There is a lot of data out there, but if it’s not used correctly, it is not really a competitive advantage. Decision making for retailers and CPGs has changed tremendously as the amount of data available and the processing power of computers has increased. We’ll look at the factors contributing to this change, as well as insights into what this means on a practical level and what the future may hold.
The online retail landscape is expanding across borders, with partnerships and acquisitions designed to strategically outmaneuver the competition. One of the areas that has been most active is deliveries, particularly grocery deliveries.
The continuing battle between ecommerce heavyweights Amazon and Walmart has focused primarily on their maneuvering in their home country, the United States. While this campaign continues to rage, this conflict is being played out globally, and the new frontier that pitches these 2 heavyweights against each other is the world’s biggest democracy: India.
How is traditional retail fairing, particularly in the face of the eTail explosion? Is there a future, who is struggling, and who is doing well…and what insights can be gained for both traditional retailers and ecommerce e-tailers, as we look ahead to the rest of 2018 – and beyond?
March 23, 2018, marked the start of what’s been called “the biggest, if saddest, Toys ‘R Us sale ever”. It’s the closing-down sale of a brand that has a special place in every kid’s heart, as it liquidates all its stores, roughly 700 of them in the US including Babies ‘R Us locations.
When it comes to e-commerce, there’s no doubt that Amazon is king – at least for now. They are so big, so influential, that what they do impacts the entire market. More than this, people follow Jeff Bezos’ company because they have continued to make successful moves into new areas, identifying new opportunities and new markets, and even creating some of these markets themselves.
There has been a lot of focus on what has been unfolding in the US retail sector recently, whether it’s been the decline of Sears or the dominance of Amazon. It’s not just Western companies looking east that’s grabbing headlines. Chinese retailer JD.com is eyeing expansion in Europe, and has Amazon’s dominance there firmly in its sights.
It’s been called “the biggest retail battle of our times”, and is being followed closely by consumers and the market alike. Amazon, leading in e-commerce by a long way, is aggressively expanding into physical, brick & mortar sites; and Walmart, for so long the low price kings of the physical store environment, is moving aggressively into the online space.
Amazon’s Black Friday sales hit a record high of $2.4B across its three major sites in the US, UK and Germany. The US market dominated, as could be expected, hitting $1.8bn in sales; at peak hour, which was 1pm EST, there were 2m transactions taking place.
“Sears is dead”. Such is the impression of retail bloggers such as Retail Archaeology, who have chronicled the fall of the legendary retailer. Business Insider predicts that “failure is a near certainty, according to industry watchers. Analysts are expecting Sears to file for bankruptcy within the next two years, and perhaps much sooner.”
