Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #339 - Facebook & Shopify, Malls Reopenings, Jet.com Closes

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Links

  • How JC Penney’s eCommerce strategy ultimately faltered. Link

  • Why Amazon Is Betting You’ll Buy a $1M Prefab Home. Link

  • Amazon circling JC Penney. Link

  • Prime Day is speculated to be pushed from July to September. Link

  • Costco’s Kirkland Signature and other store brands are having a moment. Link

  • Facebook Shops gets a fresh coat of paint and features. Link

  • Walmart officially closing Jet.com. Link

  • Walmart’s winning ways will last after lockdown. Link

  • DTC brands attracted to TV ads as prices drop. Link

  • “Google’s a problem for anyone who sells online.” Link

  • Is the New York Times ad platform really better at protecting user data more than Facebook and Google? Link

  • Traffic to malls reopening (traffic image below). Link

  • American’s TV time will grow for the first time since 2012 (usage image below) Link


Off Topic

  • The Haunting of Girlstown. Link

Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #338 - Twitch Beyond Gaming, Facebook & Giphy, Expedia = Uber

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Talking streaming and Twitch with a top gamer as he evolves beyond gaming. Fascinating. Link

Links

  • eCommerce on fire. Link

  • Even if you are trying to call your favorite restaurant to avoid Grubhub, there still could be fees charged. Link

  • Story behind Facebook buying Giphy. Link

  • The reason for buying Giphy. Link

  • Dara is following his Expedia strategy for Uber. Link

  • Here is what Dyson’s electric car was looking like. Link

  • Brands flock to Amazon to pickup missed sales. Link

  • Profile of Borders founder as Webvan reemerges. Link

  • Neiman Marcus creditor proposes sale to Hudson’s Bay. Link

  • Contactless payments see boost. Link

  • Here come the returns. Link

  • How a gaming YouTuber makes money. Link

Off Topic

  • The Hacker Who Saved The Internet. Link

  • The Day the Live Concert Returns. Link

Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #337 - TikTok Craze, Shopify and Pinterest Tie Up, Walmart PRIME

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With brick and mortar closed, eCommerce making up nearly 30% of card spend

Links

  • TikTok tops 2 billion downloads and toys with Shop Now buttons. Link

  • Walmart gets serious about 2 hour delivery. Link

  • Lord & Taylor officially liquidating. Link

  • What happens when the only restaurants left are chains? Link

  • Germans stay home as stores reopen. Link

  • Costco sales down for first time since July 2019. Link

  • Deliv shutting down as Target acquihires CEO and buys assets. Link

  • Harry & David exits brick and mortar to focus on eCommerce. Link

  • Nintendo had to do a virtual rate cut on their digital assets. Link

  • Shopify and Pinterest partner for cross listings/pins. Link

  • We all knew TikTok was growing in users but take a look at the time spent:

Off Topic

  • The Hollywood Vigilante. Link

  • The Man Who Runs 365 Marathons Each Year. Link

Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #336 - YouTube Size, Fornite Concerts, Macy's Deathbed

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Links

  • Google to stop charging for placement in Google Shopping. Link

  • Macy’s looking to tap real estate to remain alive. Link

  • Brands find online growth on Facebook Marketplace. Link

  • Fortnite concert drew 12.3 million concurrent viewers. Link

  • Ads still coming to WhatsApp and Facebook invests BIG in India. Link

  • Trump: Postal Service must raise prices on Amazon or ‘I’m not signing anything’ for USPS aid. Link

  • Amazon scoops up data from its own sellers to launch competing products. This one tends to pop up every 6 months or so. This is no different than traditional retailers launching generic or private label items in stores right next to branded items on shelf. Link

  • Everyone bullish on eCommerce. This assumes the decline in consumer spending post stimulus is offset by the growth. Link

  • MrBeast. Fastest growing YouTuber profile. Link

  • Walmart finally realizes it should have never been in streaming and offloads Vudu to Fandango. Link

  • Brands are selling their names to the latest fashion accessory in Miami. A luxury condo. Link

  • American who said they’ll feel safe in each type of reopened store (Link)

  • Size of YouTube (Link)

Off Topic

  • The Forgotten Tiger King of Harlem. Link

  • Couldn’t help it, another story on the coronavirus cruise. Link

Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #335 - Eating Out/Delivery > Eating At Restaurants, Neiman and JC Penney Bankruptcy

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Links

  • Grocery, health and non-store (eCommerce) sales were only sales up in March. Link

  • Shopify now handling the equivalent volume of Black Friday. Link

  • JC Penney skips interest payment. Link

  • Neiman to file bankruptcy. Link

  • Hotels offering enticing deals for future discounts. Link

  • Don’t kill the US Postal Service, unshackle it. Link

  • Ad rates are even putting Google and Facebook earnings at risk. Link

  • Amazon slashes affiliate commission rates. Link

  • Bob Iger is back at Disney. Link

  • Interview with heir apparent at JD.com. Link

  • Eating out has officially overtaken eating at restaurants:

Off Topic

  • Socially Distance This. Link

  • The Incredible Story of Bruce and Michael Buffer. Link

Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #334 - Recession Advertising, Facebook CPM All Time Low, Department Store Struggles

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Links

  • Department stores top list of those most likely to default. Link

  • Nordstrom warns of becoming distressed. Link

  • Amazon suspends delivery service that competes with UPS and FedEx. Link

  • A student created a program to let customers know when a Whole Foods or Amazon delivery slot opens up. Link

  • Facebook CPM fell to an all-time low. Link

  • Bob Iger thought he was leaving Disney. Link

  • Hotels see record low in occupancy. Link

  • What happens to ad spend in a recession, here is what happened in 2009 (Link):

Media spending.png

Off Topic

  • Inside the strip clubs of Instagram. Link

Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #333 - DTC Stats, Global Streaming, Walmart Grocery

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Apple now at 19% vs Spotify at 35% (Link):

Links

  • Microsoft Edge has jumped into 2nd behind Chrome (yet built on Chrome). Link

  • Though not confirmed just yet, Amazon Prime Day likely to be pushed to August. Link

  • YouTube coming out with their TikTok copycat. Link

  • OpenTable to allow people to reserve shopping times at supermarkets. Link

  • Newspapers are guaranteeing recall rates on ads. Link

  • Even Michelin star chefs have to serve takeout. Link

  • Traffic soars but programmatic costs drop. Link

  • Direct to consumer sales expected to grow 24% in 2020 with 43% of total digital buyers buying direct (Link):

Off Topic

  • Colombia’s narco-submarines. Link

Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #332 - Ecommerce Ad Spend Doubles, Retailers Stop Paying Rent, Neiman Bankruptcy

Featured Tweet or Podcast

Business Wars: North Face vs Patagonia. Link

Links

  • US Retailers plan to stop paying rent. Link

  • Neiman Marcus in bankruptcy talks. Link

  • Will Facebook’s massive usage turn into revenue? Link

  • Should we still go shopping online? Link

  • Are you an essential retailer? Link

  • Department stores can make it another 8 months. Link

  • Amazon picks up new supermarkets in NJ as part of Fairway closures. Link

  • The inside story of how H-E-B planned for the pandemic. Link

  • Instacart workers are planning a nationwide strike. Link

  • Apple officially says bye bye to marketing cookies. Link

  • Ecommerce ad spend doubled as social distancing took place (Link):


Off Topic

  • Two epic rides meeting in the middle. Link

  • South Korean drive-in cinemas seeing a resurgence. Link

Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #331 - OpenTable Global Demand Trend, Consumer Trust & Brands

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OpenTable global demand snapshot (Link):

Screen Shot 2020-03-23 at 8.57.41 AM.png

Links

  • The coronavirus is what Amazon was made for. Link

  • Luxury’s hidden supply chain. Link

  • News app downloads have exploded. Link

  • Advertisers are using MAIDs to replace cookies. Link

  • Startups are building companies on WhatsApp. Link

  • Fox buys Tubi to join the streaming wars. Link

  • Peloton using the at-home push as opportunity to provide 90 day trial. Link

  • The D List celeb matching engine, Cameo. Link

  • TikTok is the largest advertiser on Snapchat. Link

  • Costco buys final mile delivery. Link

  • Who do consumers trust (Link):

Off Topic

  • Real Estate for the apocalypse. Link




Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #329 - Delivery Wars, Burlington Nixes eCommerce, Final Sales Results in Retail

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Links

  • Who are the winners and losers in legacy retail through the end of 2019? Link

  • Nordstrom closing Trunk Club stores and folding into broader full line offering. Link

  • Burlington closing eCommerce. Link

  • Modell’s filing for bankruptcy. Link

  • Amazon Go Grocery will deliver a food revolution. Link

  • How Many Hotel Brands Is Enough? Link

  • Apple now lets apps send ads in push notifications. Link

  • DoorDash Faces Its Latest Challenge: Wooing Wall Street. Link

  • Growth vs Profits. Delivery war. Link

  • Rebekah Neumann, co-founder of WeWork profile. Link


Off Topic

  • The invisible city. Link



2019 Sales Recap: Retail Winners & Losers

Each quarter I update a chart detailing their net/comp sales increases/decreases to better understand where the pockets of growth are coming from and who is gaining share.

The themes of the last year continued to play out this year:

  • Off-price strength - Retailers like Ross, Burlington and TJ Maxx continue to shine and have yet to reach the saturation point everyone fears and seem to be fending off Amazon for now.

  • Mass retailer strength - Costco, Walmart and Target to gain share quarter over quarter from the rest of retail. Sam’s Club is the only one who is losing market share on an inflation adjusted basis.

  • Department store weakness - No end in sight to loss of share. This will continue to play out for years to come.

See the breakout below.

2019 Sales Recap @ryanmcraver.png

Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #328 - TikTok Growth, Walmart Flexes Prime and FBA, $100k Mattresses

Featured Tweet or Podcast

  • New Business Wars on Starbucks vs Dunkin. Link

Links

  • Bed Bath & Beyond streamlining operations. Link

  • Walmart launching Amazon FBA competitor officially. Link

  • Walmart+ to challenge Amazon Prime. Link

  • Amazon now accounts for 14% of menswear in UK but only 4% in womenswear. Link

  • Amazon launches full scale cashierless grocery store. Link

  • The case for the $100,000 mattress. Link

  • DoorDash files for IPO. Link

  • Instagram slowly opening the floodgates for Instagram Checkout. Link

  • YouTube inspiring toy industry. Link

  • TikTok growth slows significantly in 2020 (Link):


  • Twitter popularity and penetration by country (Link):

Off Topic

  • That time Obama pardoned a guy who stole a valuable baseball card. Link

  • How a shipwrecked crew survived 10 days lost at sea. Link


Tech Infused Retail Monday Morning Reads #327 - Pier 1 Bankruptcy, Groupon Stops Selling Goods, Walmart Selling Vudu

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Links

  • There is a reason retailers love gift cards. Many go unused allowing the retailer to still claim sales eventually. Link

  • Comcast in talks to buy Vudu from Walmart. Link

  • Toronto rejects some of the smart neighborhood suggestions from Sidewalk Labs. Link

  • Zillow’s home buying business isn’t profitable yet. Link

  • Groupon is no longer selling product (hard and soft goods). Link

  • Why the Restoration Hardware catalog won’t die. Link

  • Pier 1 files for Bankruptcy. Link

  • How Adidas uses WhatsApp for direct marketing. Link

  • Flipkart and Amazon are winners in India but China’s Club Factory is on the rise (Link):

  • Vast majority of advertisers plan to spend more on Amazon (Link):

Off Topic

  • The Great Bank Heist. Link

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 #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

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

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