Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #326 - Retail Grooming Hits Post Q4 High, 2020 Streaming Wars

Featured Tweet or Podcast

2020 Streaming Wars - Ben Thompson and Bill Simmons. Link

Links

  • Q4 was weak for most of retail. Another strong month of retail sales for non-store (online) retailers and restaurants. Just look at the headlines below, this grooming period will continue. Add a weaker winter than expected and supply chain disruption in China. Link

  • Wayfair is not one of the invincible .com pure plays. Stock drops as Wayfair cuts jobs and states they grew the business in too many unprofitable ways. Link

  • In times of weakness, consolidating happens…..with malls. Link

  • Kohls is restructuring. Link

  • Stage Stores eyes bankruptcy. Link

  • Amazon picks up a mall. Link

  • 7-11 testing cashierless stores. Link

  • Hollar closes up. Dollar stores struggle online. Link

  • Brandless shutting down. Link

  • Walmart shutters Jet Black. Somehow I feel Walmart is regretting their acquihire of Jet. Link

  • Although smart speakers are exploding in sales, customers use direct statements for control and don’t seem to be shopping due to complexity. Link

  • Roku still growing like a weed. Link

  • The Ride Hail Utopia That Got Stuck In Traffic. Link

  • Apple now lets you shop directly in augmented reality. Link

  • Online-only platforms are going offline with permanent spaces. Link

  • Facebook’s latest experiments is a Pinterest-like app. Link

  • Teens are hacking Instagram to create eBay-like thrift shops. Link

Off Topic

  • Was the oldest person who ever lived a fraud? Link

Roku Still Growing Like a Weed

Roku’s Q4 earnings are in and the weed like growth continues from last quarter. A couple of points to note:

  • Sales and marketing expense has accelerated the last two quarters as Roku builds up their army of sales people driving advertising sales for the platform and Roku Channel.

  • Players were sold for a cumulative loss this quarter. Selling the players at breakeven or a loss is possible with the added revenue growth from the platform advertising/subscription sales and the platform accounting for 100% of company profit.

  • The company narrative or growth plan is shifting from platform to international. Successful traction in Canada mixed with successful launches in the UK, Mexico and Brazil are Roku’s new tagline.

  • The overall growth figures remain strong. Total active accounts grew 36% to ~37 million. ARPU was up nearly 29% year over year and hours of streaming is still growing more than 60% year over year.

Bottom line: Cord cutting has legs and Roku remains well positioned to continue to benefit as the smart TV platform of choice.

Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #324 - Amazon Earnings, Shopify Dominance, Venmo > PayPal (Copy)

Featured Tweet or Podcast

BuzzFeed on reboot as the former Editor leaves for legacy media New York Times. Link, Link

Links

  • Amazon’s New Growth Narrative: Third Party Services (+ Earnings Recap). Link

  • How Shopify levels the playing field for smaller merchants and has Amazon in its’ sights. Link

  • Microsoft Advertising is struggling to grow. Link

  • Walmart’s investment in Flipkart is paying off. Link

  • Home Depot launches a drive through distribution center for customers. Link

  • How Private Equity buried Payless. Link

  • UPS and Amazon keep sharing the love. Link

  • Similar to legacy department stores struggling against off-price retailers, legacy gyms struggle against budget chains. Link

  • Venmo continues to be the engine that drives PayPal. Link

  • Top new apps being used in workplace per Okta. Link

  • A warehouse robot that learns the tricky stuff. Link

  • Pinterest lets its’ users try on makeup. Link

  • Online micro grocery fulfillment. Link

Off Topic

  • Houston Astros bang scandal. Link

  • The Sting. Link

Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #325 - Cloud Wars, Top 20 Retailers 2010 vs 2020

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Links

  • Macy’s running out of tricks, will sell/develop air rights to build office tower above NYC store. Link

  • Macy’s Story didn’t work, management cuts taking place and 125 stores are closing. Haven’t we heard this story before? Time to rip the bandaid. Link

  • Is Macy’s too Macy’s? Link

  • Here comes higher merchant fees specifically for eCommerce. Link

  • Stein Mart to go private. Going private doesn’t hid the structural issues most retailers are facing. Too many stores and lower than industry growth rate in eCommerce. Link

  • Amazon to double down on 4 Star stores. Link

  • Competition for Amazon Flex drivers is fierce. Link

  • Forever 21 sells. Link

  • Instagram is larger than YouTube and makes up 25% of Facebook revenues. Link

  • Sleepless IPO from Casper. Link

  • 30% of US adults have said they have used a dating site or app. Link

  • The fight for the cloud (Link), image below.

  • Lyft poised to catch up to Uber (Link), image below.

Off Topic

  • Who’s Killing Horses in Central Florida? Link

Amazon's New Growth Narrative: Third Party Services

Get ready for Amazon’s growth narrative story to change again. Going back to 2015-2016, everyone lauded Amazon’s cloud offering AWS as the business that will propel their increasingly “expensive” stock price for years to come. Then in 2018 as the Facebook/Google duopoly theme had run its’ course, Amazon’s growth narrative switched to the Amazon Advertising offering which albeit small is incredibly lucrative and will continue to steal share from Facebook and Google for the foreseeable future.

With today’s earnings, the new narrative will become the revenue from the various third party sellers on the Amazon platform. As most of you know, nearly 60% of what is sold on Amazon isn’t owned by Amazon. That 60% is either consigned to Amazon from a seller or the seller ships the order directly to the customer. Each of those sellers rely on Amazon for a marketplace with a captive audience of customers. Some of those sellers rely on Amazon to ship their product to the customer or take their returns. All of that business is incredibly lucrative, grew 30% year over year in the latest quarter and continues to accelerate, is nearly 4x times larger than the Amazon Advertising business and provides a halo effect on the goods Amazon truly owns and sells.

The change in narrative will only continue to propel this dominant eCommerce player higher.


Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #323 - DTC Blowout, State of Apps 2020, FedEx Sunday Delivery

Featured Tweet or Podcast

Links

  • When wholesale retail makes sense for DTC brands. Link

  • Nordstrom continues to be the place for DTC brands. Link

  • They changed the way you buy your basics. Link

  • DTC shakeup in 2020. Link

  • Marketers are collecting less background data since the release of iOS13. Link

  • Google ads now look just like search results. Link

  • SmileDirect is stifling bad reviews online via NDAs. Link

  • Uber testing ability for driver’s to set their fares. Link

  • How Under Armour lost its’ edge. Link

  • What to know about shopping on Pinterest. Link

  • FedEx starts Sunday delivery. Link

  • The secret history of facial recognition. Link

  • NYC to ban cashless stores. Link

  • Papyrus to close all stores and file for bankruptcy. Link

  • App Annies state of mobile. Link

  • Average email open rates (Link):

Off Topic

  • The Oxford Scandal. Link

  • Sleepless nation. Link

Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #322 - Pinterest > Snapchat, DoorDash Supremacy and Poor Pay, Amazon Ties Up With Visa

Featured Tweet or Podcast

Pinterest soon to be larger than Snapchat….





Links

  • Gap pauses on plans to split off Old Navy. Link

  • Shopify starts microlending to merchants as low as $200. Brilliant. Link

  • Reactions to Google’s announcement of killing 3rd party cookies. Link

  • Insagram’s growing relevance in eCommerce. Link

  • Snap CEO believes TikTok could grow bigger than Insta. Link

  • High profile speaker manufacturer is closing all their stores globally. Link

  • Businesses weight pros and cons of selling on Amazon. Link

  • No one asks the question of how much worse it could be for Kohl’s without Amazon. Link

  • Amazon working on wave of the hand POS payments. Link

  • Amazon’s Twitch sees market share losses to YouTube. Link

  • DoorDash owns the largest portion of the delivery market. Link

  • Pay data for DoorDash contractors/employees. Link

  • Snapchat continues to double down on AR with a real world scavenger hunt. Link

  • Department store difficulty. Link

  • Social media demographics in 2020. Link





Off Topic

  • Why is college football attendance tanking? Link

  • Cost of entry for various fast food chains. Link

Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #321 - No One Can Save Kohl's or Macy's, Casper IPO and Amazon Germany Stores

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Links

  • Casper files for IPO with the financials of a tech firm drunk on marketing. Link

  • Future of influencer marketing in China. Link

  • Amazon Alexa devices double in one year. Link

  • Amazon thinking of opening stores in Germany. Link

  • Not even Amazon or the Olsen twins can save Kohl’s. Link

  • Guys may not buy into renting. Link

  • Streaming is the only way to listen to music. Link

  • Spotify looking to revolutionize podcast ads. Link

  • Macy’s sill has a lot of work to do. Link

  • Interview with Netflix exec on competition, streaming and what’s next. Link

  • Hudson’s Bay (Saks, Saks Off Fifth) officially going private. Link

  • Los Angeles rethinks taxis with Uber and Lyft dominating the streets. Link

  • UK Retail sees difficult year. Link

Off Topic

  • Larry David. Everyone’s favorite grouch. Link

  • How Carlos Ghosn became the world’s most famous fugitive. Link

Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #320 - Instagram Stats, Walmart Ads, Amazon & Fashion

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Links

  • Barney’s ends eCommerce and redirects to Saks. Link

  • Walmart getting serious about on-site ads. Link

  • Why Amazon will earn fashion cred in 2020. Link

  • Amazon receives 5 billion daily submissions to edit descriptions and details about products on its site. Link

  • Amazon has long ruled the cloud, now its time to fend off rivals. Link

  • Can Sweetgreen scale up? Link

  • Jimmy Iovine Knows Music and Tech. Here’s Why He’s Worried. Link

  • Streaming ad prices set to rise with constrained supply. Link

  • Digiday Research: 2020 brand priorities. Link

  • Hype House and the Los Angeles TikTok mansion. Link

  • Digital games and interactive media was up 4% YoY. Link

  • Instagram will become dominant DTC sales channel in 2020. Link

  • Top 10 Instagram stats. Link

  • Instagram growth starting to slow (Link):

Off Topic

  • Who is the highest paid state official in your state? Link

  • I asked my students to turn in their cell phones and write about living without them. Link

Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #319 - Netflix Content Saturation, Google Growing eCommerce, eBay Competition

Featured Tweet or Podcast

  • The anatomy of a hit song. Link

Links

  • Walmart’s growth strategies are starting to sound a bit outside the box. Link

  • The Jordan brand now does $1 billion in sales per quarter. Link

  • How Amazon Squeezes the Businesses Behind Its Store. Link

  • ‘Amazon’s Choice’ Isn’t the Endorsement It Appears. Link

  • Profile of Dave Clark, global logistics chief at Amazon. Link

  • Walmart wins the online grocery shopping usage survey. Link

  • Why Walmart’s digital brands strategy sputtered. Link

  • Fashion Nova’s Secret: Underpaid Workers in LA Factories. Link

  • Facebook continues to quietly invest in shopping for their marketplace. Link

  • eBay faces fresh competition from secondhand marketplaces. Link

  • This Toy Store Invites Children to Play. But Will It Sell Anything? Link

  • H&M’s Different Kind of Clickbait. Link

  • Google looking to grow its’ role in eCommerce. Link

  • Chipotle is redesigning stores to better serve mobile orders. Link

  • How DTC blew up retail. Link

  • Streaming, streaming, streaming. Here comes NBC’s Peacock with no free plans. Link

  • Netflix released 371 original TV shows and movies in 2019, a 54% increase over 2018 and more than the entire US TV industry in 2005. Link


Off Topic

  • Soccer Is the Future of Sports in America. Link

Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #318 - No Free Shipping, Amazon > UPS and FedEx, Lyft Rental Services

Featured Tweet or Podcast

  • Amazon’s plan for Fashion discussed on Pivot. Link

Links

  • Non-store retailers grew >11% year over year in latest retail sales figures, department stores were down 7.2%. Link

  • Amazon estimated to deliver 50% of their packages already and will exceed UPS and FedEx in total packages by 2022. Link

  • Bonobos founder to leave Walmart, another sign that Walmart is pulling back on their digital strategy that is focused on brands. Link

  • Walmart makes another investment in India eCommerce. Link

  • There is no such thing as free shipping. Link

  • The money men who enabled WeWork. Link

  • The Age of Instagram Face. Link

  • Apple has really hurt advertisers with an inability to track. Link

  • The retail industry sees more new faces. Link

  • Splashy stores alongside casinos on the Vegas Strip. Link

  • Online shopping is growing but not adding jobs. Link

  • Lyft launches car rental service. Link

  • Booming US furniture industry struggling to find workers. Link

  • Stores turn to happy hour to attract customers. Link

  • Netflix and YouTube account for >50% of adults daily digital video viewing (Link):


Off Topic

  • Is Sunscreen the New Margarine. Link

  • Chaos at the top of the world. Link

Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #317 - Future of Uber is Amazon, UK Retail Sales, Alphabet Days Numbered

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Links

  • Popular Twitch streamer inks first TV deal. Link

  • Amazon threat is forcing risk adverse grocery industry to experiment. Link

  • Prime has changed global eCommerce and expectations in Africa. Link

  • The future of Uber is basically Amazon. Link

  • Here comes cargo bikes in cities. Link

  • 50% plan to subscribe to new OTT services spending $76/month. Link

  • Spotify seeing podcast success. Link

  • H&M wants a piece of the booming clothing rental market. Link

  • UK Retail sales collapse. Link

  • Why Alphabet’s days could be numbered under its new CEO. Link

  • Adyen surprised by how much AI helps in payments. Link

  • More free ad-supported streaming via Plex. Link

  • Rent the Runway gives hotels a shot. Link

  • Unintended consequence of online mattress boom. Never ending free trials. Link

Off Topic

  • The Great Chinese Art Heist. Link




Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #316 -Black Friday Is Now Mobile Friday, eBay Unbundling, Fake Reviews

Featured Tweet or Podcast

shopify-black-friday.png

Links

  • Black Friday is now Cyber Friday. Adobe: +19.6% to last year and nearly as large as 2018 Cyber Monday. Thanksigiving up 14.5% and Cyber Monday expected to be up 18.9%. Oh and Mbile drove 65% of Black Friday’s sales. Link

  • Traffic to stores was down 6.2% per Sensormatic Solutions. Link

  • Did ‘The Irishman"‘ take a bit out of the Thanksgiving box office as ticket sales were down 16 percent year over year. Link

  • How the PayPal Honey deal could reshape eCommerce. Link

  • Ocado strikes a deal with Japan’s largest supermarket operator, here come the robots. Link, Link

  • They See You When You’re Shopping. Link

  • The eBay unbundling continues. Link

  • Netflix goes brick & mortar. Link

  • Fox Sports has sold all 77 ad units for Super Bowl, first time since 2014 it has sold out more than a few days before the game. Link

  • Why Amazon won’t dominate in groceries. Link

  • How Amazon Wove Itself Into the Life of an American City. Link

  • When Is a Star Not Always a Star? When It’s an Online Review. Link

  • Tiffany Is More Than a Store. Link

  • When Department Stores Were Theater. Link

Off Topic

  • The Jungle Prince of Delhi. Wow. Link



Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #315 - Q3 Retail Sales, Jet Gives Up, Spotify Wants to Dominate

Featured Tweet or Podcast

  • The man behind Disney+. Link


Links

  • Q3 Retail Sales: Long Live Off-Price & Mass, Death to Department Stores (Link)

  • Uber loses London license. Link

  • Amazon Dash Shelf can automatically order new office supplies as they run out. Link

  • Amazon most valuable brand, passing Apple and Google. Link

  • Google Duplex can now book movie tickets in UK and US. Link

  • How our home delivery habit is reshaping the physical world. Link

  • Jet gives up on fresh grocery delivery (estimated loss of $20 on every order). Link

  • Walmart plans to release Advertising API to enable selling of Sponsored Products ads. Link

  • Inside Spotify’s plan to dominate audio by spending millions to court Jordan Peele, Mark Wahlberg and the Obamas. Link

  • Loblaws opens ecommerce marketplace. Link

  • Apple removes customer reviews from online store to hide the lemons (Homepod). Link

  • Target hasn’t seen much success with adding 3rd party sellers to their marketplace. Link

  • ByteDance (owner of TikTok) looking to launch music streaming service. Link

  • Wayfair gets serious about AR and 3D. Link

Off Topic

  • I found work on Amazon. I made 97 cents an hour. Link



Q3 Retail Sales: Long Live Off-Price & Mass, Death to Department Stores

We are in the midst of earnings season. Results thus far can be summarized in the title: Long Live Off-Price & Mass, Death to Department Stores. All Department Stores have posted negative year over year comps/sales results. All of Off-Price regardless of banner continues to do well. And lastly, the Mass Chains like Target and Walmart prove they have the digital savviness and ability to land grab what’s lost in the Department Stores. Nothing that new here, will keep everyone updated as the dollar stores report. In the meantime, an updated comp sales chart.

Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #314 - New Dot Com Bubble, Rollercoaster Holiday Shopping

Featured Tweet or Podcast


Links

  • Walmart calls out Walmart.com as needing more progress. Link

  • Inside the most watched YouTube channel in the world. Link

  • NPD: Expect roller coaster shopping season. Link

  • Facebook Pay unites payments across services. Link

  • Amazon to debut new grocery format in LA. Link

  • Amazon’s recruitment of Chineses sellers. Link

  • How Google changes search results. Link

  • Walgreeens may go private in largest buyout ever. Link

  • The new dot come bubble of online advertising. Link

  • TV to drop to below 25% of total media spend (Link):

Off Topic

  • Strange life and death of coder. Link


Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #313 - Walmart Grocery Domination, Roku = TV's Operating System

Featured Tweet or Podcast


Links

  • Roku = TV’s Operating System. Link

  • Buzzfeed’s ecommerce expansion. Link

  • The world’s biggest shopping festival shows the Chinese shopper still loves America. Link

  • Jersey City is the first municipality to legalize Airbnb. Link

  • Both TripAdvisor and Expedia cited Google as a reason for tougher business. Link

  • Netflix was only the start, here comes Disney. Link

  • Video games marketed like movie releases. Link

  • Some workers cheer robot automation at LA ports. Link

  • YouTube now has shopping ads. Link

  • WhatsApp allows small businesses to add their product catalogs. Link

  • Tiktok is the fastest app to 1 billion users ever (Link):

  • Walmart’s grocery domination (Link):

Off Topic

  • How the Zuck became the most reviled man in tech. Link

Roku = The TV Operating System

We haven’t highlighted Roku’s strong growth in the decade of cord cutting, streaming and increased media consumption continues since Q4 but the latest quarter shows how the strength continues. Although Roku traded down on the results today, the underlying numbers continue to impress:

  • Active user accounts are still growing above 35% and now exceed 32 million

  • Average revenue per user was up 30% year over year to $22.58

  • Streaming hours growth slowed marginally from 70% year over year to 66%

  • The platform now makes up 68% of the revenue and 94% of the profit

Roku continues to cement itself as the TV operating system in the US and the recent acquisition of a demand side platform to enable ad buying on the platform will only further enrich margins and platform revenue growth. The easier it is for marketers to buy targeted ads, the faster the revenue grows. Unless Roku sees a significant drop in user growth or streaming hours, this one will recover and resume trading at a crazy valuation. Enjoy the charts below.

Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #312 - Canada Ecommerce, Holiday Sales Forecasts, Walmart < Streaming

Featured Tweet or Podcast




Links

  • Apple Pay is on fire (growing 4x faster than PayPal) and now Apple is offering iPhones interest free via Apple Credit Card. Link

  • The new age of retail via Hudson Yards is over 95% leased. Link

  • All Dressbarn stores to close by year-end followed by relaunch of website. Link

  • Canada lags US in ecommerce adoption. Last year, ecommerce accounted for 11% of apparel sales in Canada versus 27% in the US. Link

  • It was inevitable. Amazon makes grocery delivery “free.” Link

  • The porch pirate of Potrero Hill. Link

  • Holiday shoppers plan to spend 4% more this year. Link

  • Walmart looking to tap out of the streaming services war. Link

  • How US airports are trying to handle ride-hailing. Link

  • Digital sales expected to grow 14% this holiday season with Cyber Monday growing 19%. Link

  • Why are people getting worse at “The Price Is Right?” Way too many products. Link

  • Google buying Fitbit likely to complement Pixel line, strengthen health offering and drive more corporate sales. Link

  • So much for a cashless society. Link

  • Inside Facebook’s bid to woo TV advertisers. Link

  • Facebook poised to continue gaining share in UK (Link):

Off Topic

  • I discovered a nationwide scam on Airbnb. Link

Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #311 - Amazon Earnings, Nordstrom Dynasty, Google Search Changes

Featured Tweet or Podcast

Business Wars breaks down the Browser Wars. Link

Links

  • Learnings From Amazon’s Latest Quarter. Link

  • Amazon adds GNC, Stage Stores and Health Mart to in-store pick up service. Link

  • Amazon algorithm bias? Link

  • Inside the Nordstrom Dynasty. Link

  • Procrastinators rejoice, Best Buy providing next day delivery for free. Link

  • Destination Maternity files for bankruptcy. Link

  • HBC turns focus to Saks. Link

  • How McDonald’s is using AI. Link

  • Snapchat still has a user growth issue. Link

  • 1.5 million packages brings chaos to New York City streets. Link

  • Fred Smith created FedEx and now has to reinvent….or step down. Link

  • Advertisers questioning influencers value. Link

  • Top earning YouTube channel features an 8 year old. Link

  • Online ad spending growing 16%, slightly lower than previous year. Link

  • Google searches become more conversational. Link

  • Apple Pay overtakes Starbucks as top mobile payment app in the US. Link

  • Spotify saved the music industry, now what? Link

  • DTC brands partner to combat marketplaces. Link

  • Roku acquires adtech platform to allow advertisers the ability to better place and spend marketing on their platform. Link

Off Topic

  • Inside TurboTax’s 20 year fight to stop Americans from filing their taxes for free. Link