, that has no registers. Instead, shoppers scan into the store with their free Amazon Go app, shop as normal, and leave the store with the items billed to their Amazon.com account.
While some stores have used a wedding-registry technique to allow this kind of shopping, Amazon takes it one step further. Using computer vision — the kind of technology that lets self-driving cars “see” — the store recognizes the user, making it unnecessary to individually scan items.
According to the Seattle Times, the 1,800 square-foot store, featuring ready-to-eat meals and snacks, is open to Amazon employees participating in a testing program. The store will open to the public in early 2017....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Amazon is now testing three different types of retail – bookstores, pickup/drive-through and now, an innovative no cashier, no checkout, no lineups, convenience store. Retailers look out!
The migration of consumers from stores to online shopping over the crucial Thanksgiving-Black Friday weekend continued dramatically this year, adding to the pressure on brick-and-mortar retailers as they seek to compete with Amazon.com.
A survey released by the National Retail Federation on Sunday estimated that 108.5 million Americans shopped online over the long weekend that kicks off the holiday shopping season in earnest, well above the 99.1 million who hit stores.
Last year, the numbers were about even for both avenues of shopping.It’s not a surprising finding given that Target tgt and Kohl’s mss , among others, reported record online sales on Thanksgiving.
Adobe said online shopping not only eclipsed the $5 billion mark for Thanksgiving and Black Friday, but told Fortune that U.S. online sales from Thursday to Saturday rose 17.3% to $7.23 billion. Many retailers, including Walmart, began their Black Friday deals online right after midnight on Thanksgiving morning....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Online ruled! Some 108.5 million Americans shopped online over the long Black Friday weekend, far more than the 99 million who went to stores
Singles Day is a huge promotional deal in China. How big you ask? Imagine Black Friday in the US and then triple it. In its first five minutes, Alibaba has already racked up more than $1 billion in sales and more than $5.2 billion in the first hour, more than$7 billion after just two hours, with than 84% of sales on mobile devices. Now, halfway through the promotion, sales have passed $12 billion.
2015 Singles Day sales were $14.3 billion in China for one day alone. compared with a $5.8 billion in US Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales. Impressive, for a promotion started by Alibaba in 2009. Here’s what’s planned, projected by the leading e-commerce companies for November 11 and a couple of early returns.
Singles Day has turned into a huge “Retailtainment“, three-week event complete with international celebrities and sales at Alibaba alone are expected to grow by 40% and exceed $20 billion. Launching Singles Day this year in Shenzhen for Alibaba were NBA superstar Kobe Bryant and super-celebrities David and Victoria Beckham after Lady Gaga canceled citing post-US election blues.
Alibaba,JD.com, Baidu, Amazon, Tencent and other e-commerce leaders received warnings from the Chinese government about past Singles Day consumer complaints of counterfeiting, delivery of damaged products, falsification of facts and other fraudulent behavior.
Rivals JD.com and Alibaba traded insults ahead of the extra-competitive Singles Day sales event. JD.comreported 14 million sales last year but did not disclose dollar value. This year, JD.com is partnering withWalmart and promoting sales in advance of November 11 as well as during the sales promotion. Both JD.com and Alibaba are hoping the addition of tens of thousands of international brands will push sales higher. By the time you read this post with your coffee this morning in North America, Singles Day will be over in China and we’ll have updates on our Twitter feed and in-depth sales analysis next week....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Alibaba has already racked up more than $1 billion in sales and more than $5.2 billion in the first hour with more than 84% of sales on mobile devices. 2015 Singles Day sales were $14.3 billion in China for one day alone.
Called a "Retailtainment", JD.com and Alibaba rivals over who will make the most sales from the three-week event "Singles Day" held in China. Sales at Alibaba alone are expected to grow by 40% and exceed $20 billion. This year, JD.com is partnering with Walmart and promoting sales in advance of November 11 as well as during the sales promotion.
U.S. retail and food services sales were down 0.3 percent in August, the Census Bureau reported on Thursday, which was an unexpected drop. It’s also a metric that might make retailers nervous ahead of the critical holiday sales season (and no matter how retailers try to stretch it forward, we’re still not there yet), though one month’s data can, in the long run, be noise. Compared with the same month last year, retail sales are still up, turning in a gain of 1.9 percent.
Only a few kinds of retailers gained any ground at all in August. Clothing store sales were up by 0.7 percent for the month, and electronics retailers eked out a gain of 0.1 percent. Grocery store sales were up 0.4 percent in August, and food services and drinking places enjoyed a 0.9 percent gain for the month.
Remarkably, non-store (Internet) retail sales, which rarely see any kind of downtick in sales, were off 0.3 percent for the month. The two categories that did the worst in August—each down 1.4 percent for the month—were building material and garden equipment and supplies, along with sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Retailers saw an unexpected drop in sales in August, but most are still seeing year-over-year gains, the Census Bureau reported. E-commerce dropped 0.3% too.
It’s no secret bricks and mortar retailers are struggling to maintain profitability and manage expenses for their retail stores. As the importance of omnichannel grows, who are the US retailers finding success with e-commerce? Today’s retail and e-commerce roundup answers that question.
According to the US Department of Commerce, Q2 2016 e-commerce sales grew 16%. Walmart announced positive Q2 earnings and an 11.8% jump in its e-commerce business.Target had a strong first half 2016 with e-commerce sales for pickup in-store up 50%. While Perry Ellis online sales grew 35.6% in Q2, it also plans to close 15 US stores, 20% of its retail locations.
Overall revenue decreased at Bon-Ton but sales on mobile devices were up 129% after enhancements to the mobile shopping site and simplifying its checkout for customers.
Q2 2016 total sales for Nordstrom.com grew 9.4% to reach $683 million. Revenue was up 6.6% at Home Depot and it fulfilled 42% of online orders in-store. Staples saw online revenue grow to more than 50% of sales in its B2B e-commerce business....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Retailers struggled to grow in-store revenue but e-commerce shone brightly for many US retailers, up 16% in Q2 2016 according to the US Department of Commerce.
The largest-ever acquisition of an e-commerce company likely won't be enough for Wal-Mart to dethrone Amazon. But there's no shame in playing for second.
In a bid to juice its online business, the world's largest retailer agreed Monday to purchase Jet.com in a $3.3 billion deal. The acquisition will beef up Wal-Mart's e-commerce prowess, from deepening its bench of talent to finding the cheapest way to ship online orders. These capabilities should help Wal-Mart grab a larger piece of the growing e-commerce pie. They're also the best chance it has of closing the wide — and growing — gap between it and Amazon, analysts said.
"Amazon's got this huge lead. That lead is going to be tough to relinquish but there's a lot of [share] out there," Moody's analyst Charlie O'Shea told CNBC....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Worst-kept secret, but Walmart finally completes the deal to buy Jet.com.
Both current and former customers of the outdoor-clothing company Patagonia, for example, are more likely to consider themselves quite knowledgeable when compared to other shoppers, yet less equipped with social skills than the Lord & Taylor crowd. People who shop at Hot Topic, which caters to a younger, more alternative demographic, see themselves as highly imaginative, while patrons of Jos. A. Bank, which sells men's suits and business casual attire, see themselves as leaders.
Overall, these distinct personality types reveal the power of marketing, if done right.
One report anticipates that the retail industry alone will spend $15.09 billion on digital ads in 2016, followed by $16.95 billion in 2017 — a 12% increase. While it's important to know the best location to place an ad, knowing the personality of your intended audience is just as crucial....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
There are potential strategic marketing advantages within the personalities of retail brands.
Wal-Mart is in talks to acquire web retailer Jet, the Wall Street Journal reports. Sources said the deal could be worth as much as $3 billion.
Acquiring Jet could help Wal-Mart in its efforts to mount a serious threat to Amazon’s e-commerce supremacy. Its Walmart.com site offers about 11 million products, compared to about 260 million on Amazon, and attracted 88 million online visitors in February, compared to more than 1.7 billion for Amazon, according to comScore.
Year-old Jet, led by Diapers.com founder Marc Lore, has drawn more than $500 million in financing capital from venture firms New Enterprise Associates and Accel Partners as well as mutual-fund company Fidelity Investments and bank Goldman Sachs Group.
Dive Insight: Just a few days past Jet’s first birthday comes the bombshell news that Wal-Mart is closing in a deal to purchase the e-commerce upstart.
Late last month, CEO Lore told Fortune that Jet sold $90 million in merchandise in May, compared to $33 million in December, and scoffed at the notion that the company might never be profitable, citing the support of deep-pocketed (not to mention patient) investors....
"The U.K. is a leader in enabling drone innovation," Amazon crowed.
Amazon has said it would pioneer package delivery by drone overseas if the U.S. continues to block its methods stateside. Now it’s taking another step down that path.
The online retail giant announced Monday evening that it had reached an agreement with the U.K. government to expand the types of drone tests it is conducting in the region. The new arrangement will allow Amazon to test drone flights that extend beyond the line of sight of the pilot in suburban or rural areas — a necessary ingredient in the aerial delivery of packages that the U.S.’s Federal Aviation Administration currently doesn’t allow....
Amazon is bringing back "Prime Day," its annual Black Friday-like sales event where hundreds of thousands of special discount offers are made exclusively to its Prime members.
Last year's inaugural Prime Day brought in an additional $400 million in revenue, according to JP Morgan. This year's event is expected to be even bigger in terms of revenue and the number of deals offered, making it by far Amazon's largest single-day sales event in history.
But according to a note published by JP Morgan on Thursday, the implications of Prime Day are much bigger than the single day's additional revenue....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
The one-day sales spike is just one of the many benefits of Amazon's "Prime Day," according to JP Morgan.
Members of retailers’ customer loyalty programs generate between 12 percent and 18 percent more revenue for retailers than do customers who are not members of the loyalty programs, according to new research from Accenture Interactive.
This key finding was based on a survey of retailers across specialty, big-box, department, drug and convenience stores in the United States. The Accenture research sought to identify key trends and challenges of retailers’ loyalty programs.
“Today’s customer loyalty programs are an increasingly expensive, complex and expansive business that extend beyond the marketing team into the entire organization,” said Farrell Hudzik, managing director of Accenture Interactive’s Global Loyalty and Rewards practice. “Given that loyalty program members generate significant incremental revenue compared with non-members, retail loyalty program leaders must anticipate future growth trends and capture the opportunity to differentiate in an increasingly fragmented marketplace.”...
Customer loyalty programs not only build up a customer base but also ensure loyalty, that is as long as the program continues to be run effectivley. Business houses, retailers and manufacturers will find it advantageious to spend time developing customer loyalty programs that go beyond the one or two years limit!
The good news today regarding the Brexit situation is that the news hasn’t gotten worse. The markets were looking a bit more bullish this morning as early gains in Europe pushed the U.S. markets toward clawing back some of the value that evaporated like water on a hot dish over the last few days.
The damage, however, has been profound — and it is still uncertain whether the break in the plunge today is a sign of turnaround now that everyone has calmed down a bit, or a temporary breather before the next big plunge. The damage has also been uneven, with some segments in line to get hit particularly hard. Segments like eCommerce.
What does it look like by the numbers?...
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Brexit by the numbers puts everything in a bigger economic context.
Subscription services have become popular among online shoppers, but those same shoppers are also abandoning these services.
Through these subscriptions, customers make recurring payments and receive order shipments at regular intervals, and they have become popular because they let consumers refill products they need to replenish often, such as health and beauty products.
These services typically personalize orders based on a shopper's interests and style, which the companies often learn through connected social media accounts and quizzes. This experience mirrors the personalized service customers would get inside brick-and-mortar stores from sales associates.
So interest in these services has remained high, as 10% of U.S. shoppers have enrolled in one, and another 33% would consider doing so, according to the latest UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper report.
But satisfaction in these services is dropping, as 61% of those who have signed up have since canceled. And there are four main reasons why....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Curated e-commerce subscriptions – an early e-commerce favorite – may have now run its course according to a Business Insider report.
It’s easy to have missed some interesting innovations in retail with the past few weeks focused on Black Friday sales. Today, we’ve got a roundup of retail innovators and news to keep you up-to-speed on who’s getting industry and consumer attention.
First, we start with the announcement of Amazon Go – the online leader’s latest retail innovation which lets consumers pick up grocery products at an Amazon convenience store, pay by mobile app with their Amazon account and leave without a check out lineup thanks to innovative technology. Amazon also opens a drive through store concept early in 2017 in addition to new retail bookstores. With 2,000 or more stores on the horizon, that’s the sound of retail competitors shivering and the industry buzz is enormous.
Walmart is building new warehouse distribution centers and investing in new technology in order to keep up with Amazon. Not to be left behind, Target is developing and planning to open hundreds of new smaller-format stores in urban centers and college towns. Toys “R” Us launched a fourth new interactive toy store in Santa Ana, CA with interactive in-store displays including video screens, sound effects and motion-sensor lights.
Nike used the launch of its $720 HyperAdapt high-tech, self-lacing sneakers to generate consumer buzz and store visits. Ace Hardware and online marketplace The Grommet launched a “makers” initiative to sell 20 unique US-made products exclusively in its 160 stores. What’s ahead for retail in 2017? Social is king and influences everything. And of course, Amazon will continue to innovate and be the elephant in the shopping centers....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Here's a great look at retail innovations and who's innovating and winning new customers online and in retail..
Black Friday is losing its relevancy to US shoppers. The holiday, which takes place the day after Thanksgiving, has historically been the biggest shopping day of the year in the US.
But over the last several years, shopper traffic in stores on Black Friday has been falling with many retailers like Walmart, Target, and Amazon kicking off their holiday discounts online several weeks in advance.
Foot traffic in stores this year is expected to fall by about 3.5% on Black Friday compared to last year, according to data from the location tracking service Foursquare....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Black Friday isn't driving shoppers to stores like it used to. Victim of its online success?
Adobe Digital Insights predicts 2016 online sales will be up 11% and shoppers will be out earlier than ever. 55% of US and UK retailers say Amazon will drive the majority of their holiday sales this year according to research by ChannelAdvisor and Morar Consulting. The National Retail Federation expects US consumers to spend an average of $935.58 with overall holiday sales to rise 3.6% and online sales up 7% to 10%.
What’s Walmart’s holiday sales strategy? Value, price rollbacks and features, along with Santa’s helpers at checkout. UPS expects to be busy as well, shipping more than 700 million packages during the holidays, up 16.7% from 2015. Bestblackfriday.com, says Friday’s Black Friday sales may drop by 10% in-store to$9.2 billion though online sales may reach $3 billion, up 13%....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Here's an interesting roundup of holiday e-commerce and retail predictions.
When it comes to digital smarts, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Kohl’s and JC Penney rank at the Genius Level, according to the latest report from think tank L2. But while the industry as a whole is getting sharper, now spending 52% of digital ad budgets on mobile and maximizing customer engagement on Instagram, stores are still no match for the Amazon onslaught.
“Only five years ago, Macy’s apparel and accessories sales were five times that of Amazon, providing a wide lead in a logistically challenging product category that features a high exchange rate,” the new ranking says. “By next year, Wall Street analysts estimate that Amazon will overtake Macy’s as the largest U.S. retailer of apparel and accessories, with sales of $28 billion in the category.”
But Amazon isn’t the only problem. Department stores are also challenged by the fast-fashion wizardry of brands like H&M, Zara and Uniqlo, as well as companies like Coach and Michael Kors cutting back on department-store distribution. “With key partnerships that help differentiate the customer shopping experience under threat, the historical outperformance of department stores versus the S&P 500 has evaporated over the last 18 months,” it says....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
As mobile now gets 52% of digital spending, some retailers are getting it right.
In the fourth quarter of 2015, Amazon.com Inc. posted a profit of $482 million, more than double its previous highest-earning quarter. In the two quarters since, profits continued to rise, to $513 million in the first quarter and $857 million in the second quarter. In the first six months of 2016, the company’s combined profit was $1.37 billion—no other half in Amazon’s history is in the same universe.
So after years of reporting little to no profit, Amazon is now posting record gains quarter upon quarter. At the same time, its expenses are growing faster—26.4% in the first half of 2016 versus 17.5% in the first half of 2015.
So what’s propelling Amazon into profitability? Let’s look at the numbers.
First, there’s revenue. Amazon’s compound annual growth rate from 2012 to 2015 was 20.5%.....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Here's a look at why Amazon is 'suddenly" in the money.
As of the first quarter 2016, the total amount of retail spending online (ecommerce) was $92.8 billion, which was only 7.8% of all retail sales. Ecommerce is in its infancy, which means that there are huge opportunities ahead, not just for the types of Amazon, but for small merchants and startups as well.
Worldwide retail sales, including in-store and internet purchases, surpassed $22 trillion in 2015, up 5.6% from 2014, according to a study by eMarketer. They say that retail ecommerce sales, those purchased over the internet, will make up 7.4% of the total retail market worldwide, or $1.671 trillion. By 2019, that share will jump to $3.578 trillion, yet retail ecommerce will still only account for 12.8% of all retail purchases.
Even though the internet and technology is the source of major disruption for retailers, brick and mortar is alive and well for the foreseeable future.
The study says that retail ecommerce sales are accelerating faster than previously anticipated and will jump 25.1% year on year in 2015. "Online sales growth will outpace brick-and-mortar sales growth by a more than 3-to-1 margin over our forecast period," the report predicts....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Want some impressive numbers for the size of e-commerce in the future? How does $1.671 trillion strike you for today's e-commerce sales? How about $3.570 trillion by 2019?
Marketers spend a lot of time trying to nail down abstract concepts. They're tasked with turning brainstorming sessions and comments sourced during focus groups into campaigns that sum up everything about a brand's identity in a neat, tidy, and most importantly, interesting way.
But what if a consumer could walk into a room and fully experience your brand with all their senses? Pop-up events offer just that -- the chance for consumers to get up close and personal with their favorite companies in a truly immersive setting.
In their simplest form, pop-up events are temporary retail spaces that give companies the opportunity to sell their products in an environment completely designed and controlled by them. Since they're temporary, they offer a relatively low-cost and low-commitment way for companies to take creative risks, generate buzz, and introduce their brands to new audiences.
Consumers love the lure of exclusivity, and brands love the unmatched opportunity for experimentation. To inspire your next branded experience, we've curated a list of 15 innovative and visually stunning pop-up events....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Creative marketing concepts are evident in these 15 examples of branded pop-up stores. good lessons. Good lessons.
In total, 2016 Prime Day was the biggest U.S. sales day ever, surpassing Cyber Monday 2015 by 19%, according to Slice Intelligence, which measures all digital commerce activity and customer loyalty. Slice also found that, on Prime Day, Amazon held 74% of the market share of all U.S. consumer ecommerce.
Sales totals aside, here are some significant takeaways from Prime Day pertaining to Amazon’s customer relationships:
By offering exclusive deals to members, Amazon continued to showcase the value and advantages of Amazon Prime. Membership continues to grow, from an estimated 75 million at the end of 2015 to 85 million now — with projections that it will reach 110 million by the end of 2016.
The deepest discounts seemed to be for Amazon devices such as the Tap, Echo and Kindle Fire. Despite the low cost, the premium devices align consumers even more closely with Amazon and make it easier for them to shop and order – thereby facilitating future purchases with the online retailer.
Prime Day also stimulated customer engagement through the Amazon app. Survey Monkey, which tracks mobile app usage, reported 12 million mobile users on Prime Day, a 50% increase from the 8 million users on an average day. Usage for the week went up 35% in all. Research further showed that 50% of Walmart app users also use the Amazon app — however, very few Amazon app users also use Walmart’s app, demonstrating Amazon’s dominance in the category.
The opportunity to reach new customers outweighed the negative experiences of others. Some glitches were reported, such as problems with checkouts early in the day and complaints on social media that sale prices applied to a limited number of products. But the record number of new subscribers far surpassed the number of shoppers who were dissatisfied with the event. Ultimately, Amazon may view that as a worthwhile trade-off, banking on the recurring revenue from new customers who will spend more time on Prime and increase their lifetime value....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Good insight into Amazon's e-commerce strategies, dominance and impact on the industry.
7-Eleven Inc. and a tech startup called Flirtey have beaten Amazon to the punch in making the first drone delivery to a customer’s home in the U.S.
Most already know 7-Eleven, the convenience store retail chain that boasts about 10,800 stores in North America and 59,500 in total around the world.
Flirtey is a privately held company based in Reno, Nevada, which builds and operates drones to make deliveries that are needed in humanitarian and health work, retail and food industries.
Rather than adapting existing unmanned aerial vehicles, Flirtey builds its own, develops the software to run them, and creates proprietary packaging and containers to keep items secure during delivery, according to CEO Matt Sweeney.
During the 7-Eleven delivery, which took place in Reno, Nevada on July 10th, Flirtey successfully transported: Slurpees, a chicken sandwich, donuts, hot coffee and candy to the home of the family who placed the order....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
A 7-Eleven Slurpee delivered by drone? You betcha. Isn't technology wonderful?
Shoppers are warming to beacons and virtual reality.
The majority of consumers are open to location-based technology as long as it improves their shopping experience, according to a new study.
In the no-surprise department, coupons are viewed as the biggest incentive, based on a survey of 1,400 U.S. consumers focused on shopping habits and emerging retail technology conducted by Walker Sands.
While a third (33%) of consumers aren’t open to beacons or any location-based technology in stores, 67% say in-store tracking could improve their in-store shopping experience.
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Shoppers say bring on the in-store coupons and perhaps some maps.
Consumers are increasingly turning towards messaging, such as SMS and chat apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp to engage with retailers, a global study has found.
Research from global trade body Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF) supported by Mblox says that 76% of consumers have received communications from businesses such as retailers, banks and healthcare providers via SMS and that 65% have engaged with companies via chat apps.
The study, part of MEF’s Future of Messaging Programme, indexes the messaging habits of nearly 6000 respondents across nine countries worldwide. The financial services sector is the most active in enterprise messaging, with 33% of respondents having received an SMS for activities such as account activation and balance checking. 22% have done so via a chat app.
Retailers and eCommerce (websites and email service providers) are also using messaging to engage their consumers with 24% using SMS and 17% using chat apps. 23% of consumers have received a notification for delivery of goods via SMS and 16% via a chat app. The rise in demand for convenience with services like click-and-collect and last-mile notification is helping to drive this sector....
According to a recent survey looking at consumers’ attitudes toward retail technology, omnichannel personalization solution RichRevelance found shoppers are still not comfortable with all technology has to offer the retail industry.
Polling more than 1,000 consumers, the “Creepy or Cool: 2016 Consumer Survey” offered insight into the types of retail technology that appeals to consumers and what turns them off.
Sixty-seven percent of the survey participants labeled facial recognition technology as creepy when asked about it being used by retailers to direct salespersons toward high-value shoppers. (An even higher percentage of Millennials — 71 percent — said they found it creepy.)...
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Research says shoppers still like coupons, especially digital coupons, but facial recognition is "creepy."
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Amazon is now testing three different types of retail – bookstores, pickup/drive-through and now, an innovative no cashier, no checkout, no lineups, convenience store. Retailers look out!