February 13 – 19, 2023
|
|
| We had a chance to listen to a great episode of the OmniTalk podcast this week where Kim Baudry of Dematic talked about micro-fulfillment, or as she prefers to call it: close-to-consumer. If you haven’t had the chance, give it a listen as some of the main points she speaks to are the exact reason we are so bullish on malls leveraging space for fulfillment hubs. Consumers expect retailers to meet shorter delivery windows, which means that inventory needs to be nearby. And while we know that some retailers are already leveraging store inventory for this, they have had to turn to using their sales associates to pick-and-pack when they could be selling on the store floor. There is a growing opportunity to lease bigger footprints, or turn to a dark store(age) but real estate is expensive and limited the closer you want to be to the consumer. While Kim didn’t mention it on the podcast (beyond the fact that Amazon is buying malls to use for fulfillment purposes) we really do see malls as a major key to this puzzle, and we have the experience to back it up.
This week we also saw a digital brand heading to retail, some confusing indicators around if live shopping will or won’t work, and some interesting predictions around what will drive metaverse revenue in the future. Do you follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn? If not, go give us a follow, will ya? |
|
First Look: Online baby registry giant Babylist to open first retail store [Chain Store Age] Oakland, Calif.-based Babylist will open an 18,000-sq.-ft. flagship this summer, in Beverly Hills, Calif., in a space that formerly housed Anthropologie/BHLDN. The news comes as the embattled Bed Bath & Beyond is closing some of its Buybuy Baby stores and as Babies “R” Us
is set to make its U.S. retail comeback, opening a store at American Dream.How the Metaverse is Making Money [Statista] Statista’s Advertising & Media Markets Insights estimates that worldwide metaverse revenue will stand at $490 billion in 2030. This is a comparatively conservative forecast. Other analyst companies assume a market volume of between approximately 750 and 1,700 billion U.S. dollars. Metaverse e-commerce sales alone could grow to more than $200 billion by 2030 from currently just around $20 billion.Why Buy Now, Pay Later services like Splitit are focusing on physical retail [ModernRetail] As e-commerce spending plateaus, payment providers with Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services are continuing to tap physical retail as a means to drive business. Splitit, a white-label BNPL provider, this month launched a partnership with point-of-sale terminal Ingenico that will allow retailers to offer payment plans at checkout without the customer having to sign up for any third-party payment provider. |
| Instagram is killing live shopping in March, will focus on ads instead [TechCrunch] As Meta gears up for its “year of efficiency,” the company announced today it’s exiting the livestream shopping business on Instagram, following a similar shutdown on Facebook. Starting on March 16, 2023, Instagram users will no longer be able to tag products while livestreaming — a capability that has been broadly available to U.S. businesses and creators since 2020.
Livestream shopping took China by storm. Now Amazon, TikTok and YouTube are betting the QVC-style pitches will take off in the U.S. [CNBC] Indeed, livestream shopping has been far slower to catch on in the U.S. than in China. Of Chinese consumers surveyed by Coresight Research, 74% said they had bought products through a shoppable livestream in 2022. In the U.S., 78% said they’d never even watched one.
Inside the Battle to Run Fashion’s E-Commerce [Business of Fashion] The competition to be the backend powering fashion e-commerce is heating up as brands such as Glossier and Supreme join Shopify while Farfetch prepares to bring a pipeline of new clients onto Farfetch Platform Solutions. E-commerce companies keep bolting on new services and features, such as new storefront capabilities, logistics options and even more innovative offerings like Shopify’s new AI-generated product descriptions. |
|
| Micro & Last Mile Fulfillment |
|
| ASOS expands key Partner Fulfils growth-focused program [Fashion Network] Global digital fashion giant ASOS has expanded its ‘Partner Fulfils’ programme with new tech that allows orders to be placed on the ASOS website and app directly without products being stored in the retailer’s distribution hubs.
Walmart shuts the door on e-commerce-only stores [RetailDive] Walmart plans this week to shut down a pair of stores in Bentonville, Arkansas, and Lincolnwood, Illinois, that offer only pickup and delivery service, marking the end of a nearly decade-long experiment by the retailer aimed at improving convenience for e-commerce customers, according to a company spokesperson. Walmart is opting to stop operating stores focused solely on fulfilling online orders for now even as other businesses are investing in the concept. |
| Does your local Walmart offer drone delivery? See the list of 36 stores that do here: [USA Today] Drones are swarming around more of the retailer’s stores across the U.S. Customers in Winter Haven, Florida, are among the latest to have the option of grocery items delivered by drone in 30 minutes or less. The store was among 36 Walmart stores in seven states that have drone delivery hubs recently launched by DroneUp, Flytrex and Zipline.
Why Microfulfillment May Be The Wrong Word [OmniTalk] In this latest episode of the Omni Talk Retail Spotlight Series, Dematic Market Development Director, Kim Baudry, joins Chris and Anne to discuss the lessons learned from those who invested in microfulfillment early on and what we should expect the big bets to be as retailers shift to new closer-to-consumer strategies that deliver across all channels. |
|
| Shopify Bulks Up Online Fulfillment Logistics Services [The Wall Street Journal] Shopify Inc. is stepping up its logistics and fulfillment services as it expands efforts to help merchants compete with Amazon.com Inc. The company, which provides e-commerce tools for retailers, said it has struck a deal with digital-focused freight forwarder Flexport Inc. to manage the flow of imported goods and will add estimated delivery dates for companies using Shopify’s platform. |
|
| Restaurants & Ghost Kitchens |
|
| Chipotle Mexican Grill to launch new spinoff, Farmesa Fresh Eatery, in a ghost kitchen [CNBC] Chipotle Mexican Grill is opening a new brand called Farmesa Fresh Eatery in a Santa Monica ghost kitchen. The brand’s bowls will feature a protein, green or grain, two sides, one of five sauces and a topping option. Prices will range from $11.95 to $16.95. |
| Grubhub rolls out delivery robots at more college campuses [Chain Store Age] The hippest new thing on many campuses has six wheels and brings you food and beverages. Gruhub is expanding a partnership with autonomous delivery robot provider Starship Technologies to enable robotic deliveries at the campuses of George Mason University, Baylor University and East Carolina University. |
|
| DoorDash Sales Rose Last Quarter as Consumers Continued to Order Delivery [The Wall Street Journal] “Despite what’s going on in the broader macroeconomy, we’ve delivered double-digit growth over the last seven quarters,” Ravi Inukonda, vice president of finance and strategy, said in an interview. |
|
| By Adding Apartments, Malls Seek to Bring Shopping Closer to Home [The New York Times] Facing an existential crisis over empty space, owners are trying to fill malls with residences, building on the live-work-play model sought by young adults.
Inside Ikea’s small-format store strategy: ‘The retail environment is changing’ [ModernRetail] Ikea is going big for small-format stores. The furniture retailer has been working on these small format stores, dubbed Planning Studios, for the last three years. It recently opened two planning studios in Los Angeles, in Arcadia and Long Beach, in August. Ikea also has small-format locations in Paris, Moscow, Toronto and New York City. |
| Store openings outpace closures in 2022: Coresight [RetailDive] For the first time since 2016, major US retailers opened more stores than they closed in 2022, according to a recent report from Coresight Research. Retailers opened 5,103 stores last year and closed 2,603 locations, according to the report.
Mastercard: In-store spending tops online in January; total sales up 8.8% [Chain Store Age] Consumers continued to spend in January even amid inflation and an uncertain economic environment. U.S. retail sales (excluding automotive) rose 8.8% year-over-year in January. In-store sales were up 8.9% year-over-year and e-commerce sales increased 8.4%. |
|
|
