The US Airport eCommerce platform Grab delivered five million food orders, which have started crossing the milestone with the sale placement by the American Airlines App of the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. The first airline partner that Grab got was American Airlines, while the DFW was the first Airport partner in this platform.

Grab serves a complete contactless order with payment to the operators for airport food and beverages. The service gets operated through the mobile marketplace through the Grab App with the order-at-table and kiosk services.

On a recent notice, Grab has introduced its customers with the touch-free order-at-table service technology at the DFW, which has also extended the marketplace solution along with the DFW market. The platform tends to provide travelers a shopping service on the DFWOrderNow.com without the need to download the Grab app.

The Grab Chief Experience Officer Jeff Livney announced their success-

“It’s fantastic to be able to announce that we’ve hit five million orders.” He further said, –

“Our goal has always been to enhance the airport experience by providing efficient and stress-free ways to order food and beverage, and we are pleased that Grab’s flexible solutions are helping our airport partners address additional challenges at this difficult time.”

A sense of optimism was evident in his expression, as he also added-

” With American Airlines being our first airline partner and DFW Airport, the first partner to launch Grab’s Marketplace, this is a great achievement for us all. It also demonstrates that a partnership approach and true collaboration, which are always important, can yield good commercial results even in such a tough market.”

On this matter, the EVP of Customer Experience and Revenue Management Ken Buchanan of the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport said:

“As the first airport partner of Grab, we are proud to see the five millionth order happen at DFW.” He also added- “Now more than ever we are working hard to enable as contactless an airport experience as possible. Through the recent expansion of our Grab program into retail and launch of DFWOrderNow.com, we look forward to serving more guests through our digital programs.”

Nestle purchases Freshly, a meal delivery platform, for $950 million. It is predicted to have possible earn-outs of $550 million to pursue the successful expansion of the business. In an auspicious press release on 30^th October, Friday, the deal between Nestle and Freshly was signed and locked. From inner sources, it has been known that Nestle is prepared to launch this delivery platform in a new format and have greater plans for it.

In that press release, CEO of Nestle, Steve Presley said, “Freshly is an innovative, fast-growing, food-tech start-up, and adding them to the portfolio accelerates our ability to capitalize on the new realities in the U.S. food market and further positions Nestle to win in the future.” For some extra info, it is evident to know that Freshly is a well-known provider of chef-cooked, fresh meals to customers across the country since 2015.

In 2017, Nestle purchased a 16% share of the company to keep as an asset and examine the market. With this purchase, Freshly ignited the trail for the direct-to-customer meal delivery channel. The responses for this service are very encouraging, said by a Freshly official. Freshly is a company of repute for its infrastructure and analytics. Today Freshly is delivering one million meals weekly in 48 states. The sales are expected to rise to $430 million.

Even Freshly CEO Michael Wystrach said, “With Nestle, we will have access to resources, research and development and years of experience that can tap into catapult our growth plans and move closer to our goal of being in every household in America.” Freshly reveals its business platform, which is focusing on feeding company workforces in any location. The demand for this company’s services is soaring higher day-by-day.

Wystrach witnessed that the firm has a growth spike in demand from firms seeking ways to provide healthy and affordable food choices. He also said that they were all adapting to that current business, shifting their work perks to the virtual delivery options. During this pandemic situation, it has been very difficult to access fresh foods. It has become very challenging and costly. Freshly for business is helping to meet the ends.

Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV) has officially launched Pier1 imports stores. It is a new build, customer-centric online shopping platform for home furnishings and accessories. Pier 1 is the first internet retailer of home furnishings. It is a 58 years old company which closed its brick-and-mortar store recently due to bankruptcy. Executive chairperson and co-founder of REV, Tai Lopez, said that innumerable people continued to cherish Pier 1 Imports.

This July, REV acquired the trademark rights, intellectual property rights, data rights, and various ecommerce related assets of Pier 1 for a price of $31 million. Lopez also commented, “At REV, we transform beloved brands like Pier 1 into the first online store of its kind positioned for robust growth.” REV also retained veteran buyers from Pier 1 to involve with vendors and regain the merchandise that Pier 1 once had.

Sources said that REV had hired Pier 1’s 15 buying, marketing, and customer-support officials. Shayan Zadeh, CEO of Pier 1, said, “Another top priority of REV is to bring the best-in-class ecommerce experience to Pier 1.” The relaunched Pier 1 platform is offering hundreds of familiar SKUs in categories like holiday and seasonal, furniture, pillows and cushions, dining and entertaining, etc.

The basic advantage of shifting to an ecommerce model is the freedom from the limitations of brick-and-mortar stores. Zadeh added that they were able to add that much SKUs as they explore a wide range of new potent offerings. REV has also hired veteran Pier 1 executive Brian Thompson to serve in the Pier 1’s online store as Chief Merchandising and Supply Chain Officer.

Earlier this month, Thompson had attended a Zoom meeting with hundreds of Pier 1 shoppers who asked him about their plans for the brands and their availability. Thompson said, “As someone who has spent most of his adult life with Pier 1, it was exciting to see the level of engagement on that meeting.” He also added that they were looking forward to taking this journey to a long stretch with their customers and investors.

Channable, a top-level global ecommerce platform provider, announces its expansion in North America to aggravate international ecommerce. Its aim is to provide online retailing platforms to US-based digital marketers, brands, and online retailers. The pandemic situation has influenced Channable to fuel ecommerce focusing on the U.S. market. Channable already partners with Philips, Maison MRKT, Upper Quadrant, and Carbon.

The platforms of Channable allow its clients to trade, sell, advertise, automate, and manage their commerce globally. Rob Van Nuenen, CEO of Channable, said, “With the evolution of our retail and growing customer demand for goods all over the globe, this move was a logical step for our expansion into the U.S.” Channable also works effortlessly with major ecommerce platforms like Shopify, Magneto, Lightspeed, and WooCommerce.

Nuenen also said, “U.S. digital marketers, brands and online retailers of all sizes are recognizing the opportunity of cross-border selling, especially during the holiday season.” Since Channable is an international company of good repute, clients rely on it to direct the nuances of sales on a global stage successfully. The company’s ecommerce platform works in various languages to meet the demands of its clients.

Maison MRKT joins Channable, making it its ecommerce marketing partner to focus on fashion, food, beverages, and accessories brands and also digital agencies. Maison MRKT is using Channable’s retail platform to offer clients high-ROI ecommerce campaigns. Maintaining a profit margin and helping its clients scale, the two agency’s partnership is becoming a crucial part of clients’ digital product distribution strategies.

Maison MRKT co-founder Lexi Nastos said that with the widespread closures of brick and mortars as a result of the pandemic, D2C and digital retails had taken center stage. She further said that Channable had been a vital part of their customer acquisition stack in 2020 as it empowered their clients to sell, advertise, market, and track their sales effectively. Channable also assures high performance and high-converting ad units.

Reprise is a global performance marketing agency of IPG Mediabrands, which has launched ‘Reprise Commerce’, a global ecommerce unit. Reprise Commerce adjoins Reprise’s ecommerce media capabilities with the skilled retail expertise which has been adding over the past year. This new platform provides clients with holistic offers for doing ecommerce. It will extend to supply chain and operations, designing strategies with customer experience.

Reprise Commerce will design and executes customer-based strategies from the initial consultation to activation. Reprise Global CEO Dimitri Maex said, “We’ve gone on a real hiring spree. We have recruited platform alumni like Will Margaritis (ex-Amazon), Ritika Gupta (ex-Lazada), ecommerce agency veterans Todd Bowman and Neilson Hall, who have worked at both retailers and agencies.”

Maex further commented that this step referred that our clients would get the best of both worlds and did not have to consider ecommerce as a separate silo. This means that we can optimize their ecommerce investments efficiently between ecommerce platforms and the entire digital platform. The ‘Reprise Commerce’ comes during a situation of the pandemic, which influenced unplanned changes in consumer behavior.

The online market industry has witnessed drastic growth during these few months in spite of a 10.5% decline in U.S. sales. Depending on the online purchases of customers and the type of products they buy, it is important for the respective brands to be present in the customer flow. Will Margaritis, head of ecommerce, USA, said, “It’s very exciting to connect all the threads of ecommerce under one roof, and to join them with Mediabrands.”

Margaritis has also revealed that they have been able to increase their clients’ year over year ecommerce sales on average by 108%. Reports say that ecommerce has moved to the center in many categories, and this trend will endure. Daryl Lee, Mediabrands Global CEO, said that global ecommerce unit Reprise Commerce had the breadth of expertise and experience to provide the very best solutions to their clients’ ecommerce.

Ecommerce presently accounts for 19.2% of pet care and household chain retail sales globally. And will increase up to 26.9% by 2025. Among them, JD.com, Alibaba, and Amazon will grow the fastest. On the other hand, Zooplus and PetSmart will evidence the strongest growth as online-focused pet specialists.

Shifting consumer habits toward in-home and online consumption further accelerates this shift in online sales. Amazon sales in this list will increase by 11% to touch $27.2bn in sales. In the case of Alibaba and DJ.com, it will increase by +12.9% and +13.8% to reach $25.5bn and $13.7bn, respectively. However, Walmart is hoped to become the global market leader with a growth of 2.8% to reach $37.6bn.

Similarly, the dedicated pet care retailer PetSmart will increase by +10.5% to reach $20bn. And Zooplus is predicted to increase by +10% to $2.5bn. These two will undergo strong growth with Pet Smart’s online platform Chewy.com including 1.6 million net active customers by 2020.

Senior Retail Insight Analyst at Edge by Ascemtial, Florence Wright said, “In terms of market outlook, the US (1.9%) is set to experience the third biggest uplift in household and pet care sale between pre and post-COVID-19 growth rates in 2020, behind China (4.2%) and Germany (2.9%)”. He also added, “big ecommerce players” like JD.com, Amazon, and Alibaba accelerating their pet care offerings.

Retail Insight Analysts made some additional predictions for the upcoming online sales of these sectors post COVID-19. Ecommerce sales growth is up for compromising store-based retail. Their growth rate is predicted as 3.5% from 2020-2025, i.e., below the 13% forecast for the ecommerce growth. Also, the total pet supply sale on Amazon US grew 38.2% YoY within early 2020. The Edge by Ascential’s Market Share reports the Amazon US has been reaching $3.9bn weekly sales. And the sales mostly increased during w/c 15 March hiking at $206.1m as an outcome of stockpiling. They reached their highest sales of $931m by 2 August ’20.

Google has announced a money investment in Tokopedia. It is an Indonesian online market that connects sellers with customers. Google has agreed to invest $350 million dollars in Tokopedia. The online marketplace is a very popular unit in Indonesia that contributes over 1% of the country’s economic growth. To be precise, the fact is Google did not purchase the platform. It just invests money that adds to the billion dollars investment done by SoftBank and Alibaba.

Apart from Google, SoftBank, and Alibaba, Sequoia Capital has also invested in Tokopedia. It is a Silicon Valley Venture capital. Sequoia Capital had already invested in many companies like Apple, Google, Oracle, Nvidia, Yahoo, and PayPal. ‘Toko’ is an Indonesian word which means ‘shop’. Tokopedia helps 7 million merchants in Indonesia to run trade and commerce with 90 million consumers every month.

Tokopedia also provides financial technology (FinTech) products like digital wallets, investments, and business loans. According to Wikipedia, Tokopedia offers a free C2C business platform for merchants and buyers. This marketplace helps merchants to reach a maximum number of consumers than other places. There are also official stores for famous brands to carry out their B2C business.

After the ecommerce giants invest money, the ecommerce of Tokopedia is expected to touch the $65 billion dollar category by 2022. Tokopedia is already using Google Cloud for efficient pick-up and delivery services. Tokopedia uses the Geolocation API to get the accurate location of the user. With the customer’s allowance, it picks up the current position by giving a pin along with the address in Google Maps. The customer can then assure displayed address with their location.

Bloomsberg News reported, “Google and Temasek Holdings Pte have agreed to invest about $350 million in PT Tokopedia.” People familiar with the matter said, “A major cash infusion that will bankroll the Indonesian online mall’s post-Covid-19 expansion.” Yet Google hasn’t commented on the matter or shared what the end goal is for the investment. Well, it can result in a major competing future in the online marketplace.

A media investment group of WPP, GroupM announced that it had maximized the global premium supplies with video in the US. GroupM Premium Supply (GPS) was established in 2017 as the first auditable programmatic premium supply marketplace. Being present in 10+ global markets, this group allows end-to-end visibility of all marketing. In order to expand the provision with videos, GroupM ties up with SpotX as a programmatic video exchange partner.

GPS connects GroupM clients straight to high-quality publishers to assist programmatic buying objectives. Its aim is also to curtail the 15% unknown delta detailed in May’s UK ISBA study. Together with the end-to-end visibility, these partnerships assure that GroupM will provide an engaging, effective, and brand-safe environment for clients’ programmatic campaigns. It also provides good pricing, reduced technology costs, and operational simplicity for their commerce teams in many DSPs.

Andrew Meaden, Head of Investment Strategy, said, “GroupM Premium Supply allows clients to leverage our scale in a biddable environment. At the same time, ensuring they’re accessing only the best possible publisher inventory in each market. This is exactly what the industry has been calling out for.” The GPS extension into videos with SpotX will experience unique programmatic solutions for GPS clients.

The partnership with SpotX will help GroupM to offer its clients direct access to premium publisher inventory beyond linear television. GroupM’s managing partner and programmatic investment lead, Esra Bacher said, “As viewership dramatically increases in streaming video, we have chosen to partner with SpotX due to their strong relationships with the supply-side of the video ecosystem.”

The agreement made by GroupM and SpotX is a portion of the growing industry trend around supply-path optimization (SPO). This partnership will also bring a successful global partnership with Index Exchange that aims at display media. Sean Buckley, COO of SpotX said that they were happy to partner with GroupM for increasing provisions with videos and continue to scale the digital video ecosystem.

Google Shopping has some new features launched by Google. The features bring you effective price comparisons and best deal notifications. Thus the Google Shopping will assist you in finding good prices for your things. The features will also ease the local shopping by informing about curbside pickup options and the availability of products. Shoppers will get a great advantage from this kind of feature.

Now, during this holiday season, Google has announced that it would be going to add price insights, deal alerts, and comparison tools for better results. Research tells that most ecommerce platforms have ‘steal’ deals for the holiday season. But all the deals are as attractive as they look. Google will allow you to differentiate good and bad ones with its new tools.

When someone searches a product on Google, it will show graphical representations of the current price of products compared to other prices all over the tab. Thus you can understand the trends of prices of a particular product in various platforms. Google can also give you insights into future trends. Google Shopping has been used by millions to understand the accurate price structure of their desired products.

The data provided by Google will help you determine whether you have to wait a little longer to buy or not. If you decide to wait, then you can get active tracking updates and deal alerts by activating price tracking. To do this, you gave to login to your Google account and get access to the ‘My Activity’ tab on your Google account. You can see a list of all the products you are looking for.

The Google Shopping page can show you prices with purchase options from innumerable stores, both local and online. Also, you can compare the prices of different stores. Google will also launch the curbside and in-store pickup facility in a few days. For now, this feature is only available in the US. It will start eventually in other countries eventually.

It has been estimated that by the end of this year, US digital ad expenses may experience a leap of 40%. Marketers agree to spend about $17.37 billion on advertising on ecommerce sites and apps. Compared to 2019, ad spending on ecommerce properties rises by 38.8% this year. It has also been expected the ecommerce channel advertising will represent 12.2% of US digital advertisement spending.

Andrew Lipsman, senior analyst eMarketer of Insider Intelligence, said, “Ecommerce channel ads are gaining popularity as brands realize the value of targeting prospects exhibiting purchase intent within the large ecommerce marketplaces.” Some reports also say that while Amazon has become an ad platform, other ecommerce giants are making more aggressive moves. The trend has been accelerated only by the pandemic as most consumers are reliable on ecommerce.

Known as retail media advertising, this ecommerce channel advertising is advertising done digitally that is shown in websites and apps. Nicole Perrin, another analyst eMarketer of Insider Intelligence, said that this type of advertising had benefited hugely from the pandemic-shaken changes of ecommerce. He further said that many disruptive forces in the digital media world were also driving more money to Amazon, Walmart, and their competitor in the space.

Amazon is still now the largest platform that will earn $13.18 billion in ecommerce ad revenues. This represents 75.7% of overall ecommerce ad spending and 90.6% of Amazon’s net US digital ad revenues. It will maintain its domination in the ecommerce advertising field, intends to touch 77% of the market by 2022. Walmart is also expected to grow its share in the market.

Walmart’s net ecommerce channel ad revenue will reach $849.4 million this year. Walmart will represent 4.9% of total US ecommerce ad expenditures. It is expected to reach 7% by 2022. Apart from Amazon and Walmart, there are also other ecommerce giants that are also expected to increase their shares. eBay’s ecommerce ad revenues will reach $328.3 million, which is 30.3% share. Etsy’s ecommerce ad spending is also probable to reach $133.2 million, up to 69.8% share.

Digital Media Solutions. Inc. (DMS) is an innovative global solutions provider that provides digital performance advertising. DMS reveals important promotional strategies to ignite ecommerce growth during the holidays. While advertisers agree to give efforts on engagement and sales, DMS comes with a collection of insightful thoughts and strategies. DMS organized and made a collection of articles in the form of eBooks, which covers a variety of tips and strategies.

The eBooks published by DMS has- a) consumer behavior brands’ leverage to elevate ecommerce sales in 2020, b) How to evolve ecommerce advertising strategies to parallel with consumer demands, c) Preparation for 2020 holiday season during the COVID-19 pandemic, d) Influencing shopping trends to uphold ecommerce sales. DMS believes that this year the ecommerce growth trends may increase to a great percentage.

Executive vice president of DMS, Lily Trevisanut, said, “We believe the 2020 holiday season promises to be unlike any other, but in order to truly capitalize on this year’s opportunities, ecommerce brands cannot only rely on past strategies.” Ecommerce sales were elevated by 44% during the 2^nd quarter compared to the previous year. This year is expected to end up with an overall rise of 32.4% in ecommerce sales.

DMS also incites advertisers to bond with their audiences by demonstrating how to understand what consumers want and need this year. Trevisanut also said that advertising must reflect the mindsets and sentiments of the consumers. She also added, “Brands must show that they understand how consumers are feeling, what they’re hoping for and what they’re missing.” DMS is extensively potent to identify current ecommerce growth trends accurately.

DMS leverages its proprietary first-party consumer data so that it can understand trends and changing patterns of customer values. It has a strong reputation for helping brands by identifying strategic digital advertising opportunities to connect with consumers. DMS constantly navigate changes in the marketplace and make recommendations and solutions accordingly, which are very effective.

YouTube has been one of the most visited free streaming services during the COVID-19 pandemic. At least 8 of 10 Canadians have been spending their time using streaming free streaming services.  Statistics Canada says that 46% of Canadians have elevated their usage of YouTube. Canadians have also increased the use of free information services and online education services since the lockdown due to the pandemic started.

The teenagers are crazier about online streaming. Almost 70% of young Canadians between the age-group of 15-34 paved the way by increasing their usage of online video streaming. Apart from this, above 41% of people told Statistics Canada that they have been spending more time on social media than usual during this pandemic. But only 3% have reported spending less time on them.

According to Statistics Canada, even 57% of young citizens of Canada are most likely to have increased their involvement in social media and messaging services. Senior citizens aging 60+, which is just 18% of the population, are least likely to do so. This increased time of Canadians also created an effect in the economic dimension. During this pandemic, people have also raised a toast on the financial structure of Canada.

At least 44% of Canadians told surveyors that they had spent more money on electronic gadgets during this time. The spending money on smartphones and spending time on streaming services has risen in parallel. Spending on smartphones rose to 40%, and on streaming services rose to 42%. The free streaming services have also offered delighting offers to their viewers, which also helped the purpose.

Ecommerce experts said, “These results are also reflecting in retail sales figures which show that retail ecommerce sales are up by almost 2/3^rd year over year in July.” Besides, this increased time has also increased the possibility of experiencing cyber-security incidents. At least 42% of Canadians have faced a cyber-security incident like phishing attacks, malware, fraud, and hacked accounts.

Allbirds now have expanded themselves outside the foot ware space and launching their apparel collection. Their last month’s report shows a raise of $100 million in an E funding series, which they noted, to invest in new product categories for the expansion of international and brick-and-mortar.

Their introductory collection comes with a T-shirt, wool jumper, wool cardigan, and a puffer jacket. All four products came in multiple colors, and prices range between $50-$250. The TrinoXO tees are for $48; the wool jumpers are for $135, the wool cardi at $145, and the Trino Puffer for $250.

After a few months, with the debut of their first performance running shoes, this new apparel category got added. To do something different out of their core of casual footwear, they cherished the future vision with carbon-neutral products with better materials and less requirement for washing.

On this matter, the company remarked that they had known from the very beginning that their vision having evolved sense environmentalism was much extensive.

They further said, “And as the chasm between disposable fast fashion and utilitarian basics has grown, the fashion industry has clung to the same outdated methods that continue to drive excessive carbon emissions, soil depletion, and synthetic waste. So we asked ourselves, why couldn’t we give people clothes they’ll love and simply make them better?”

It highlights their vision towards futuristic creations.

The time of entering into apparel is pretty doubtful, especially when many companies have already disclosed their bankruptcy before the pandemic. The situation became worse for the U.S. apparel retailers with crushed apparel sales due to the pandemic.

Though the possibilities can not be ignored, many of the athletic retailers who sell athleisure have met profit due to consumer’s increased interest in comfortable clothing overwork wears. Many DTC brands have also met a lift over with the consumer’s tendency to shop from e-commerce sites rather than physical stores.